One Step Closer

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Clemson’s official season weigh-in will take place later today, and that can only mean one thing, football is on the horizon. Traditionally this afternoon’s results are met with great fanfare as Tiger Nation tends to see this moment as the first real sign that football is back.

I’ve made the argument that Clemson has as much to lose as any team in college football this year. Last week, a significant shakeup took place when the Atlantic Coast Conference announced a move to allow Notre Dame into the conference. Also, with single division play, including a ten-game conference schedule, with one out of conference game, the road back to the college football playoff, assuming COVID-19 doesn’t stop it anyway, seems much more difficult today than it did a week ago.

I think the real question at this point on everyone’s mind becomes the how. How do these young men manage to navigate a schedule without a substantial setback along the way, especially when students return to campus? 

Given what we’ve seen in Major League Baseball, and COVID-19 outbreaks at Rutgers recently, it becomes difficult to imagine navigating a slate of games without substantial hiccups along the way. Even if the Tigers make it through the year unphased by the virus, the odds that opponents or other leagues don’t start shutting down feels like wishful thinking right now.

Suppose you listen solely to your heart. College football is happening.

If you listen to your head and observe everything that’s going on around you, it’s easy to conclude that there will be a stoppage of play or even an abrupt end to the season. That thought process, perhaps deemed overly negative by some, is sadly part of the reality that we’re living in today. 

Here are three thoughts on the beginning of fall camp in 2020 as the Tigers get ready for today’s weigh-in.

Embrace the weird:

Let’s face it; this is going to be anything but a typical season. Fall camp is opening, and we know who Clemson will play, but we still don’t know when. That could come in two days or two weeks, who knows. The keyword that I’ve continued to use is fluid. Things are changing before the ink drys on the latest news. 

It’s frustrating and yet exciting. I think in part because we’ve lacked having sports for so long that we feel it in our bones. Even if it fails, right now, we’ve got a bit of hope, and that makes us all feel so much better.

Notre Dame in the ACC? Yes, I’ll take it.

No game against South Carolina. Fine, just give me football.

We’ve all crossed a threshold that allows us to take any and all circumstances and absorb them into the “new normal”. At this point, most college football fans would be willing to enjoy just one weekend if that’s all we could muster before COVID-19 shuts things down. 

Judging by social media, we’ve all gotten a little nutty during this whole ordeal, embrace the weird, hope for the best, but realize that getting to the destination we desire will take a lot of work both on and off the field and that’s not just on our college campuses. 

Wealth vs. Health:

Questions loom, and as I mentioned above, can we even make it through the season? And in all honesty, is it worth it? I know we all want to see it happen, but at what cost for these young athletes, some of which could be risking their future earnings if their lungs were to be compromised.

The wealth vs. health argument will continue to exist, and while I don’t expect large numbers of players to opt-out at Clemson, I don’t think it’s unlikely that more and more players will choose to sit this one out. There are still too many unknowns about the long-term effects of COVID-19.

I do think the healthcare system is getting better at understanding how to treat and mitigate the virus, which is excellent. However, there are still many people who aren’t helped by anything currently available, and that makes parents nervous for their children. 

Over the weekend, Deborah Rucker pinned a Facebook post that went viral. Her son, Brady Feeny, a freshman offensive lineman at Indiana tested positive for COVID-19 during a screening conducted by the program last month.

According to IndyStar.com, Feeny was “isolated from his teammates and experienced breathing problems serious enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room. Indiana even paid for Rucker to come to Bloomington to be near Feeney — she could not physically be with him, per isolation protocols — while he recovered.”

Here is a portion of Rucker’s Facebook post:

As I said yesterday on Clemson Sports Talk, my two-hour daily radio show, while young, healthy athletes might not be in the “high-risk” category for COVID-19, they are in the “high-risk” group in their parents’ eyes. We have to respect the concerns that they have. After all, it’s their children who are playing for our entertainment and so that athletic departments can continue to operate during a pandemic. 

Nobody wanted to be here. There isn’t a Pandemic Playbook for athletic departments, but rest assured the unbridled spending we’ve seen from coast to coast should be curbed after this event. The rainy day funds for the athletic departments need to be more substantial than the football operation complexes at every school.

As my friend Mike Frank wrote on IrishSportsDaily.com, “I’m not a coach. I’m not on the support staff. I am not a player. Because of these facts, I don’t think I’m qualified to answer if this should happen or not. I don’t have all the health and financial information to make such a decision. All I do know is I want it to happen, and so does everyone else.”

We all need college football. I can’t deny that. Should we have college football and maybe more significantly, will it work? Who knows. It almost makes me feel sick in my gut, thinking about the negative side of all of this. I find myself feeling guilty for wanting to play and yet hopeful that we can. It’s a strange place to be. My head and my heart are in constant conflict.

Enjoy what we get:

Here’s the thing, last week’s announcement from the ACC about who teams would play this season was exciting. It almost felt like Christmas morning. Today, as the Tigers get set to weigh-in, I’m filled with hope about the possibility of playing. 

It’s heartbreaking to realize how fragile the season is right now. We’ve come to take for granted all of those many moments we’ve had in the past.

I’d give anything to watch Jad Dean miss a late field goal against South Carolina or a long deep pass slip right through Aaron Kelly’s hands against Boston College right now. Those moments were painful, but they were moments with Death Valley packed and fans stacked on top of each other.

Those are college football moments.

While I much prefer to witness the fireworks in Tampa after winning the 2016 title or catching confetti in the face in Nothern California after hammering Alabama for the 2018 title, at this point, just give me college football moments again and I’ll embrace the good and the bad with every ounce of my being.

We all need it.

So this afternoon, soak up those weigh-in results with great passion.

Enjoy it all, Tiger Nation. Because you never know when it’s going to be gone.