SEC football opens minus big crowds, tailgating, some stars
Southeastern Conference football games won’t have their normal scenes of packed stadiums and partying tailgaters.
Gone, too, are some of the league’s best players, including LSU wide receiver Ja’marr Chase and much- anticipated new Georgia quarterback Jamie Newman. In the season of COVID- 19, SEC teams finally open their 10-game league only schedule on Saturday.
It mixes excitement with a healthy dose of uncertainty. How many games will be canceled or postponed? Which teams can avoid being decimated by positive tests at a certain position or losing their starting quarterback?
Even SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday: “I still am in the hold my breath moment a bit.”
So are coaches. Players are still opting out leading up to the
first games, including Vanderbilt linebacker Feleti Afemui and Texas A&M linebacker Anthony Hines III.
Sankey, meanwhile, does have
a new definition of what qualifies as a successful season.
“Being in Atlanta on Dec. 19 naming a conference champion, I would define that as a success,” he said.
Most SEC coaches are playing it close to the vest in identifying players who will miss the game because of COVID-19, if they have any. Their silence is as much about a competitive edge as players’ privacy.
As Florida coach Dan Mullen said: “You’ll find out Saturday.”
The situations could be fluid, with testing continuing during the week. Alabama’s coach, Nick Saban, said Monday there weren’t any players for the second-ranked Crimson Tide out for the game with COVID- related issues.
“But we’re testing every day so that’s kind of an ongoing process as to how that goes,” Saban said.
No. 8 Auburn had a half-dozen players returning from quarantine on Tuesday, coach Gus Malzahn said.
Aside from which players will be available, another adjustment will be the mostly empty stadiums.