For a program that had only two of its 30 possible practices between December and mid-April, it stands to reason that Nebraska head coach Scott Frost is champing at the bit to get some on-field time with his football team.
Even if the Huskers won't be able to get back any of those missed spring practices, Frost expressed support of the practice model the NCAA Division I Council approved this week, allowing for a six-week practice plan that begins in later July, a transitional phase that would move the ball forward to a more recognizable operating procedure for coaches and players.
"I think one of the reasons we're looking at that plan is because early on in this, we started looking at four, and five, and six-week models to return to play. And I think they've kind of been stubbornly holding onto those models even though a lot of people are getting their kids back to campus," Frost said on a Zoom call with local reporters on Tuesday. "That being said, I am in favor of it because we missed spring ball. Just missing the amount of spring practice that we did just sets you back as far as knowing X's and O's and being able to operate as a team.
"Having a little extra time before camp starts to get walk-throughs and get some of that done, I think will definitely benefit everybody that missed spring ball."
As of Tuesday, the near entirety of the Husker football roster was back on campus. Frost said you could probably count on one or two hands those players that weren't here, with the decision to return belonging to each athlete and his family, and no discouragement offered by Husker staffers if an individual thought it safer to stay home right now.
Frost also acknowledged the "ever changing landscape" everyone is dealing with concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. "It seems like every two days we look up and there's a different ruling." And while voluntary workouts go on in Lincoln and Wednesday's news of a six-week approved practice plan seemed encouraging on the surface, there were headlines popping up reminding of the stiff challenges faced in getting back to football, with perhaps the most notable news coming when Clemson had 23 players test positive for the coronavirus. Closer to home, Kansas State announced yesterday it was pausing voluntary workouts for two weeks after 14 student-athletes tested positive.
There was enough ominous happenings that popular college football talking head Paul Finebaum said, “I've gone from incredibly positive to pause, because it is too early and we don't know yet. I'm hearing more gloom and doom this week than I've heard in any week since early-to-mid April."
Even with the unstable climate, many athletes are eager to get back to working at their craft. A recent ESPN survey showed that 64 of 73 players polled said they were comfortable playing without a coronavirus vaccine, and 62 of those said they were comfortable practicing or playing games even if the school wasn't open to the general student body.
Frost's words on Tuesday suggested a vote among Husker players might produce similar results.
"Our players are not scared of this, and I know there's a lot of people that are, and rightfully so," he said. "But our kids just want to be out lifting and running and getting ready for a football season."
As it is, the Huskers proceed as best they can with the rules in place, which at this moment have made it impossible for Frost to have the entire team meetings he would have normally had this time of year. Newcomers who weren't enrolled early are also more out of reach than usual. They are doing a bridge program to get indoctrinated as a student but couldn't yet participate in the voluntary workouts as of Tuesday. "The majority of those guys are here, but we haven't had a chance to do much with them," Frost said then.
That surely only adds to the importance of the planned two-week ramp-up before fall camp. As with everything else with this deal, Husker coaches will have to reconfigure their summer calendar to try to handle this new setup as efficiently as possible.
"It is going to make the scheduling of everything a little interesting for us," Frost said. "Because usually you give players time off to recover before fall camp starts, and you definitely don't want to give players time off during that time when we have more access to them and more ability to do things. So it's going to change our scheduling model to make sure our players are here through that, but also fresh and ready to go for the long haul of the season."
Beginning July 24, during that two-week runway to fall camp, players will be allowed eight hours of weight training, six hours of walk-through work and six hours of meetings with coaches. The walk-throughs will be without pads but a football can be used.
Another notable rule shifted this week by the NCAA Division I Council was the waiving of the 110-person camp limit for teams to abide by. It is now up to each school's discretion on how many players are wanted in the practice settings, seeming of some importance at Nebraska, which has carried a roster including walk-ons that sometimes reaches around 150 in number. The NCAA waived the previous 110 rule so those athletes who returned to campus for summer conditioning didn't have to go home again. It also could potentially help teams with depth in these unusual circumstances.
"Let's say you have 120 working out, and then all of a sudden, you have to send 10 kids home for two weeks, and then they come back, you have testing issues and a bunch of other things," West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, who is the chair of the NCAA Football Oversight Committee, told ESPN. “This is the year you want to keep them in this kind of a bubble, as opposed to sending them back out into their own communities."
How it all works, or doesn't, no one can with any authority. But even in more normal times, Frost might be in favor of the enhanced late summer access that is being given before fall camp.
"We'll see how it goes this fall, but I might be in favor of doing something like this every year," he sai. "So we'll see if anything like that plays out. ... From my standpoint, if we can get some work done during that time as far as the X's and O's go, we're actually going to be a little easier on them in camp. You won't have as much to get installed and as much to do, so maybe you might be able to limit the reps and basically do enough to get them ready to go out and hit, get used to wearing the pads and get some live reps."
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