Boston College Opens Summer Practice Unified Despite COVID-19 Worries
Boston College football opened their summer football camp, five months after the program was shut down due to the outbreak of COVID-19. After weeks of evaluation, planning and preparation, head coach Jeff Hafley got his chance to put his team on the field.
After today's first practice the first year head coach praised Father Leahy, the medical community and others for getting their program where they are at. Last week the team was tested and 154 players and staff came back negative. Hafley saved his biggest praise for his players, "to do everything that they've done from the start, when we got here and we asked them to really give up everything, they did," he told the media."Those guys need to get a lot of credit for. I'm grateful for the buy in, it's been awesome."
When the players hit the field today, using both the outdoor practice facility and the indoor field at Fish Fieldhouse, there was a lot of excitement. The team had just learned their schedule, and now had a date that they could plan for, September 12th against the Ohio Bobcats.
With practicing starting, especially given the uncertain circumstances, the staff is going to take it slow. “This first week of hard, hard training camp … practice after practice after practice, I still don't believe their bodies are totally ready for that,” Hafley said. "The team will gradually ramp up the practices, with today's practice going at a fast pace, but tomorrow slowing down. They will continue this process for the foreseeable future until the coaching staff feels the team is ready to keep the pace accelerated."
"We got to think through this thing and make sure we're taking care of our players. And I think we've got a great schedule for that. And that's where we're at right now." Hafley concluded.
There is still a lot of work to be done. And the head coach made it clear, that the players who earn it will be the starters. Practice number two will be tomorrow in Chestnut Hill.
Practice Notes (practice was closed to the media, these are based on the notes given by Boston College)
* The Eagles offensive line looks to be set at four positions with Tyler Vrabel, Alec Lindstrom, Ben Petrula and Zion Johnson filling those slots. According to the reports it sounds like the final guard spot will be between Finn Dirstine and Nate Emer. This will be a battle worth watching
* Connor Grieco looks to be a name to watch for at the safety position, or if the Eagles use the VIPER (linebacker/safety) hybrid role. Had an interception during practice.
* Phil Jurkovec is clearly going to the favorite to be the starting quarterback come opening day, but don't discount Daelen Menard. As we have mentioned numerous times on this site, he can really throw, and made a dazzling throw in practice today.
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(Photos and video courtesy of BCEagles.com)