College football coaches face the enormous challenge of getting their players to reach the concentration needed to prepare for the season’s debutants when the dominant question in the game is when or whether the season will even be played due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Preparation is a regulated business. Training periods are measured on a clock in the field, whistles signal the time to move from one workout to another. And uncertainty is an adversary of the process.
Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall said it adds an “emotional drain” to the rigor of weight lifting and fitness, film study and psychological preparedness.
“With so many outdoor diversifications, start time, prevention schedule, new schedule, non-stop start, prevention, emotional drainage and distraction that are very complicated in terms of managing the external environment that is spreading.” Mendenhall said Monday. zoom called with reporters.
Virginia, like many schools with recently revised schedules, has just begun the practice. But Syracuse coach Dino Babers has another perspective and says team training provides relief.
“The effort, based on everything that’s going on, I almost feel like it’s an outlet where you can get lost in and do what you literally want with a group of guys who don’t have COVID and who run and have fun,” Babers said. said in Zoom.
West Virginia coach Neal Brown agrees.
“You’ll see, boys, your habit has changed,” he said. “They have anything to look forward to. Our boys have a new power when they’re out there. You can leave your phones. They can come out of any uncertainty and they’ll do whatever they want to do. So it’s a positive delight and I hope it continues. »
Mountaineers, Brown said, have lately have no COVID-19 infections.
Army coach Jeff Monken prefers his team to be active when games are played, not if.
“We don’t know who the opponent will be, we don’t know what time it’s going to be, what day it’s going to be, but in the end they’re going to say, let’s play ball and when our boys need it.” . to be ready, ” said Monken, also in Zoom.” So we’re totally focused on preparation and don’t care about the rest.”
The Black Knights’ biggest challenge may be simply locating opponents. His house game shown is on November 7 in front of the Air Force. The other five scheduled visitors canceled.
Regardless of their opinion of the situation, coaches in school football degrees face challenges of distraction. Louisville coach Scott Satterfield calls him “the elephant in the room.”
The factor became mild on Saturday when the Mid-American Conference became the first league in the Football Bowl subdivision to cancel its fall season. Connecticut and Old Dominion also canceled, bringing the number of schools to 14 at the top of leaving the fall, as well as one-step meetings in the football championship subdivision.
“What we perceive is that the CCA is moving forward,” Satterfield said Monday. “And we depend on our medical organization that is above the CCA and what we are projected to be projected is that we are moving forward with everything. And that’s where we are today.
“We know how things are replaced and how fluid it is. But that’s who we are.”
Brown, West Virginia, expects them to soon compete on the field.
“I think we can make paintings in the fall. I think it’s doable,” he said. I think we can do it safely. I think the most important question is, and this is something that other people don’t communicate about, what’s the plan if we don’t play? “
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AP writers John Kekis in New York, Gary Graves in Kentucky and John Raby in West Virginia contributed.
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