Riley: 'About something we stand for'
There will be a ton of talk regarding Oklahoma spring football in the days and weeks to come, but the No. 1 storyline during head coach Lincoln Riley’s Zoom session Wednesday morning had to do with former quarterback Chandler Morris.
Following his true season at OU, Morris hit the transfer portal and almost immediately chose TCU in early January.
TCU coach Gary Patterson was asked about Morris earlier this week in terms of the Frogs’ spring practice when Patterson revealed Morris hasn’t been fully released by the Sooners yet to begin fully being with the Frogs.
Asked by The Athletic’s Jason Kersey as to why and the logic behind the decision, Riley stood his ground and said it’s a principle issue more than anything else.
“This particular situation for us is about something that we believe in,” Riley said. “Myself, the leadership here at OU, we think it's unhealthy for college football to encourage intraconference transfers.
“Now, that doesn't mean that we're against people being able to transfer to other institutions, any other institution they want. I think that rule obviously has been changed and I think it was a good rule to change and now players have the freedom, as they should, to be able to go to any school they want. But I do think the intraconference can complicate things and the world of coaches understand the big picture and understand that's gonna bring along a lot of negatives that I just don't know that we want in this game.”
Riley didn’t go into greater detail as to what those negatives are, in his opinion, but this obviously isn’t the first time this situation has popped up for OU or for Riley.
The same criticism being thrown Riley’s direction now was there two years ago when Riley initially didn’t grant a full release to Austin Kendall to West Virginia despite being a grad transfer. Riley did switch his position there and allowed Kendall to head to Morgantown. Coincidentally enough, Kendall re-entered the transfer portal from WVU just a couple of months ago.
Maybe it’s a little different because you could see the writing on the wall when it came to Kendall and his time at OU. But Riley even admitted in a wrapping-up-the-season Zoom call that Morris transferring was a pretty big shock, something they didn’t see coming.
Riley was quick to say Wednesday it’s not about Morris the person, but about picking another school within the Big 12 conference.
“Chandler Morris did a tremendous job here. He's a terrific young man,” Riley said. “He's got a great family. Sure, I hated to see him go. You never want players to leave your program, but I know he's going to a good program there with Coach Patterson. I really do, I wish the kid all the best.
“To illustrate the point, I had another freshman in the same class that left and went to a Pac-12 school and we released him right away for the same reason. I don't believe that you oughta be able to transfer in conference and be immediately eligible to play. I think we've got to discourage that.”
Riley is referring to wide receiver/tight end Jalin Conyers, another true freshman who left the program after just one season. Conyers was granted a full release to Arizona State.
There has been a lot of talk about the intraconference rule, and whispers of it being antiquated and eventually changed. It hasn’t happened yet, but it does sound like those conversations are on the horizon.
Ever since Patterson went public Monday, the hashtag #FreeCM4 has been floating around on Twitter from TCU teammates and fans regarding Morris.
Riley has been at the forefront for a lot of issues that have put players first, but this is one issue where he has not changed his line of thinking. It’s a core value to Riley.
“It's about something we stand for. I know there's been a lot of positive rule changes, again, with guys being able to transfer wherever they want being one of them that have helped the game and have helped the athletes,” Riley said. “And I'm 1,000% for that.
“But when there is something that we believe is going to make the game worse, I don't just want to do the politically correct thing every single time and just sit back and just say OK.”
Of course, transfer quarterback issues will strike a nerve when it comes to OU after the successes with Baker Mayfield (Texas Tech), Kyler Murray (Texas A&M) and Jalen Hurts (Alabama).
Mayfield sat out a year even though he was a walk-on. Murray was not eligible for the 2016 season, and Hurts was immediately eligible as a grad transfer.
It’s clear Riley is OK with letting players transfer, but allowing immediate eligibility for intraconference transfers is something he will not budge on, no wiggle room.
“I get that some people are going to disagree with that,” Riley said. “Some people are going to agree with that. I get it. But this is just a core belief that we have. Our plan is to just let this play out and let some of these rules solidify. We'll be open to watching it and seeing how it unfolds.”