W E E K LY E D I T I O N | O C T O B E R 2 6 - N O V E M B E R 1, 2 0 2 1 | O U D A I LY. C O M
OUDAILY
The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916
TREY YOUNG/THE DAILY
Freshman quarterback Caleb Williams (left) and redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jadon Haselwood (right) celebrate after Williams scored a touchdown during the game against Kansas in Lawrence Oct. 23.
Sooners redeemed in 2nd half Oklahoma pulls through ‘lackadaisical’ first half to defeat Jayhawks MASON YOUNG @Mason_Young_0
LAWRENCE — Isaiah Thomas had a pointed message for his teammates on Oct. 22. “Tie your process to your passion, never tie your process to the opponent,” the redshirt senior defensive lineman and team captain urged his peers, who have perpetually played down to their foes’ level this season. Despite Thomas warning not to relent against a lesser adversary, his sentiments seemed lost in No. 3 Oklahoma’s 35-23 win over Kansas on Saturday, where what should’ve been little more than a scrimmage turned into one of the team’s more embarrassing performances in recent memory. OU (8-0, 5-0 Big 12) was on the ropes after the Jayhawks (1-6, 0-4) shut out Lincoln Riley’s offense in the first half for the first time since he became the Sooners’ coach. Before flipping the script in the second half, OU entered halftime with zero points for the first time since its 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl loss to Clemson and failed to score
on Kansas in the first half for the first time since 1992. The Sooners’ defense was gashed for 195 yards compared to Oklahoma’s 78 and Kansas outrushed its visitor 132-7. OU also racked up eight penalties for 55 yards. “I don’t care who you’re playing,” Riley said. “If you don’t seize momentum early in a road football game, you’re gonna be in for a dogfight, and we were.” Roughly two minutes into the chilly, hazy contest, a partial power outage shut down the scoreboard inside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Distracted by a short stoppage of play, OU’s defensive line jumped offsides three times on the opening drive before Kansas took a 7-0 lead. Oklahoma’s offense was held to three first half possessions which resulted in a punt, an interception thrown by freshman quarterback Caleb Williams and a turnover on downs. The Sooners’ “Speed D” allowed Kansas to go 7-of-9 on third down, which helped it dominate time of possession 22 minutes to eight. “I think it kind of became a theme in the first half, the inability to stop or get stops in the run game,” said defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. “We’re just not making enough plays
defensively, and specifically on third down, and you’re just asking for long drives and you’re asking for momentum, and it was very difficult for us to turn the tide, momentum wise. “There’s a theme forming over the last few weeks. This is an inconsistent unit. Whose fault is that? All of ours, obviously. Specifically me.” In the second half, Oklahoma looked like a completely different team. The Sooners outgained Kansas 320-217, forced a much-needed turnover and put the game away with five consecutive touchdown drives. “That was probably the fastest first half I’ve ever been a part of,” Riley said. “And so we had to bow up, obviously, in the second half, and we did that. We played better on all three sides in the second half. I give our team credit for rising up.” Rebounding from a rough opening to his first road start, Williams finished with 178 yards and two touchdowns on 15-of-20 passing while rushing for 70 yards and another score on eight attempts. Redshirt junior running back Kennedy Brooks also asserted himself with 24 carries for 72 yards and two touchdowns. In his second straight start, sophomore safety Key Lawrence met the occasion with a team-high eight tackles — two for loss. He also forced
a fumble in the fourth quarter that redshirt senior Justin Broiles recovered, boosting a diminished secondary missing injured cornerbacks D.J. Graham and Woodi Washington and safety Delarrin Turner-Yell. On OU’s ensuing possession, Williams’ offensive heroics reached new heights when he saw Brooks halted short of a first down, swiped the ball from his backfield mate and plowed past the line to gain to move the chains. It was a play that demonstrated a headiness few true freshmen would display, and one that required review by officials before being upheld. “The reviewable aspects of the play were position of the ball in relation to the line of scrimmage and if possession was ever lost by the offense,” Big 12 Coordinator of Officials Greg Burks said in a postgame statement, affirming the play was a legal handoff. “The ball never crossed the line of scrimmage and there was never a loss of possession, not a fumble, so this play was a forward handoff behind the line of scrimmage.” Seven plays later, Brooks’ second touchdown of the quarter closed the game with 42 seconds remaining. Afterward, coaches and players debunked theories that one light day of practice affected their preparation
for the Jayhawks. However, Brooks did admit his team “just played down to (its) opponent,” failing to heed Thomas’ warning. “I don’t really have an excuse,” said redshirt senior H-back Jeremiah Hall, who caught an 8-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter. “We just came out kind of lackadaisical, which is something that I’m wanting to address as a captain next week. No excuses, it just kind of happened. ... We’ll make sure we come out a lot better next week.” Next, Oklahoma faces Texas Tech (5-3, 2-3) at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 30 in Norman (ABC) in a game that could prove more problematic than anticipated. The Red Raiders beat West Virginia and narrowly lost to Kansas State, which both played the Sooners close. “I love the way we finish, and damn, if we’ll ever figure out how to play a complete game combined with the way this team can finish, we could have something,” Riley said. “But it’s gonna be on us and how bad that we want to become that complete team, because the way we finish is elite, but we’re gonna have to bring the rest of it around here pretty quick.” masyoung@ou.edu
‘Up to my own discretion’ International, exchange students region blocked by Healthy Together app KALY PHAN @KPhsn
