When is a Realistic Time for LSU Football to Return to Practice?

One way or another, the NCAA, the conferences and the universities are working everyday to make sure there's a college football season in 2020. There's too much money at stake that could potentially leave a permanent impact on college athletics without a football season.

Last week, Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde laid out the three most likely options for football to return in the fall. But even before Saturday nights in Death Valley can return, there needs to be some kind of summer practice or training camp so the players can be in as best shape possible for the pounding their bodies will take.

So what and when does that return to the practice field look like? It's already been a month since college coaches have seen their players and it could very well be another two or three months before they see them again. Dellenger has spoken with many college coaches in the last few weeks and the growing suspicion is that August could be the most realistic time that teams could return to practice.

Coaches are bracing to squeeze months of on-field, in-person work into a six-week period that might begin sometime in July or, worst case, a four-week camp in August—the busiest, most chaotic camp you’ve ever seen.

That leads to the next question which is how would a return in August affect the LSU squad?

For starters, freshmen wouldn't have nearly as much time to adapt to the college life as in past years when they all would be in summer school. LSU has already decided to move all of its summer courses online to keep the novel coronavirus from spreading on campus. LSU had eight early enrollees that were able to get a taste of what the college life was all about but there are still 14 signees that have yet to step foot on LSU's campus as a student-athlete.

The summer has become a time where the players grow as athletes, both physically and mentally as strength and conditioning coaches mold their bodies into what will make them most successful on the field. Meanwhile, position coaches hammer home the importance of learning the playbook and schemes.

"We’re doing a lot of things that bring us back to the days where we had to rely on our players to be self-motivated,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly told Dellenger. “We’re giving them guidance but, we can’t be mandating workouts and have to trust we have good leadership."

At LSU, coach Ed Orgeron called strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt the "MVP" during this tough time as the detailed workouts he bestowed to the players are keeping them relatively in shape.

"I told the team that it's a level playing field and we gotta be elite, we've gotta set the LSU standard of performance," Orgeron said a few weeks back on Baton Rouge radio show Off the Bench. "Obviously it's different but we have a plan, we talked to the coaching staff this weekend, everybody is communicating with our guys."

Some coaches are hoping for a return to the field in early to mid July according to Dellenger. That seems like a best case scenario at this point as it's too early to say when this virus will start to flat line. You also don't want to run the risk of the number of cases leveling off and returning too quickly to normal life and be in the same boat the country is in now.

For the time being, a return to a normal football regimen is months away and the question that will linger over the coming weeks and months is when that regimen will be back. At this point, it's still too early to know.