The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Blue Devils, Pioneers will contend in NEC, if they play
Central Connecticut State’s Ryan McCarthy is like most other college football coaches at the moment.
McCarthy, whose team is unanimously favored to repeat as the Northeast Conference champion, isn’t certain there will be a season this fall.
“I don’t know for sure,” McCarthy said during a phone interview. “In the next week or two we’ll have a better idea. But at this point in time, I can’t tell you with 100 percent clarity that I know exactly what’s going to happen.”
CCSU, coming off an 11-2 season and a trip to the FCS playoffs, received all six first-place votes in the NEC preseason poll, which was released Thursday morning. Duquesne was voted second and Sacred Heart third. The Blue Devils also had seven players selected to the preseason All-Conference team, four of them in-state products: wide receiver Tyshaun James (Middletown), offensive lineman J’Von Brown (Norwich), defensive lineman Noah Washington (New Haven) and defensive back Dexter Lawson (Bloomfield).
Whether the Blue Devils — who must replace quarterback and NEC Offensive Player of the Year Aaron Winchester — get a chance to live up to their lofty billing remains in doubt. Already, Power Five conferences Big Ten and Pac-12 have gone to conferenceonly schedules due to COVID-19. The Ivy and Patriot Leagues have taken more drastic steps, canceling fall sports altogether.
“I think we’ve got enough pieces in place,” McCarthy said. “It’s just a matter of whether or not those pieces are actually going to be put in place.”
Sacred Heart coach Mark Nofri, like McCarthy, has no idea what will happen. He said there are days he’s optimistic they can safely navigate the pandemic and play and there are days when all hope appears lost.
Throughout it all, his players have tried to stay upbeat.
“We’re at a disadvantage, and so is every other team in the conference,” cornerback Shawn Ramcheran said at the league’s virtual media day, which was prerecorded and aired Thursday on ESPN3 and NEC Front Row. “You can’t cry about it. You’ve got to do something about it and try to find a way to be better.”
After practicing just once in March, the Pioneers returned close to 60 players to campus June 22 for voluntary weight training. None have tested positive for the virus, according to Nofri. Only those who traveled from “hot-spot” states were required to quarantine.
On the heels of a 7-5 season, Sacred Heart placed four players on the preseason All-Conference team, including NEC Offensive Rookie of the Year Julius Chestnut, his backfield mate Jordan Meachum, and offensive linemen JD DiRenzo and Josh Sokol. If the Pioneers do play this fall,
Nofri thinks it will be conferenceonly. Their non-conference games against Penn, Lafayette and Stony Brook have already been called off. The Blue Devils lost theirs against Valparaiso and Columbia. An FBS contest against Toledo may be next to go.
Both Sacred Heart and CCSU might get more clarity when the league’s presidents meet July 29.
“My wish, or my hope, would be
that we could play eight conference games starting in the last week of September and be over by November,” Nofri said.
“Worst-case scenario if we couldn’t play in the fall, then I’m hoping to play somewhat of a conference schedule in the spring if that’s what other FBS schools are doing.”
Of course, neither situation is ideal. Pushing the calendar back a couple months would buy states more time to get the virus under control, but it’d also cut deep into players’ offseason. Nofri said they would need sufficient time to recover before returning to camp next August.
“I believe that if we do play, the NCAA, the school, the NEC will all take necessary precautions to make sure the kids are healthy,” Nofri said. “Nobody wants to see anybody get it, nor have something bad happen or tragic happen to one of their studentathletes. No one on the team has mentioned they’re apprehensive, but I’m pretty sure if we play that there’s going to be a lot of protocols that we’ll all have to follow to make sure the kids’ safety comes first.”
McCarthy said some of his players are concerned about wasting a year of eligibility in a potential shortened season.
“I don’t blame them,” he said. “We’ll see what this whole thing comes out to be. To me it doesn’t look promising, but we’re going to report when we have to report.”