This upcoming season is setting up to be odd, like last night’s report from Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel that the ACC might add the Irish as their Plus 1 in the 2020 season. Another odd aspect will be how coaches handle the social distancing during practices and games. ESPN’s Heather Dinich got an inside look at how Brian Kelly and his coaching staff will handle trying to properly distance themselves from the players.
Dinich reports that “the coaches will be wearing a fitted, clear, plastic face mask so the players will be able to see their facial expressions… and the coordinators and coach Brian Kelly will wear microphones to help cast their voices.” This will not be what the players are used to but for this season and potentially going forward it is a warranted change.
Another change will be how the team sets up their positional group meetings. Dinich reports that the Irish intend on still having their meetings in person, but “the offensive linemen will have to use the full team meeting room instead of their usual, smaller space, and a room that was once divided with a partition for the defensive line and linebackers is now wide open for an entire position group. What was once a recruiting lounge is now a defensive back meeting room.” As the Notre Dame Football program tries to adhere to CDC rules, this once again makes sense. The safety of the players and coaches is at the top of the Irish’s concerns, as it very well should be.
What about on-field activities? We all know that football is played is a vacuum, most players have to be in close proximity to each other, but the Irish have a plan. Kelly told Dinich that “we have to practice football. We’re going to be smart, and we’re going to do the thing necessary as coaches, but the players have to be able to be prepared to play the game when the game is ready to be played. When I look at the schedule that I put together, there are some tweaks relative to how we’re teaching, but when it comes to the fundamentals of the game, they will be taught in the same fashion that I’ve taught them for 30 years.” It’s hard to argue Kelly’s logic on teaching the team fundamentals, hitting blocking sleds and tackling dummies goes only so far.
As long as the program continues to be smart and safe regarding COVID-19, the football team will continue to be one of the very few that have yet to have any positive tests. On Wednesday Michigan State shut down their voluntary workouts due to a coach testing positive, while many other schools across the country have had to do the same. So far, the Irish have done fantastic with their players doing the right things on and off the field in preparation for a wild 2020 season.