Titans coach still waiting for chance to work with Beasley
AP Pro Football Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Titans coach Mike Vrabel wants to start coaching Vic Beasley Jr.
A week after rookies and other players got started, Tennessee still is waiting for Beasley to report.
And Vrabel said Wednesday he’s not had any communication with Tennessee’s top free agent signee of the offseason even as the coach made clear he can’t wait to see Beasley.
“He’s not here,” Vrabel said. “Everybody else is, and he’s under contract. We expect him to be here. But again, have reached out, have not had much conversation with him. And we still look forward to getting him in here and coaching him when he gets here. I want to coach him and want him to be a part of the football team.”
Beasley led the NFL with 15 1/2 sacks in 2016 after being the eighth overall pick by Atlanta out of Clemson in 2015. The Titans signed Beasley to a one-year, $9.5 million contract in March wanting to see what Vrabel could do with a linebacker who has 37½ sacks in his career.
General manager Jon Robinson issued a statement last week that he had been in contact with Beasley, who knew his absence from training camp was unexcused. Robinson also said Beasley told him he would report in the near future.
The Titans put Beasley on the Reserve/Did Not Report list on July 28. Beasley is subject to a $50,000 fine each day he’s absent from training camp.
Tennessee already has had seven days with rookies, quarterbacks and injured players. Vrabel had his first full team meeting Sunday, and the Titans are scheduled for their first team practice Aug. 14.
Once Beasley reports, he’ll have to go through the testing process that requires three negative tests over the course of five days and then a physical.
“That’s where we’re at with that,” Vrabel said.
Notes: The Titans announced later Wednesday that linebacker Jayon Brown passed his physical and will be removed from the physically unable to perform list.
Notre Dame opens its season as an Atlantic Coast Conference football member against visiting Duke on Sept. 12 and won’t face Navy for the first time in more than nine decades as part of the ACC’s reconfigured schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The league on Thursday released the schedule featuring the Fighting Irish, who are giving up their coveted football independence and competing for the ACC title this season. The ACC had announced plans last week for a 10-game league slate with one nonconference game and its championship game played either Dec. 12 or 19.
Those nonconference games are required to be played in the member school’s home state, while opponents must meet ACC medical protocol requirements that include regular testing for athletes, coaches and staff to try to control the potential spread of coronavirus.
That report from ACC’s medical advisory group also recommends schools evaluate travel policies for games, including modes of travel such as buses or flights, lodging accommodations and the size of the travel party. That comes as the 15 teams travel within an ACC footprint spanning nearly the entire Atlantic Seaboard from Massachusetts to Florida, and moving west into Kentucky and Indiana.
Games within 250 miles of the school are considered reasonable for bus travel while schools typically take charter flights when needed, according to information the league provided by email to The Associated Press. The ACC “maxed out” on 17 scheduling opportunities to pair league schools within 250 miles of each other while the decision on whether to travel by bus or plane beyond that distance is left to the member schools.
Until Thursday, league teams had been holding offseason workouts or starting preseason practices without knowing for sure who they would play or where in roughly a month.
“I figured we were going to play, we just didn’t know the who, when and where,” Georgia Tech linebacker David Curry said. “All of us are very excited. We got the news when we were walking into the (locker) room this morning. We’re excited to have Florida State for the first game. Now we know what team we’re playing.”
The Fighting Irish and Midshipmen were originally scheduled to play for the 94th straight season in Dublin, Ireland. The pandemic forced the relocation to Navy’s home field in Annapolis, Maryland, for the first time in the history of the series on Sept. 5, along with the cancellation of Notre Dame’s games against Wisconsin, Stanford and Southern California as the Big Ten and Pac-12 went to league-only schedules.
Now Notre Dame’s lone nonconference game will be a previously scheduled visit from Western Michigan on Sept. 19.
Notre Dame, a member in all other league sports, already had a scheduling agreement to annually play five or six games with ACC teams as an independent. The Irish were set to play five-time reigning ACC champion Clemson, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Duke, Georgia Tech and Louisville this year.
Notre Dame’s marquee matchup at home with Dabo Swinney’s Tigers remains in its originally scheduled Nov. 7 slot, while the Fighting Irish added ACC matchups with Florida State, Boston College, Syracuse and North Carolina – with that game coming on the road the day after Thanksgiving.