Spring Practice Disparity Creates an Unusual Challenge for College Football Teams

[huskymedic]

>>The Chanticleers are one of two programs in major college football to have completed their entire 15-session spring practice before the virus pandemic shut down sports. The other: UConn. Huskies coach Randy Edsall started his spring practice two days before signing day. Both teams wrapped up practice a week before the coronavirus froze the sporting world, suspending and then eventually canceling all spring football workouts across the nation.

While UConn and Coastal Carolina finished their springs, more than two-fifths of the FBS (52 teams) didn’t even start theirs. Of the 130 teams, a whopping 111 of them didn’t reach the halfway point in their allotted 14 spring practices (excluding a 15th—the spring game). Eight schools each in both the Big Ten and SEC never got to Day 1. In fact, if your team completed four or more practices, it was ahead of the nationwide average of three.<<

>>While there are more pressing issues aside from spring ball, its absence will be felt and seen, some coaches say. Coaches normally use spring as a time to install new schemes, gain insight on starting competitions, build solid depth and evaluate young players, specifically freshmen who enrolled in January. UConn and Coastal Carolina combined to have 21 rookies join at the mid-year. They all participated in 15 spring practices. “It’s a distinct advantage in my opinion. I’d go as far to say it’s a competitive advantage,” says West Virginia coach Neal Brown. “We can’t make up those reps. That is the biggest loss in all of this from a spring ball perspective: missing repetitions. Those teams have a competitive edge over the ones that didn’t.”<<

 

[huskymedic]

>> At some point, an NCAA governing board and/or a conference board will determine a date to return to training, but state-wide gathering orders might prevent some programs from returning to campus. What then? Who knows. Edsall says he’s leaving those decisions to medical professionals. “I understand football and understand what’s good for football,” Edsall says. “I’m not a medical doctor and infectious disease doctor. Let’s let these people, the experts … let’s lean on them.”

Edsall is sure of one thing, at least: He’s got 15 spring practice videos that he can watch in his spare time while he and his family are quarantined in their Florida vacation home. This was the second straight year Edsall kicked off spring practice at such an early date. His reasoning: avoid practice being interrupted by spring break. Chadwell shared that sentiment, but there are other perks, too. Players injured in spring are afforded a longer time to recover. Unbothered with football, players can focus on academics during the critical month of April, which normally ends with final exams. “Just taking a look at the whole calendar and how it’s changed, I said, ‘This seems more logical to me,’” Edsall says.

But what about the weather in February in Connecticut? The Mark R. Shenkman Training Facility provides cover from the elements. In fact, without it, UConn would have never reached practice No. 15 before the shutdown. “Before we had that facility, we never started before spring break,” Edsall says. “One year we had to shovel snow off the outdoor turf field to practice in late March and early April.”<<