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While some teams had the benefit of at least starting spring practice in 2020, Michigan wasn’t quite so fortunate.
Others, such as Ohio State, had a week or more to start getting players on the field, however, when the state of Michigan’s stay-at-home order was made by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Wolverines were still days away from what was supposed to be the first of 15 spring practices.
So how has the team managed?
It’s obviously an multi-faceted situation. Not only does the football team still have to find a way to operate, but the student-athletes have continued to take classes online — a first for the University of Michigan, as the school hadn’t before offered classes in such a capacity.
Thus, there’s been some significant innovations that has had to take place. Instead of meeting in Schembechler Hall, just like much of the country, the team is meeting online. They’re still learning what’s expected of them on the field, having broader and smaller team meetings and learning playbook updates. All from the comfort of their own home.
Michigan second-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis shared with Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast how the team has handled this ‘new normal’ and what it has been able to do from a remote, virtual standpoint.
“Technology in today’s world has created an environment for us now that we’re still fully functional,” Gattis said. “We’re creating cut-ups and installs the same way that we would in the building. We’re doing unit meetings on Google Hangouts. We’re pushing out installs to their iPad.
“So you’re really able to do everything that you would be doing if you were in the building except being able to shake a hand, pat a guy on the back from that standpoint. You’re just missing the practice reps. But our kids have done a really good job. We have unit meetings every week. They’ve done a really good job of taking notes, studying the film. And we keep it at a point where it’s always engaged in the meetings. It’s not just me presenting or me just talking in front of the unit. I’m asking those guys questions. Their face gets a chance to pop up on the screen. The other players see them. So I think that’s good. The social interaction that we are having on all the social media platforms has given us a way to take advantage of this time.”
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So how does that break down? How does the team manage its virtual time? How do the coaches?
It’s not easy, Gattis relents, because even with everything happening at home, there’s certainly a fair share of distractions. In that light, while there’s certainly a serious element to how the team handles its business in these current times, it isn’t trying to be ultra-serious at all times.
“Even though the NCAA gives you eight hours, we do some things as a unit, obviously, for probably about an hour and a half-per-week, but then it’s broken down individually,” Gattis said. “The rest of the coaches choose at their own discretion what they want to do with the rest of that time. You don’t always fill eight hours. Because obviously asking the kids to carve out eight hours of focused time where there’s no distracting texts, even for us coaches I think that’s a little bit of a challenge. You’re trying to go two hours a day and you’ve got kids screaming in the background, throwing things at the screen – but we keep it light. We have some fun.
“The best moment of the week is when we’re able to get to (be social), because you see kids faces light up, they start cracking jokes on each other. They’re just really (good friends with) each other, because I think that’s another aspect. One thing they’re missing, most importantly, is they’re missing teammates. They’re missing the part of the team where, when you join a team, that camaraderie, you know it’s a locker room that’s built in the dorm room. It’s built well beyond just when you join the football facilities. These guys are tenuous friends, they’re roommates, they hang out with each other, they go out to eat with each other. So they’re missing each other right now. Their friends (are) all across the country in different states and cities.
So, when we do have that time each week that we carve out that we’re gonna meet, that’s part of their week. They can’t wait to see each other, whether it’s FaceTime or whether it’s Zoom, whether it’s Google Hangouts. They’re dying to get back to Ann Arbor. A couple guys have already started moving back into town, and you can just tell how they miss it here.”
It’s not all fun and games, of course. And there’s something of a benefit to holding everything remotely the past month-and-a-half-plus.
Gattis notes that since the team hasn’t been able to hold practice, it’s still figured out how to install the offense. He explained the difference from how the team normally conducts the spring compared to what it’s done this offseason.
And while it’s not quite the same, it does seem one positive has come out of this situation.
“I think the one thing that this has given us is this has given us time and patience,” Gattis said. “Oftentimes in football with installs, you can kind of run through your install on one day, but you’ve gotta get to another install another day. In spring practice, you’ve got 15 practices, and typically, you like to break down our installation of the offense into about 7-8 installs. Well, you’ve gotta remember in spring, you’re gonna practice those every other day, then you have meetings, then you have a spring game, then you have some other days that you don’t really use your days quite effectively. So you’re in a little bit of a rush to install it all. Well, this has allowed us to take time. We’re covering one install per week. So we’ve really been able to dive into the details, dive into the whats, the whys. And really make sure that the kids don’t just know what their job and their responsibility is, but they also know what the other peoples’ jobs around them, so they can have a better understanding conceptually of what we’re asking everyone to do.”
There’s no telling as of yet when and how close to normal things will be in the coming weeks or months. But with these contingencies in place, the Wolverines staff seems to have found a way to keep moving forward regardless.