‘No bad blood’ between Gary Gibbs, Sooners
NORMAN — Former Oklahoma coach Gary Gibbs is serving as a defensive consultant for Oklahoma State this season, but Lincoln Riley seemed open to the idea of bringing Gibbs back to OU if there was an opening.
“He’s a great coach,” Riley said Monday. “He’s one of those guys that if we ever had something open here, that we would love to have back around.”
Gibbs won’t be officially hired as an analyst for Oklahoma State, but Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said Gibbs will start a “full-time schedule” next week.
Gibbs was a longtime Oklahoma assistant from 1975-88 before becoming the head man in 1989. He coached the Sooners to a 44-23-2 record in his six seasons as head coach.
Riley said he’s learned a lot about Gibbs from former athletic director Donnie Duncan.
“He’s got great knowledge of this program, great knowledge defensively with all of his stops, but this was a time and place where it just wasn’t the right thing here as far as the rest of the staff that we had,” Riley said. “No ill will. No bad blood.”
Gibbs spent the last eight years as linebackers coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Robison’s return to Norman
Chris Robison’s time at Oklahoma was just a blip. The former 4-star quarterback was dismissed by the Sooners in August 2017 and shortly thereafter enrolled at Florida Atlantic. That’s why Robison, who’s in a threeman race to start Saturday for the Owls in their season opener against the Sooners, was brought up Monday in Riley’s news conference.
“Chris is a great kid,” said Riley, who recruited Robison. “It’s unfortunate that it didn’t work out here. I hate that it didn’t, but I’m happy for him because it seems like he’s found a fresh start. And from all accounts ... he’s doing a great job there.”
Robison was a January enrollee at Oklahoma and participated in the 2017 spring game. He was arrested on charges of public intoxication the morning after the spring game, and four months later was dismissed for violating team rules.
In December, Robison tweeted out a countdown: 255 days, 20 hours, 5 minutes and 39.4 seconds until Florida Atlantic’s season-opening game against Oklahoma.
“No talking, we just put it on tape,” was the caption.
“Chris is one of my boys,” OU sophomore linebacker Kenneth Murray said. “We came in together. Even though he left and went through what he went through, he’s always gonna be my boy. It’ll be fun to get out there and compete with him. We’ll get after it throughout the game and then afterwards we’ll be friends.”
In what has become the FBS version of “Last Chance U,” Robison is competing with Florida State transfer De’Andre Johnson and SMU transfer Rafe Peavey for the starting quarterback job. Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin has yet to announce his starter.
“We’re going to try to make it tough on (Robison) or whoever plays,” Riley said. “I wish him the best of luck. I want him to do great, and I hope they win every game after ours.”
Depth chart leaves questions
Oklahoma’s depth chart was reduced to one word in the game notes released Monday: “ALMOST ...”
The word, black and bold, was the only type below the “Depth Chart” header on Page 8 of the notes. It didn’t exactly reveal how Riley plans to line up his squad Saturday morning against Florida Atlantic.
Riley said a depth chart will be released later this week.
“We could put ‘or’ on there 50 times, but that doesn’t help you guys a ton, so we’ll get something to you here a little bit later as some of these jobs start to clarify going into game week,” Riley said.
OU’s quarterback competition was settled last Wednesday, but there are a few ongoing position battles to watch. One is center, where senior Jonathan Alvarez and redshirt freshman Creed Humphrey are competing. Junior Caleb Kelly and senior Curtis Bolton are battling at weakside linebacker, and both safety spots seem up for grabs.