Arizona State’s head football coach, Herm Edwards, is an active person, so when he found himself locked in a room for almost two weeks, it was nothing he used to do.
He is within more familiar confines on Wednesday morning, leading his football team to “diluted” training for the first time since November 11.
The Sun Devils have had to cancel three football games, the recent high of which came here on Monday, when this week’s showdown against Utah had to be abandoned. ASU is returning from a coronavirus epidemic that has set aside a team component, between players and coaches who have had it or had to be absent due to touch tracking.
The school does not provide the exact number of people affected.
The Sun Devils (0-1), who last played Nov. 7 and lost to Pac-12 Southern Division favorite USC 28-27, are now in for a Dec. 5 game against UCLA (1 -2) at Sun Devil Stadium.
“When you listen to athletes and only other people who are sometimes inflamed by a virus, you think, “How do you deal with that?Obviously, now that I sense it, it’s something I don’t wish on anyone. You think about your life and you that getting up every day is a fact, of having our health. We’re going to do it, ” said Edwards in his first speech to the media since the outbreak.
“Having to sit in a room for 10 to 11 days is pretty tricky for me. I’ve never had that in my life. Staying quarantined for a long time, what you think, you have those moments of reflection. you’re sitting there, lying there, no matter what you do, and you’re thinking about all the things that are vital in your life. “
ASU is not alone. So far this season, eight Pac-12 games have been canceled, two of the first 4 weeks. Utah, Cal and Washington State had two games erased from the calendar; ASU is the first to abandon three.
In the middle of the week, a total of 94 games across the country were or postponed.
Edwards said the biggest challenge for ASU is just timing. Their instances did not occur at the beginning of Cal’s scheduled game week, but were overdue: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Add quarantine time and there simply won’t be time to bring back enough players with a little practice time to face Utah on Sunday.
He added that he called the starting game the right thing for the opponent, as it gave Utah time to locate some other opponent, which he did. The Utes will now face Washington, who suddenly had an open date after their rival. Washington State had to cancel a game for a moment in a row.
Sun Devils also had to conduct mandatory core tests on players inflamed with the virus and download those effects before they were allowed to play.
Edwards, 66, said he had little contact with his wife or two teenage daughters. He left a tray with lunch near the door, lifted it up and put it back in place when it was finished.
He spent a lot of time sending messages that he was left through friends and ex-colleagues across the country and said he passed the show of support.
“I was answering a lot of calls, other people are calling and texting. I spent some of my time sending them back. The first thing they ask is, “How’s it going?”And I said, “How do you think “Am I leaving?” Actually, I’m not doing anything smart right now. The warmth and the other people who contacted me were overwhelming. How many friends do you have and others you know in your life?
And yes, his brain was very focused on football, he already made the decision to exercise in the spring in early February, just as he did in 2019 when the Sun Devils finished before many other schools started.
While some have warned that coming back for just two games doesn’t seem to value it, Edwards noted that it’s more productive to end up with what you can’t get used to preventing when things get tough.
“You have to end things in life, no matter what it looks like and what it looks like,” he says. “You can’t stop. You can’t write. There has never been this option in my life. “
He has not asked you to withdraw from the rest of the season for any reason.
He said betting the season, regardless of the number of games, is also from the point of view of player development. It has many young players and the Sun Devils still have a long way to go to fine-tune a new lopass. attack and defense.
Business has never been better.
“It was a total day for me when I came back and saw the players. You don’t realize how much you miss them until they take it away from you in that sense. I’m glad to be back. It’s smart to be back” in the building, to be close to our staff. “
Contact the reporter at Michelle. Gardner@Gannett. com or 602444-4783. Follow her on Twitter @MGardnerSports.
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