'You're going to need two months to get these guys back'
Penn State coach James Franklin asked his sports scientist, strength staff and athletic trainers to weigh in on how long it will take to get the players physically prepared to play a game once they're given the green light to resume practice.
They began working on about six different models.
"Is it 30 days, is it 45 days?" Franklin said. "Sixty days? Ninety days? What is it that's needed to make sure that we're going to be in good shape, that the players are going to be able to protect themselves and go out and compete on a high level?"
The opinions vary from coach to coach, but the general consensus from our interviews is about eight weeks. The first four would be spent mainly in meetings and with strength and conditioning coaches, with some walk-throughs beginning in Week 3. Then, in Week 4, the players could put on pads and helmets again and start a true "fall camp."
"You're going to need two months to get these guys back going again before you can even consider putting them on a field and asking them to play football," Arizona State coach Herm Edwards said. "When you rush back, that's when you get the soft-tissue injuries -- hamstrings, Achilles tendons, groins -- because you haven't done anything. Pro players, they have a sense of, 'I gotta work out, I make my living doing this,' but if you're a college kid, and a lot don't have access to gyms where they can lift, it's not like he's in football shape."
Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the director of sports medicine at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute and team physician for the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Dodgers, agreed with the coaches' timetable.
"As far as being able to get together as a team and be able to really ramp up the physical conditioning necessary to compete -- if you're coming into the whole process in pretty good condition -- that usually still takes about a month or six weeks to ramp up the intensity to where you're ready for the season," he said.
West Virginia coach Neal Brown said the preparation period should differ by position type.
"The guys up front, it's more about getting in shape from a strength standpoint where they'll be able to withstand contact, be able to push, lean, and those types of things. For the skill guys, it will be more about their cardio and short bursts and protecting against those soft-tissue injuries," Brown said. "A lot of people say, 'Well, back in the old days we just showed up at fall camp.' Yeah, well, fall camp was six weeks long. You had opportunity to get in shape, practice multiple times a day -- we're not allowed to do those things anymore. So I think that's why the lead-in is so important."
It's not just the physical preparation, though. There's the learning curve for freshmen, and installation of new plays.
Texas coach Tom Herman hired Chris Ash as defensive coordinator and Mike Yurcich as offensive coordinator, and said much of the new terminology and philosophy has been teachable remotely. Herman said resuming practices on June 1 would be ideal in order to start the season on Sept. 5, but even if they were told on Aug. 6 or 7, they would "figure it out."
"I know this sounds crazy because it's a completely new defensive system and a good amount of new concepts and ideas on offense, but ... the X's and O's part of it, that's the least of my worries, to be honest with you," Herman said. "Now we get four hours of virtual meetings, and coaches are testing their kids."
First-year Baylor coach Dave Aranda said he would like 60 days to get his players ready, but for now, he's trying to invest his time "in things that will stick," like concepts and situations.
"Hey, it's a two-minute situation, or hey, it's the end of a half, the start of the second half, it's four-minute situations," Aranda said. "Teaching our players, but keeping them engaged, as well ... seminal moments in a game where it's like, 'Oh, I remember that,' things we can invest in that they can carry back whenever it is we do get back together."
Edwards also said everyone will need to be tested for the coronavirus, which just raises more questions about the availability of tests, who is providing them, and more.
"Why wouldn't you do that?" he said. "You've gotta do that. That's got to be part of the program now. It's kind of ironic. We play a sport, there's no social distancing in this sport. Social distancing has been working. We don't do that in this sport."
American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco agreed, saying the possibility of an "interrupted season" due to a potential second wave of the virus is a concern for the commissioners.
"If you were going to play again, obviously, you'd have to realistically have some kind of testing protocol, and we're getting there," he said. "That's the problem. You might start playing, and the next thing you know, you've got somebody sick, and then next thing you know, you've got a whole team quarantined. How do you play with teams quarantined?" -- Heather Dinich
