BC Coaches Analyzing Full Package For Player Safety

Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley couldn't contain the emotion splashing across his face. He was sitting in his office on campus, and the seriousness of the moment registered properly. A raw electricity zapped effortlessly through his virtual call with the gathered media, and his unbridled optimism, severely tested over the previous 15 weeks, spilled out when he spoke about meeting with his team for the first time.

"I don't know how I would've felt in a normal situation," Hafley said. "I was extremely excited to see everyone walk back into our socially-distanced team meeting. Nobody knew if we'd be back in this situation. You sit there at night, not sleeping, wondering if we'd be back in June, July, or August, or if football would be (moved) to the spring, but now we're back. So, it's exciting just to get around the staff and the players."

It was one of the lasting images of last week's football move-in day at Boston College. The day brought the Eagles back to Chestnut Hill for the first time since the abrupt cancellation of their spring practice in March. Over the next 15 weeks, sports themselves froze at an overall level as the world ground to a halt. Last week, the thought of BC football returning to the gridiron electrified fans and supporters that the sport could somehow move forward, albeit in a fundamentally-altered state for the time being.

It brought happiness to the coaches, players, staff, and all those affiliated with BC, but it quickly subsided into a long-term, determined goal. It established the realization of an opening game against Syracuse on September 4 and began the fast-acting march towards a potential kickoff. It intermingled with the overall safety requirement in the ongoing COVID-19 world, meaning the Eagles imposed a mandatory two-week quarantine before proceeding to the next stages of its Return to Play program.

"Our guys are being asked to take precautions and be on their own for a period of time," head coach Jeff Hafley said. "The hope is that it will help us in our plan in the long run to move forward. The number one deal for us is that our players are safe and healthy before we do any football, and that's what we believe is the best way to do it."

Setting expectations was the first crucial step in returning Boston College to the gridiron, and the Eagles will undergo a round of COVID-19 testing on or around the eighth day of quarantine this week. It will be followed by further quarantine and isolation until the quarantine expires, at which point the coaching staff will begin the delicate process of gauging physical readiness against ongoing personal safety.

"We're going to have ups and downs," Hafley conceded. "There are going to be weeks where some kids do (contract the virus). We're going to have to learn from it and do the best we can. I would not say that I'm shocked (with positive tests nationally). Kids come back from all different areas, not knowing where they've been or who they've been around, and asymptomatic kids can still have it. Nothing would shock me, but we're trying to minimize all the risks."

Those risks include a completely different issue for coaches than in years past. The unprecedented backdrop of COVID-19 contains a separate timeline to prepare players for the physical rigors of football. In a normal year, player fitness is gauged on an ongoing strength and conditioning timeline before training camp molds bodies into a brand of football shape. Players then enter the first week of the season fully prepared for all of the taxes of a four-month regular season, both mentally and physically.

The ongoing pandemic shattered that cycle when it canceled spring training camp and sent football players home without warning. A carefully-monitored process disjointed and required even more attention to detail by strength and conditioning coaches. The result individualized approaches based on training availability. An advanced, scientific mentality of modern weight rooms remained, but everything else increased the degree of difficulty throughout a very different offseason schedule. That experience planted a cautious mentality in Hafley and his coaching staff when the team arrived in Chestnut Hill last week, and it placed full trust in the well-regarded abilities of head strength and conditioning coach Phil Matusz.

"If we rush into this thing, taking COVID aside, we're going to get more injuries than we've seen," Hafley said. "Sitting down with Coach Matusz and his staff will develop a plan to get the players ready in steps without rushing into it. That all goes back to making sure our players are safe, and he's going to do a great job with it.'

It's a paramount attitude for the coaching staff in their values and designates player safety as a multi-faceted attitude during a delicate period. The players and coaches are still meeting virtually during the two-week period, and the coaches are meeting in socially-distanced atmospheres to better prepare for the start of conditioning and contact.

Once the team is able to jump on, the coaches will continually tinker and respond in real time to the needs of the players. They remain mindful of any potential COVID impact on the team, and protocols are in place for further isolation and treatment of any player who might test positive. It's being balanced against the individual needs of position groups that train uniquely to ready for football.

"We have the two weeks before we do any football with the players at all," Hafley said. "(Matusz) did an incredible job over the break by sending out things to have guys voluntarily (work on). I was pleasantly surprised to see what the guys looked like when they returned. But if (their physical readiness) means we have to push football back to get them ready, then we'll do less X's and O's. If our guys can't run or hit or tackle properly, it doesn't matter what blitz or pass we run. That's going to be huge."

Boston College Athletics

BC Coaches Analyzing Full Package For Player Safety

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