Oklahoma Cancels This Week's Media Access

A day after the OU student newspaper reported that it had essentially spied on a closed practice to obtain information about the QB situation, OU shut down all interviews.

John E. Hoover | Oct 13, 2021

Oklahoma Cancels This Week's Media Access /

Perhaps aggravated by specific policies being broken on Tuesday, perhaps simply approaching the second half of the college football season with a more closed-ranks mentality, Oklahoma made the administrative decision to cancel regularly scheduled media access on Wednesday.

Head coach Lincoln Riley met with media in person for his usual 30-minute press conference at noon on Tuesday, but the administration pulled back on the normal Wednesday video conference calls with select players.

This procedure change came a day after student reporters from the OU Daily reported developments in the quarterback situation regarding Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams. The Daily reported that it had observed Tuesday’s practice from a campus building near the football practice facility. The practice field is across the street from the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Watching practice is a violation of OU’s long-standing media policies, although those policies are not expressly written on the athletics department website, in the 2021 media guide or in the weekly pregame notes package.

Another change in the normal media routine this week: offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh followed Riley’s press conference, instead of the usual 20-minute session with defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

OU made players Reggie Grimes and Marvin Mims available for Zoom calls on Tuesday afternoon.

Riley has met with a small group of local beat writers and columnists every Thursday this season, but that has been canceled this week as well, per an email advisory from an OU athletic department spokesman.

Published Oct 13, 2021

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.