School opts out of rest of season
Coach says the rash of injuries suffered so far necessitated the move
As University at Albany football coach Greg Gattuso walked on to the Casey Stadium field repeatedly to check on injured players against Stony Brook on Saturday, he realized the Great Danes had reached a tipping point.
He felt the team couldn’t go on like this any longer, even with only two games remaining in an abbreviated spring season.
“We had nine kids come out of the game Saturday with injuries,” Gattuso said. “Some of them are season-ending, some of them could affect them in the future. I go out when I think a player is injured badly, and I made, I think, six or seven trips on to the field. It was overwhelming for me how we were after that game and on Sunday. So that’s kind of what started the process.”
Gattuso went to the office of athletic director Mark Benson on Monday to voice his concerns. On Wednesday, Ualbany announced it is opting out of its final two Colonial Athletic Association games at No. 8 Delaware on Saturday and against Villanova on April 10.
Ualbany won’t play again until the fall season opener at North Dakota State on Sept. 4.
While the COVID -19 pandemic is the reason the fall 2020 season was postponed to the spring, the virus didn’t end up cutting this season short. Instead, it was a litany of injuries that Gattuso said made it difficult to fill a travel roster for the Delaware game. The Great Danes were particularly hard-hit at wide receiver, Gattuso said, but the problems were spread all over the roster.
Ualbany was already without starting quarterback Jeff Undercuffler (ribs) and star linebacker Levi Metheny (arm), who both missed the Stony Brook game.
The Great Danes didn’t have a single padded practice in 2020 because of COVID -19 interruptions, for which Gattuso blamed the injury bug.
“Part of our training concept is practice and lifting and running,” Gattuso said. “It’s been so disruptive and I think that’s what’s resulted in this many injuries . ... The injury side of this thing was just too much and I think this was the right thing, and I think the kids have handled it very well. They trust us and I think
they know we’re looking out for their best interest.”
The Great Danes had lost three straight to fall to 1-3 and out of Football Championship Subdivision playoff contention, but Gattuso said that wasn’t a factor in the decision.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said. “Sometimes it’s tough to do the right thing.”
Gattuso said he felt even a four-game spring season was worth the trouble of holding training camp in the freezing cold in February and going through the COVID -19 precautions and testing. He pointed to the development of the team’s freshmen and sophomores.
“Honestly, I was skeptical, concerned going into the spring of a lot of things, one being injuries,” Gattuso said. “But I think that the best part of this, and I told the kids this, we got four games in. We got a bunch of practices in . ... There’s been all these different things pulling at these guys, but at the end of the day, our young athletes, we’re really excited about and we would not know what some of these guys could do if they didn’t play in the spring.”
Ualbany athletic director Mark Benson said after
Gattuso approached him, Benson reached out to his senior athletic administration team and head athletic trainer Jay Geiger to discuss the injury situation. Gattuso met with his leadership group of players and Benson spoke with university president Havidan Rodriguez before a decision was reached.
“I think we all kind of saw it coming,” Benson said. “The injuries were increasing from week to week progressively and watching the game on Saturday, it felt like every several plays we were carting off one of our players and keeping our athletic trainers very busy. Really glad (Gattuso) reached out. This has been a long, strange year for everyone in the world and here in athletics, this is not the first conversation about health and safety that we’ve had.”
CAA football commissioner Joe D’antonio released a statement on Ualbany’s decision.
“CAA Football respects and supports the difficult decision made by Ualbany to opt out of the football season for the remainder of the spring,” D’antonio said.