Next two weeks will tell us a lot about football season, such as if we can have one
Stop this ride, I want to get off.
That’s what you might be thinking. Me, too.
One minute, SEC schools are announcing attendance plans for football. The next minute, Churchill Downs cancels plans to have spectators at Kentucky Derby 146. One minute, conference commissioners are insisting on fall football. The next minute, North Carolina is clearing campus thanks to students who went too far fighting for their right to party.
In related news, COVID-19 infections on Notre Dame’s campus has caused the Irish to hit the pause button on football practice. Same at Vanderbilt. As some top college stars activate the rain check option on the 2020 season, the NCAA announced athletes who do play in 2020 will get another year of eligibility, even if the full season is completed. And just after the Kentucky High School Athletic Association on Thursday approved proceeding with fall sports, Fayette County Schools said, uh, not so fast.
If you have a hard time focusing during our daily coronavirus freak-out, imagine being a college football player trying to prepare for (fingers crossed) a season. Let’s take, for example, the local college football players.
“I just said walking off the field, ’to make good decisions and sacrifice in areas where they can,’” Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops said Saturday after the completion of his team’s first week of practice. “I think all of us understand that there’s risk in anything we do right now with the virus the way it is, whether you go to the grocery store, or go to a restaurant, or go anywhere. You have to be conscious of where you’re at, wear the mask, keep a safe distance and all that.”
Do that, plus hit the practice field, lift weights, go to meetings, study the playbook, remember the protocols, study for classes, keep that mask up and — drum roll — prepare for a schedule that includes 10 SEC games in 11 weeks. That’s all.
“Everybody involved has done a great job with the setup,” UK center Drake Jackson said Saturday. “Yeah, it’s very strict, but I don’t think it’s (restricting) our ability to prepare for the season.”
So far, so good?
“I’m pleased with our team,” Stoops said. “We’re not perfect. We’re never gonna be, but we strive to be that way. Our players are making good decisions.”
Stoops reported that a “boatload” of Wildcats were tested for COVID-19 recently. Two tests came back positive. A third player had already been removed from the team because of contact tracing.
“Our players have made good decisions,” said the coach, “and they have to continue to do so.”
Especially now. Like everything else these days, this is not your normal football training camp. Usually, for the first couple of weeks of fall practice, the team is isolated before students arrive on campus for classes. Not so this (coronavirus) year. Football practices began basically as classes began.
“Normally in camp we are locked down,” Stoops said. “We’re bringing them back for meetings and using all their time. Now it’s different. School has started. There’s people on campus. They’re things going on at night.”
Things going on night in which — judging by photos in the news and on social media — not everyone is wearing a mask or practicing social distancing.
“They’ve got to continue to make good choices and sacrifices, keep distance from people as much as they can, from the big groups,” Stoops said. “I think that’s going to say a lot over the next couple of weeks with many teams, with many athletes throughout the country.”
That’s in stark contrast to what coaches are usually saying this time of year, that the next two weeks will determine a team’s success in the upcoming season. Now, the next two weeks may determine if we even have a season.
“I wish all the schools were doing it like we are,” Jackson said. “I don’t know how everybody else is handing it, but obviously we’re doing something right. We’re keeping the cases down and we’re getting better on the field, as well.”
