Instead of a season starting in September, there will be ample opportunity to prepare for what could be a spring season.
That is how football coaches in conferences that canceled fall sports schedules are looking at the situation. After all, players still need to be coached and perhaps the virtual playbooks they have digested since the beginning of spring can come to life, at least to some degree, on the field.
“The way we would look at it is spring practice in the fall,” said Buddy Teevens, whose Dartmouth Big Green went 26-4 the past three seasons and won a share of the Ivy League title in 2019. “Maybe we could do some strength and conditioning. If that goes well, we could move to positional work in small groups of 10 or less, including a coach. If that goes well, then we could get 20-25 players working together and perhaps scrimmage opportunities.”
Half of Dartmouth’s students, including freshmen, will be permitted on campus during the fall term. That could prove to be critical for when the Ivy League, which was the first to cancel athletic events in the spring and the first to cancel fall sports, starts up.
“It gives them an opportunity to acclimate academically and physically to the speed of the game,” said Teevens. “They will probably learn (systems and schemes) a little bit better because we won’t be preparing for a game on Saturday. Instead, we will be preparing guys for, potentially, a spring season.”
Though it was disappointing that he had to tell his team the Patriot League cancelled fall athletic competition, Lafayette coach John Garrett reinforced the fact that his team can still better itself much like he felt it did during a spring of virtual instruction when schemes were installed.
“My message to the team was that instead of a fall season, it’s fall practice,” said Garrett, whose resume includes a six-year stint (2007-12) as an offensive assistant with the Dallas Cowboys when his brother, Jason, when the team’s head coach. “Instead of spring practice, it could be a spring season. We always prepare to adapt and overcome. We are going about this just like we would during a game. We have a plan and it may change, so prepare and get ready for it to change.”
Using the fall for off-field instruction and possible on-field practice would flatten the learning curve of the freshman class. That is no small detail especially in the Patriot League and Ivy League, which do not permit redshirting.
“Our freshmen come in and normally are thrown into the fire and we try to get them ready as best we can to contribute and even put them in a game,” said Garrett. “You have 29 days (of preseason practice) before your first game. Now, they have a whole semester to basically learn the system. They can get bigger, stronger, faster, learn their techniques and improve as a player before they have to play. You also apply that thinking to the rest of the team. Use this time to get better.”
The lack of on-field instruction combined with a raging pandemic in New York throughout the spring left Stony Brook coach Chuck Priore feeling that his team was not going to be ready for a fall season. Since the Colonial Athletic Association cancelled fall sports, he can get his team ready for when there is a schedule.
“It was certainly a disappointment telling them there would be no season, but you have to look to the positive part of it,” said Priore, whose Seawolves have been a member of the CAA since 2013. “When I addressed my team and told them that we were not playing, I also looked at it from the perspective that we haven’t really prepared correctly. We lost spring football and a lot of guys are from New York state and they had zero access to gyms and some still have no access to gyms. So the preparation to be successful would have been condensed and certainly risky. They probably would not have played up to their potential.”
Of the seven conferences (as of July 23 and all the FCS level or lower) that sponsor football and have cancelled fall sports competition, only the Southwest Athletic Conference announced it was moving fall sports seasons to the spring.
With respect to football, the conference stated it would implement a seven-game conference schedule (six conference games with the option of playing one non-conference game) following an eight-week training period that begins in January.
Including football, the SWAC would have four sports moving to the spring. The others are cross country, volleyball and soccer. Of those, only cross country has both men’s and women’s teams.
Other conferences have more teams, which could result in more logistical issues and perhaps some difficult decisions with respect to which fall sports participate in the spring. In addition to football the Ivy League, for example, has men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball and field hockey that compete for championships in the fall.
“There are pluses and minuses and people will argue on either side,” said Teevens on playing in the spring. “For one, how do you do it with the additional sports? The Ivies would not be able to do just football. You would have soccer, field hockey and the other sports in conjunction with (traditional spring sports) baseball, lacrosse and so forth. There would be a lot of activity. A lot of our facilities are shared, so now you have a lot of demand placed on a lot of different areas such as medical staff and equipment staff. There are logistical problems and concerns to be addressed.”
With football, one of the concerns would be the length of the season in addition to the mix of sports.
“It comes down to what do you want it to look like,” said Priore. “Do you want it to be a full-blown season? Is it an abbreviated season with a playoff structure? Is it just league play? No matter how it is done, there is going to have to be a commitment from each college and university to understand that you are going to be playing a number of sports at the same time. It will tax your athletic department a little bit and your facilities crews, so you will have to figure that out.”
Should a spring season come to fruition, there is potential concern with the turnaround time prior to fall practice.
“I do believe (a spring season) is a viable option and I trust that the decision makers and the schedulers will have the wisdom and discernment in creating a schedule that allows us to have a full and meaningful season, but ends at the appropriate time to provide sufficient rest before we have to get back on schedule for a fall season,” said Garrett. “These kids are young and at an age, between 18 and 22, where they recover quickly and I think it is very doable that we can have a spring season and then have enough time for sufficient rest to crank it up again in the fall.”
Priore noted that most teams conclude spring practice by mid-April. He feels that a spring season that wraps up at about the same time, or by May 1 as he suggested, could certainly be done.
“Spring ball is five weeks and the season would probably be 10 weeks or 11 weeks.” he said. “There is more length, but the ending date would be roughly the same. I don’t think the turnaround time is as drastic as some people want to make it out.”
Two seasons within a calendar year, though, could prove costly to a student-athlete suffering an injury requiring prolonged rest and rehab.
“Among concerns coaches have expressed is injury,” said Teevens. “You have a spring season and three months later you have a fall season. A kid that gets hurt early in the spring could miss two seasons, the spring and fall.”
There are also concerns with recruiting. If there is no season next spring, a senior for whatever reason, starting a job after graduation or transferring as a grad student, may or may not return in the fall of 2021. That could leave a coach guessing as to what he will be able to work with.
“I think the tricky part will be at the scholarship level or even the financial aid office,” said Priore. “Once you start bringing kids back for extra semesters there is definitely a money concern. If a season is not played next spring and is played next fall, there is a roster limitation you have internally.”
As with most everything in recent months, the next few months are sure to provide many moving parts to a puzzle that has many pieces scattered about.
“There is a lot of gray area, and I understand that,” said Teevens. “Nobody has answers. Nobody has been down this road before. It’s a tough situation, but it’s the world we are in right now.”
I have been a sports writer and editor since 1990 with companies such as Beckett Publishing, The Topps Company and Comcast’s Versus network. I have also been a freelance
I have been a sports writer and editor since 1990 with companies such as Beckett Publishing, The Topps Company and Comcast’s Versus network. I have also been a freelance reporter covering college football, the NHL and MLB. In addition to being a contributing writer for forbes.com, I cover University of South Florida football and basketball, the Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Lightning for sportstalkflorida.com. I am also a contributing writer for Tampa Bay Business & Wealth magazine. I am a member of the Football Writers Association of America and the National Football Foundation.