Ryan Day: Time Offers Perspective on Viable Start to Season
The speculation projecting forward to whether college football will start on time, start late or start at all is occupying the best minds around the sport right now, but Ohio State coach Ryan Day believes no perspective may prove more valuable than time.
His team began spring practice just before COVID-19 precautions gripped the nation and shut down virtually all athletic competition.
That seems like months ago, but in reality was only early-March, so Day is hesitant to make bold predictions, knowing the clarity that may come from additional weeks unfolding.
"I think we need to look at everything, because I think any football is better than no football," Day said Friday on ESPN's Get Up. "Bt there's so much that's going to change in the future here. Think about where we are right now. March 10 was a different place, where we were (then). I think there are going to be a lot of changes, a lot of different things that come up."
Day's view is validated by the dramatic shift in models projecting the coronavirus' death toll, which escalated as high as two million initially, but now have dropped well below 100,000.
That's welcome news, but does not answer the unknowns about future testing, viral spread once social distancing diminishes, logistics of returning players to campus from their homes across the country and many other issues.
"The focus, in my opinion, should be on returning to play, and how long do we need to get a team ready to play," Day said. "Because once the medical authorities give us the green light on where to go with this thing, we'll push forward on that.
"Clearly, the No. 1 concern has to be public health and the safety and health of our student athletes and coaches an staff."
Day believes a mid-July start to practice would afford appropriate time to prepare for a season scheduled to start Sept. 5 at home against Bowling Green.
"I think the starting point as coaches is about six weeks," Day said. "Whether it's more or less, that's what we have to work through. What do those six weeks look like? When are we allowed to put pads on? How much time do we need leading up to putting pads on an actually practicing?"
"I think six weeks is a good starting point to start the conversation."
OSU athletic director Gene Smith voiced the concern Friday that ramping up too quickly after players reconvene on campus could increase muscle pulls, strains and tears.
Last summer, the NCAA issued a report on preventing catastrophic injuries that will give plenty of ammunition to lawyers for clients who allege that rushed back into action led to a injury that diminished their NFL value,
If the NCAA were to allow an earlier start to football camps around the country, that means training would begin sooner and last longer in the summer heat, which poses a worst-case scenario for catastrophic injuries.
As of yet, the NCAA has not established a time frame which establishes a minimum amount of training for athletes to undertake once they return to campus before they could participate in competition.
Those dates are sport-specific every year, but dates that have worked in the past may be out the window now because no fall-sport athletes have been allowed on campus since early March to train and practice.
"Do we feel we need longer now?" Smith said of football preparation to play a season. "I don't know that. To help them physically get back into the grind? Maybe you need two weeks without pads. I don't know that.
"That's where the collaborative thing with the medical people and the the strength coaches and everybody across the country has to occur. The hard date will come in relation to what we figure out there. And we not figured that out yet."
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