Urban Meyer was asked yesterday about the question of whether a spring football season can be done.
“No chance,” the former championship coach turned analysis during an interview on the Big Ten Network. He may not be everyone’s favorite tea brand, but he’s certainly a well-established voice to tackle the subject.
We also heard doubts about the subject from the voice of Scott Frost, who on Monday was not too blunt about that idea when he spoke to local media. Sure, he used every ounce of his injury to save football in the fall at the time, and may still be based on a Tuesday statement from Nebraska that had some high heat for the Big Ten.
But even if it is “the last resort,” as Husker athletic director Bill Moos and others have put it, what if it comes to trying to make the spring games work?
“I do not know how it would work to sandwich two football seasons in one calendar year,” Frost said with skepticism about that plan.
His quarterback, Adrian Martinez, felt the same way, and Dicaprio Bootle and Matt Farniok did not even really want to talk about them on Monday until they were confronted with that bridge to cross. Now it may be for us.
“I’m not sure, even at this moment, when we’re sitting here, that we know all the complications and what that would look like for us, and what it would look like for the boys who have to go around the game. turn short season, and turn play away in the fall, ”Martinez said.
“It would just be hard on the bodies, I think. I do not necessarily know if that is what is best for us as athletes. Now I can not speak for everyone. That is just my personal opinion.”
Best for the athletes, you say?
That’s the reason given why the Big Ten called up the dogs while playing this fall. And yet, the league keeps the opportunity open to play in the spring.
“The body is, in my very strong opinion, not made to play two seasons within a calendar year,” Meyer told BTN. “Those are 2,000 repetitive reps and football is a physical, tough sport. I see that, really, not happening.”
And if Big Ten officials do not feel safe playing the game now, the question is what makes them believe it will be much different in several months’ time – unless a widely used vaccine is suddenly commonplace for COVID-19.
However, opinions could also shift as some leagues go through and make it through an autumn season in 2020. And you would assume, given the alternative, the Huskers would prefer to have a few games in the spring against none until 13 months from now. Heck, Nebraska is the only school in the Big Ten that really hits the drums to play now.
Ohio State Coach Ohio told reporters on Wednesday about a Zoom call that a spring season in 2021 should have begun like this.
“I think the beginning of the first week of January would be the way to go,” Day said. The Buckeyes coach’s idea included a schedule of eight games.
Starting so early in the year, even when it’s winter, could allow some top-level prospects to compete for the NFL Draft. It can also be a showcase for those seniors who want to see on film that they are ready for the next level. And it would offer some separation time between the end of that season and the start of the hopefully normal in 2021.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, in a Zoom interview with reporters, discussed the possibility of not making a spring season happen. “I think we can do whatever we want, if we do it intelligently.”
And Purdue coach Jeff Brohm told BTN, although he disagreed with the fall break, “For those who want to play football, we need to find a way to play in the spring.”
There will be questions about eligibility that would go with such a thing, of course. Frost said that was the thing his players asked the most. Are they losing a year, even if it’s a “broken season” with not so many games? That would not seem fair. But what happens to the rules for support counting when you keep players when new recruits appear? All questions that need to be answered.
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, whose Big 12 league plans to advance at this point with a fall season, has been one coach who thought he could work a spring season even earlier this summer.
“I think the people who say it are not [an option], in my opinion, just does not want to think about it, ” Riley told ESPN in early July. “I just think it would be wrong of us to take every possible option off the table at the moment. I think it would be very difficult to say that spring is not a potential option. I, actually, think so. is very feasible. “
OK, what could it be then about players not participating in the fall these months?
“We have a pretty good idea that we have a plan for them, for coaches who work with student-athletes,” Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said Tuesday on BTN. “I think that’s important. Right now we have 20 hours a week that they can work on skills work, meetings, etc. I think it’s important that our student-athletes stay active, that they keep in constant contact with their coaches in development. and try to improve themselves and as a team. “
Yes, Alvarez was under the impression that the 20-hour-a-week rule is still being applied going forward. But what does the former Nebraska alum think of playing two seasons in one year?
His coach, Paul Chryst, once worked in a semi-pro spring league (with Mike Riley) in which some of those players went to the NFL that fall and did just that. What was learned? “It’s too long to have whole seasons back-to-back, so his opinion is that if you do something in the spring, it should be condensed, not close to as many games as you would have in a normal season.”
At this point, however, it’s just talking without sound – which has been the talk of football in college since March.
“Everyone wants to know what we are going to do, we want to know what they are going to do,” Alvarez said of the talks between the powers that be. “Everyone is looking for an answer. I’ve talked to several people. A few have talked to me about overdoing playing in the spring. I think that’s something we owe our student-athletes to look into. , to see if it makes sense. “
