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FAYETTEVILLE — Despite being more than three months removed from when the coronavirus pandemic originally shut everything down, states across the country have recently seen an uptick in cases.
Arkansas is among those states, with Washington County - where the University of Arkansas is located - in particular experiencing a spike.
However, college football teams have forged on with voluntary workouts while taking many precautions to keep student-athletes safe.
The Razorbacks welcomed their incoming freshman class to campus over the weekend and head coach Sam Pittman told local reporters on a Zoom call Tuesday afternoon that he is not too concerned about the recent trends possibly altering the start of the 2020 season, which for them is scheduled for Sept. 5 against Nevada at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
“We can only control what we can control in here,” Pittman said. “In our SEC head coaches meetings, everything is going on as planned, scheduled for Sept. 5. That’s what we’re preparing for.
“Obviously there’s a lot of different scenarios and things of that nature, but as of today and in the near future, we’re looking forward to starting the season off Sept. 5.”
There has been plenty of speculation from various national media, health experts and fans that the season could be jeopardy, but Pittman is not allowing it to permeate throughout the team.
He is focused on getting his team ready for the season opener and has kept a positive attitude about it with the players.
“Well I think the media thinks we’re not going to have a season more than we do,” Pittman said. “There hadn’t been one ounce of conversation between myself and our team about not having a season. So it’s not hard to motivate them about not having a season because we all believe we’re going to.”
That said, Pittman acknowledged his biggest concerns are all of the “what-if” scenarios, which he has frequently discussed with strength and conditioning coach Jamil Walker and his three coordinators - Kendal Briles, Barry Odom and Scott Fountain.
Those discussions are purely from a logistical standpoint, as they’ve had to come up with contingency plans in case the season gets pushed back and they have to alter workouts or practices.
“We’re not in the time-consuming business; we’re in the winning business,” Pittman said. “So we’re not trying to have our kids here just because the NCAA says we can have them here. If we’re going to have them here and have them in meetings, we need to be diversified enough in our meetings that we’re keeping their attention that we can go win football games.”
SEC West foe LSU has reportedly seen 30 players quarantined after several of them visited nightclubs near the school’s campus, raising a concern that other teams would see something similar happen because of the nature of college students in general.
However, Pittman didn’t seem too concerned about that at Arkansas, as he is confident in how he and his staff educated his players about the significance of their decisions. He believes they will make wise decisions moving forward, including the upcoming July 4 weekend.
“You’re either going to say, ‘We trust you are being as social distancing as you can,’ or you’re going to say, ‘You can’t go anywhere, including any place out of your apartment,’” Pittman said. “We choose to trust and believe in our team and that they’re grown men because otherwise, A, I think that’s the way you should do, and B, it would wear you out. It would wear you totally out if you were worried if they had their mask on at a restaurant or not.”
The outbreak of cases at places like LSU, Clemson and Texas has only added to the speculation about what the season will look like in 2020 and if it will happen at all. Pittman acknowledged that he’s even heard the scenario that involves moving the season to the spring.
Those don’t take up too much of his time, though, because he bases his decisions and plans off facts he gets from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who holds a meeting with all 14 head coaches at 7:30 a.m. every Thursday.
“I mean, we could speculate for a month,” Pittman said. “Some of it would be right, some of it would be wrong. I’m just going off the facts of what the SEC commissioner is telling us and we’re going as planned to have a season for Sept. 5.”
The Razorbacks are allowed two weeks of non-contact walkthroughs starting July 24 to get the team mentally prepared for fall camp, slated to begin August 7.
