BOWLING GREEN — There is no guarantee that there will be football this fall in Bowling Green or elsewhere, but for now, the Falcons are forging ahead with small-group workouts.
With mandatory workouts on track to begin next week, Bowling Green plans to continue training in segments only for at least the next month.
Bowling Green head coach Scot Loeffler said Thursday that the Falcons were in "great shape" after the first two rounds of coronavirus testing, but also that he does not anticipate getting the full team together until training camp at the earliest.
For now, Bowling Green's players are training in an alternate weight room — all of BG's equipment was moved to Perry Fieldhouse for more space — with plans for slightly larger groups to take part in outdoor conditioning next week. BGSU will continue to hold all meetings virtually, Loeffler said.
"It's multiple based on what we're doing," Loeffler said. "The lifting portion is anywhere between 10 to 15 guys, and the running part, because we're going to be outside, is going to be more toward 30-ish. We'll be extremely spread out, it's going to be outside, and we'll use all the fields to make sure that we're social distancing properly and all that other stuff."
Ohio State, the Falcons' first scheduled opponent for the 2020 season, announced Wednesday evening that it was temporarily suspending workouts for seven sports, including football, as a precaution after its most recent round of testing. The Big Ten announced Thursday that it would play only conference games if football is played this fall.
Also Wednesday, the Ivy League announced it would not play sports for the remainder of 2020, while the University of North Carolina halted its workouts due to a cluster of positive tests.
Closer to home, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared Wood County a Level 3 county, marking "very high exposure and spread.” The declaration comes with mask requirements, with one of the exceptions being distanced exercising.
For all of the variable that come with preparing for football during the pandemic, Loeffler said BG has to adhere to its procedures regarding training.
"What we can control is making sure we're doing a good job off the field maintaining our bubbles so we don't contract or give the virus to anyone," Loeffler said. “We've just got to put our full concentration on worrying on what we can do.”
Loeffler said he still has not seen the Falcons players since their spring season was called off nearly four months ago. Bowling Green was less than a week into spring practice when all activities were put to a stop on March 12.
Should everything continue as planned this summer, Bowling Green would go through mandatory workouts, then report for training camp during the first full week of August.
Loeffler said his primary worry centers around formal practices for a contact sport.
"My biggest concern is that, as we all know, we put our hands on each other in football,” Loeffler said. “I don't know how you solve the practice piece, and I don't think you can. I think that's impossible. It's a contact sport.
“We can do a great job with social distancing, and we will, but at the end of the day, we get in the huddle together on the sideline. We run plays and we put our hands on each other, and the coaches are instructing. That portion of it, I don't think anybody in the country has figured out, nor will they figure out."
As doubts about the viability of the fall season have risen in recent days, Loeffler said the Falcons will keep preparing for the normal schedule while taking additional precautions.
"There's a lot of crazy stuff going on in the college-football world, and we have zero control over that — zero," Loeffler said. "We have to make sure we're just worried about us for right now."
First Published July 9, 2020, 8:26 p.m.