OU international and exchange students are taking on the burden of entering quarantine following COVID-19 exposures and positive tests as they lack access to the Healthy Together app, the institution’s primary source of “honors system-based” contact tracing. International and public administration master’s student Sandra López-Alvarado is from Mexico. She said, during one of the first weeks of school, she developed what she initially thought were cold symptoms or seasonal allergies. López-Alvarado said she received positive test results from an at-home COVID-19 PCR test, and she decided to go to Goddard Health Center to ensure her results. When her Goddard test came back positive, she called housing and was moved from Traditions East to Traditions West to quarantine. She said the two weeks she spent in a separated community with 200 girls were emotionally taxing. “When I tested positive, I was like, ‘I got (COVID-19) now. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to do this,’” LópezAlvarado said. “(Quarantine) was not that hard, but it was just stressful.” OU’s reliance on the Healthy Together app for contact tracing didn’t help with her move into quarantine, as the app is region blocked, according to the app’s user terms of service. Effective Sept. 13,
people from or living in the European Economic Area — a trade agreement containing most of western Europe that expands the European Union’s market to states of the European Free Trade Association — cannot access the app. Johannes Korg, an English and sport junior from Paderborn University in Germany, was exposed, tested positive and quarantined in late September. He said most international students cannot download the app, which made contacting the university “more complicated.” Korg was left to reach out to everyone he had recently been in contact with so they could test for COVID19. Fortunately, he said most of them were negative, but, even after he emailed OU Housing and Food, he could not access the Healthy Together app. A university spokesperson wrote in an Oct. 12 email to The Daily that 5,286 OU community members have signed up for the Healthy Together app, as of Oct. 11. Approximately 331 individuals from the Norman campus filled out a daily survey to clear them to come to campus, which is logged in the OU COVID-19 dashboard. There are 28,052 students on the Norman campus in Fall 2021, and there were 1,996 faculty and 7,135 staff members in Fall 2020. In an Oct. 15 email, the university spokesperson wrote the Healthy Together app supports phone numbers from the U.S. and its territories, Canada and most of the Caribbean on iOS devices, but Android users should not be region-blocked. They also said the university acknowledges community members “who either cannot or choose not” to use the
Healthy Together app. The spokesperson wrote that those who do not use the app should follow Section II, Number 2 of OU’s Phase IV Plan in the case of COVID19 exposures or positive test results. This section stipulates that individuals quarantine, call housing if they live on campus and notify anyone with whom they’ve been in close contact within a 48-hour window. Samantha Hepburn, an OU economics and political science pre-law sophomore from the Bahamas who can access the app wrote in an email she feels it has helped identify symptoms and direct students. However, she said she wishes OU had a “standard COVID-19 quarantine procedure” beyond leaving contact tracing up to students. “(OU) never contacted me (about my exposure), I just knew through the person telling me that they tested positive,” Hepburn wrote. “The university knew that I was self-quarantining, but because I had not tested positive, and there wasn’t any contact tracing on campus, it was left up to my own discretion on whether I followed quarantining protocols or not.” Like Hepburn, Korg and LópezAlvarado said OU didn’t inform them of their exposure. López-Alvarado said she was made aware that she was exposed, and Korg said he doesn’t know where he was exposed. All three students said they used their judgment and told those they had been in contact with that they had been exposed or tested positive. University quarantine policy states that individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19, vaccinated or not, must self-isolate for 10 days.
KALY PHAN/THE DAILY
International and public administration master’s student Sandra LópezAlvarado stands in front of Traditions Square.
Throughout Korg’s 10 days in quarantine, he was not tested and only had to communicate his symptoms on the second to last day. When Korg contacted the university on his ninth day in quarantine, saying he was no longer symptomatic, they released him on the following day. As a potential solution, Korg drew from his experience in Germany, where they use QR codes for contact tracing in public buildings and transportation. “For example, when you go on the bus, and when a person is positive (with) COVID, he or she is able to put that into an app and you get information that you have been on a bus with a person who might have been infected (and are encouraged to) test yourself,” Korg said. “That’s pretty convenient because you (could) just scan a QR code whenever you enter a classroom.” López-Alvarado said OU’s “honors system” policy for contact tracing places “a lot of responsibility” on the person who contracted or was exposed to COVID-19. For example, she said she had to inform her roommate about her positive test, and her
roommate wasn’t contacted when she was released. “When I came back, she was just like, ‘What are you doing here,’ and I’m just like, ‘Don’t worry, I’m free,’” López-Alvarado said. López-Alvarado said she wishes the university would implement constant check-ups via email for students who don’t have access to the Healthy Together app. Hepburn wrote she believes students should “never have to choose between their education and their health” and that OU should prioritize their safety through more specific contract tracing. “I know people will be a little irresponsible. I totally understand — you’re young, you don’t want to use the mask if there’s a crush (and) you want (them) to see your face, if you want to smile and you want to laugh,” López-Alvarado said. “But the reality is that everybody should be responsible. I know that, yes, maybe I was irresponsible (when I was exposed), but I’ve learned from my mistakes. It was hard. It was not nice. I really wish I didn’t catch (COVID-19).” kaly.n.phan-1@ou.edu