Gators report 7 cases
GAINESVILLE — The University of Florida athletic department reported Wednesday seven positive cases of COVID-19 among its athletes, including one football player.
The infections coincide with a spike of cases of the virus in Gainesville as UF students returned to campus and end a clean bill of health for coach Dan Mullen’s squad.
No one in the football program had been infected with the virus since mandatory workouts began July 14. But UF has fared well compared with many other programs, including Ole Miss, the Gators’ Sept. 26 opponent. The Rebels had a number of players sit out a recent scrimmage with the virus, including quarterback John Rhys Plumlee.
Florida performed 197 tests in September, including 101 in football. Since football players returned to Gainesville May 26, UF has performed 532 tests of players, with 22 positive cases.
But the Gators responded to the spate of cases by following medical protocols and safe practices, going nearly two months without a player testing positive or ending up in quarantine.
Mullen has praised his team’s commitment to taking precautions against the highly transmissible virus. He also recognized the challenge of avoiding COVID-19 infections would intensify as students began classes Aug. 31.
Making up for lost time
Mullen has not done the math. After all, he feels like he’s already lost enough time getting ready for the season.
The coronavirus pandemic canceled15 spring practices, including the annual Orange and Blue Game. Once the shutdown ended and athletes returned to campus, SEC policies further cut into the amount of hours Mullen and his staff were able to spend preparing the Gators.
It has forced Mullen and his staff to get creative and be precise with the team’s schedule.
“You had to really look at where you’re going to cut,” Mullen lamented. “I could go back and do all the research of every little thing that I lost and give you the time, but I haven’t done that. I just went to this as the new rule.
“I’ve gotta figure out how to do it this way of what we need instead of giving the details of what we’ve lost.”
Under normal circumstances, teams are allowed 25 practices and required to take a day off each week beginning 29 days prior to the season opener. But when the SEC moved the start of the season back three weeks to Sept. 26, teams suddenly had 40 days to stage the same number of practices, leading to an additional day off each week.
The conference also limited coaches to 20 hours a week to work with players, a schedule similar to the regular season. Coaches have unlimited hours during a typical preseason camp until classes begin. Even with the schedule changes during the summer, the Gators
were in camp for two weeks before classes began Aug. 31 at UF.
“You’re looking at a normal day; maybe you practice in the morning and you have a recovery lift in the afternoon while you’re watching some film,” Mullen said. “All that time, a bunch of walkthrough times gets eliminated. A lot of little teaching and all that stuff. You went from having a training camp to basically have an in-season schedule. In season, we’re 20 hours a week.
“It essentially eliminated training camp altogether. That’s the easiest way to put it.”
Mullen subsequently frontloaded the schedule and staged the second of two scrimmages Monday. UF now will have a light week and work on conditioning. Next week the team will return to in full pads but will continue to work on strength and stamina to prepare to play 10 SEC games during an 11-week span.
“When the SEC came out with whatever their rules were, the things that got eliminated were some of the conditioning and lifting,” Mullen said. “So we’re trying to catch up on some of that over the next two weeks and just make sure we’re ready for four quarters.”
Sounds of silence
Reduced capacity at stadiums and crowd noise piped in will be a unique experience for Mullen, who has coached the past 15 years in the raucous fan-crazed SEC.
Before the Gators head to Ole Miss, Mullen plans to pick the brains of some coaching peers who will have played games by then.
“I want to talk to some NFL people as well,” Mullen said. “They’re starting up this week and get a feel for every different aspect of it with the stadiums,
the lack of crowd noise, how the pumping in music affects, just the overall game-day feeling, the difference of game-day deals.”
Mullen wonders how the lack of atmosphere and crowd energy will impact a bunch of 18- to 22-year-olds who chose to play in the SEC due to the packed stadiums, emotionally charged fan base and game-day traditions.
One of Mullen’s calls with be to BYU coach Kalani Sitake, whose Cougars trounced Navy 55-3 Monday night at home.
“What we’re going to call the other coaches about is what is that feeling to play like in those stadiums,” Mullen said. “BYU usually plays in front of a pretty big stadium, huge home crowds, so we’re going to probably give a shout to Kalani and some of these other guys as they keep playing and say, ‘Hey, did the atmosphere have an effect on your team, and what that’s like feeling like that in the stadium?’ ”