Oklahoma is pausing football practice for a week after a change in its schedule.
Sooners coach Lincoln Riley announced Saturday night that the team's training camp -- which began July 31 -- will stop temporarily as a result of its Aug. 29 season opener vs. Missouri State being moved to September.
"We decided it's best to give our players some time off," Riley said in a statement. "We were able to start camp before the vast majority of teams because our Aug. 29 season-opening game date was the earliest in the country. With that first game pushed back a week or two, it only makes sense to spread out our practices and give our guys some time away. They've done a great job so far."
The Sooners' opener was originally scheduled for Sept. 5, but on July 25 the school announced that the game would be moved up a week in order to give the team maximum scheduling flexibility in case of needed changes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The original move to Aug. 29 slotted the Sooners' first three games over a five-week span, with a week off in between each.
Missouri State's league, the Missouri Valley Conference, announced on Friday night that it would move its conference-only season to the spring, but would leave fall nonconference games to the member schools' discretion.
Riley acknowledged that the status of the 2020 season, which is being closely monitored after the Mid-American Conference on Saturday became the first FBS league to postpone fall football, was a consideration in pausing training camp.
"We're also mindful of all the conversations across the country with regard to the 2020 season," Riley said. "The added benefit of temporarily breaking from training camp is that it gives us a few more days to monitor those talks."
Oklahoma also released results of its latest rounds of COVID-19 testing. Players went through two rounds of testing in the past week, which produced only one positive result out of 205 tests. That player is currently quarantined and the team will undergo testing again on Aug. 14 prior to resuming training camp.