South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
AD hoping Swamp can be full again on Sept. 5
GAINESVILLE — UF athletics director Scott Stricklin remains optimistic the football season will kick off Sept. 5 against Eastern Washington.
Yet, he is in no rush to decide how many fans will be allowed in the Swamp.
“We’re going to accommodate as many people as possible,” Stricklin told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. “The longer we wait, the better chance we can have more people.”
Speaking at a Florida board of trustees meeting Thursday, Stricklin said he would like to hold off until early to mid-August before announcing a decision on crowd sizes.
Stricklin said predicting the future is a fool’s errand during the age of coronavirus. Even so, it has not prevented his fellow athletics directors from weighing in with force.
“I get really frustrated when I see my colleagues across the country making predictions and giving insights that are nothing more than guesses,” Stricklin said during the meeting. “We don’t want to be guessing. We want to make sure we have really good information.”
Stricklin’s experience during the pandemic tells him much will change during the next three months.
On March 7, Stricklin attended the regularseason finale in men’s basketball against Kentucky. Six days later, he announced UF athletics would be put on hold due to the virus’ spread.
Eventually, all activities were canceled and have yet to resume.
“A lot has changed in the last three months, and there’s still three months before we consider playing a football game on this campus,” Stricklin said. “Time is on our side for now.”
The Gators also have received encouraging news the past two weeks.
UF began to test football players last week to ensure a safe environment when voluntary, inperson workouts begin Monday. Stricklin said of the 53 players to receive their test results, none has been positive for COVID-19. The results of 10 players are pending.
The news came on a day when reports surfaced five players tested positive at Alabama and seven tested positive at Arkansas State.
“So far, it’s gone really seamless for both our staff and our athletes,” Stricklin said. “Most of those guys have been here. We did the ones who stayed here locally first. It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of spread in Alachua County, which has been great.
“It will be interesting as we start bringing guys who haven’t been here, what that looks like. The most important thing is we have to keep people safe.”
Many mile markers clearly lie ahead for the Gators athletic program.
Athletes will continue to undergo testing as fall sport athletes resume workouts this month with strength and conditioning coordinators, along with sports medicine personnel, but without coaches. If all goes well, athletes from other sports will be welcome to campus in July.
“This will be a very slow process,” Stricklin said. “They’re athletes. Even if they’re not on our campus, they train constantly. We had a pause in their training. It’s going to take some time to make sure they’re safe, make sure they’re healthy, make sure we’re not pushing them or allowing them to do things too quickly.”
Meanwhile, the University Athletic Association’s staff returned to work Monday at 25% capacity. Every member of the athletic department staff eventually will be screened and tested.
Unlike many schools, UF has be able to avoid eliminating jobs or cut athletic programs. Athletics finished the 2018-19 fiscal year with a profit of nearly $17.9 million.
Email Edgar Thompson at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com.