Vanderbilt's Dayo Odeyingbo Talks Season, Stress

When we, as a collective, look back on the year that was 2020, one of the top adjectives that will likely be used in describing her will be stress. It has been abundant through the first nine months of this calendar. It will almost certainly continue through the remainder as our nation and the world continues to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Now that college football is back, and players have either played a game(s) or are preparing to begin shortly, the stress level for those awaiting to play would almost certainly be high.

That is the case for the Vanderbilt Commodores football squad, where they have been on the practice field preparing for their Sept. 26 visit to Texas A&M. During those practices, the team has endured one stoppage of all football activities because of "several" positive test results. There was also the second batch of positives that did not force the same type stoppage, but likely impacted things behind the scenes and made for some anxious players who probably questioned if they could make it to the starting gate.

Vanderbilt senior defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo recently spoke with media during a video conference call and was asked about stress for he and his teammates.

"I think this whole situation has been stressful for everybody, however, we're just looking forward to starting the season as normal," said Odeyingbo. "I mean we can only control what we can control so we're just working hard to kinda keep things as normal as possible before the first game on the 26th."

Odeyingbo is correct in that this whole situation of living through a worldwide pandemic has been stressful for everybody. However, for a group of 20-somethings who count on, and hold one another accoutable for their actions, this has to be a much different and more stressful time than usual.

Not only are players working on their craft on the practice fields, but they are also now responsible to protect themselves from an invisible enemy that can strike them from anywhere at anytime, then taking their teammates with them through contact tracing even if those teammates are not infected.

Those of us who have lived through our teens and twenties remember the feeling of invincibility we had then, and these players are feeling now. However, this virus has likely caused some cracks in those feeling for these players.

It's the harsh and strange new reality these young adults are realizing, and it is more stressful than anything most of them have likely faced in their young lives.

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