Fall Season? Spring? Ferentz, Hawkeyes Wait For The Answers
It will be Brandon Smith’s senior season at Iowa.
The wide receiver might be playing in 10 Big Ten games only in the fall. If there’s a spring season, then he has a decision to make about whether to play, or begin his pursuit of an NFL career.
Or maybe he doesn’t get a season at all.
“Of course, I’ve thought about what if we don’t have a season,” Smith said. “It has crossed my mind.”
It’s part of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 12-game Iowa football schedule, which included nonconference games against Iowa State and Northern Iowa, is gone now, replaced by a schedule of conference games that hasn’t been released yet.
“Obviously none of us know,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said during his press conference Thursday. “None of the coaches know. More importantly, a lot of people making decisions really don’t know what the season’s going to bring.”
It’s life in college football right now. Coronavirus cases are trending up, so there is a greater uncertainty about what the season will look like, if there is a season at all.
Ferentz said he supported the Big Ten’s decision to play games only within the conference.
But he regretted the loss of the games against two in-state games.
“Both of those games are important, to our program and to their programs, I think,” Ferentz said. “I think they’re important for our state. I’ve lived in this state 30 years, going on my 31st. (The Iowa-Iowa State game) is a big game in this state. It’s hard to imagine the years it wasn’t taking place. What a missed opportunity in a lot of ways.”
Ferentz said a spring season has its own challenges. Coaches and players would prepare for and then play a season from February to May, for example, and then turn around and play a fall season beginning with August practices.
“I’m sure it’s a last resort, I would imagine, for anybody that’s making decisions,” he said. “The perfect, best scenario right now is for us to play this fall. But if that becomes a reality, that that’s not going to take place, then yeah, certainly you have to shift your attention.
“There’s no question you would have to modify, you would have to look at the number of games you’re playing.”
Ferentz said he understood what has been lost with the shift in scheduling for the fall.
“But it’s really hard to get emotional or have a strong feeling (about) anything right now,” he said. “Because there’s just nothing like we’re used to. Nothing we can compare this to. I really think the key here moving forward — and my focus is the next five months — is what we can do on a daily basis just to get to the next day, the next week, the next step.”
