Michigan Football Chatter: The COVID Response
Michigan made headlines last week when Warde Manuel announced only two U-M football players tested positive for COVID-19 out of 221 administered tests and that none of the coaches had. Meanwhile across the country, scores of players at Clemson (23), LSU (30), Texas (13) and Kansas State (14) have tested positive for COVID-19, causing alarm among many that believe college football is doomed in 2020.
Others don't see it that way, noting that most of the positive tests came from players asymptomatic (meaning showing no negative effects of coronavirus) and as healthy young adults are not in the "vulnerable" category of the disease, thus some believe the positive tests look worse than in reality they are.
"No one was expecting zero positive tests," an athletic department source at Michigan shared. "When you put larger groups of people together in one place, you're going to increase the risk of infection. What is critically important is the infrastructure created by each university to handle the COVID threat as you de-isolate student-athletes, coaches and the study body at-large.
"One of the things I can say with great pride is our athletic department has worked diligently with what is one of the leading medical communities in the world to proactively create the systems to tend to our student-athletes and overall students, faculty and staff when they return to campus.
"There has been a lot of sharing of ideas and resources across the Big Ten and beyond, but I can't speak to how every program has approached their COVID procedures."
For instance, when you see a program like Kansas State halt workouts immediately or Houston (six positive tests) do likewise, you have to wonder if they failed to adequately create the infrastructure necessary to deal with COVID among their teams and their student bodies.
"It raises your eyebrow a little bit because this shouldn't have come as a surprise," our source shared. "Now, what you don't know for sure is among their positive tests how many are symptomatic because that can be scary and cause a little bit of a panic response."
Michigan is proceeding carefully but thoroughly and while there will certainly be more positive tests over the next few weeks and months as players and coaches are exposed to further interactions in the community, on campus and against other teams, U-M department sources are confident they have the mechanisms necessary to proceed week to week and game to game.
In fact, one Big Ten insider from Chicago headquarters noted, "If everyone in our conference followed the Michigan model, we'd be in great shape."
Over the last few months, Michigan wasn't "cutting any corners" trying to prepare for the day its team could return to official workouts, insiders noting that Jim Harbaugh, his assistants, his strength and conditioning staff, the medical staff and on down the list were encouraging their players to practice all the recommended guidelines: isolate as best as they can, wear masks around other people, washing hands vigorously, stay away from people and groups that were not as conservative in their approach to the coronavirus, etc.
This may not have been what every program was doing. One former Michigan player that owns a gym training elite athletes told WolverineDigest he is aware of at least two college teams in the south that were setting up mini-pods of 10-15 football players working out with program-approved trainers/gyms within their regional footprint.
As for Michigan's schedule and its opening contest at Washington ... so far the Huskies have not reported any positive tests among its football team, but they will eventually. That's just the reality of COVID-19. The Huskies eagerly wish to maintain the game with U-M while some on the Michigan side feel it's "an unnecessary risk" though there would be a slight financial fallout, and cancelling this year's game could lead to losing next year's game in Ann Arbor too.
"That's more of a lawyer question and there's a very valid excuse of the coronavirus risk, but I think in a show of good faith, we'd have make it up to Washington in some capacity, either moving the game to Seattle in 2021 or paying off both games," a U-M source offered.
If Michigan gets out of this year's contest, and a decision on that should be coming within the next 2-3 weeks, Western Michigan could be a viable alternative. The Broncos are slated to play FCS foe Colgate in Week 1 but the Patriot League, to which Colgate is a member, is looking to dissolve its non-conference matchups. That would make WMU very much in-play for Sept. 4.
"It makes a lot of sense IF we go down that road because certainly we want to play in Week 1 and our television partners want us playing in Week 1, but there remains a lot of uncertainty still. It's a present and important conversation in the athletic department but I can't tell you we're close to a definitive conclusion."
