A JERSEY GUY: UConn: Life Without FB? Relaxed.
The routine is different, less hectic, more like early spring than midsummer.
Five days a week, three hours a day, with three days devoted to lifting and conditioning and the other two days for light workouts and meetings.
"Not bad,'' said UConn coach Randy Edsall on Friday afternoon. "We're done for the week and we will pick it up on again on Monday.''
If Edsall had his choice he would be in a full coaching mode, preparing for an opening game against Massachusetts on Sept. 3.
But Edsall recognized the dangers and pratfalls of life in the COVID-19 weeks ago. He heard the uncertainty in his players about to prepare for a season. A season that offered no certainties on how to do anything, ranging from taking a shower, to eating a meal, to taking a water break.
Edsall talked to his players and asked if the risks were worth the rewards.
Cynics will and have suggested that there would have been few rewards for a 2-10 team playing as an independent in a game dominated with conference rewards.
But in August, UConn is no better nor worse than Alabama, Clemson or LSU, filled with players who have the same desire to win, all starting out the 2020 season.
UConn voted to shut things down for the season, taking a redshirt year, with the intention of picking it up not next spring, but next fall.
Edsall understood that, he embraced it.
"Relaxed, comfortable is the way I would describe the difference,'' said Edsall when asked about the change from pre-shutdown to post-shutdown among his team.
"We have a Monday thru Friday routine'' he said. "Three hours a day, five days a week, and weekends off. That's the procedure we will follow until they tell us something different.''
Like his other FBS coaching brethren, Edsall is waiting for a protocol sheet from the NCAA on the rules and regulations for off-season football in the fall.
"Haven't seen a thing yet,'' he said, with a laugh.
For Edsall, the day-to-day uncertainty of his job is gone. He will spend this weekend taking his daily run, bike ride and squeezing in a round of golf.
And he will report back to work on Monday morning, ready to do it over again.
In a Groundhog Day situation, which could have been and could still get worse throughout college football, that doesn't seem all that bad.