Hutchinson clears way for Arkansas to resume sports going again
After the NCAA’s announcement that it had no objection to players coming back to campuses, the SEC is expected to follow along Friday and the state of Arkansas jumped in, too.
The state part is important because the SEC is still throwing out the disclaimer that schools have to follow the guidelines in each state.
First, though, Gov. Asa Hutchinson stepped to the microphone in Little Rock on a day with 455 new cases reported that probably isn’t that alarming when you go inside the numbers.
Increased testing leads to positive results. That’s why I don’t pay much attention to the test results. The only numbers I go to are deaths and hospitalizations.
Of the 455 new positive results announced, 226 were not a data dump from some previous tests and, as it was reported, the result of increased testing. That number is probably going to continue going up, by the way.
“Life goes on,” Hutchinson said in his daily press briefing. “We’ve been measured about lifting restrictions gradually so we can measure where we are.”
While the state was one of the few to not have any required sheltering rules, don’t expect the state to suddenly start locking things down.
“My belief is we’re not going to go back to it and further shut down our economy,” Hutchinson said. “We’re going to have to learn to manage this economy and stop the spread of the virus. You’ve got to do those two things simultaneously.”
As for colleges and universities, it appears the governor and his people are going to figure out a way to have them back.
“I want them to open up and have as normal of a class structure as possible,” Hutchinson said. “It will be a statewide approach.”
Arkansas’ guidelines for sports teams to resume practice contain a lot of staying away from each other but balls will be allowed, which was a big concern from coaches.
The biggest part of the guidelines are that equipment can be used and team practices for football, basketball and “contact” sports is permitted with distancing requirements and disinfecting the equipment.
Competition will be allowed starting June 1 for baseball, softball, gymnastics, track and swimming.
They did discourage people over the age of 65 from participating.
Everybody will be asked how they’re feeling and if they’ve been around anybody that’s been sick. There will be temperature checks which are probably a waste of time as that can be defeated by anyone taking two or three aspirin.
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Players can start campus workouts June 1, according to NCAA vote Wednesday
The first steps were taken to get sports back Wednesday as the news broke at Yahoo Sports and other places reporting the NCAA has said schools can start having players in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball back on campus starting June 1.
The window created is June 1-30, which allows everybody some wiggle room if there is a massive outbreak.
The guess here is that outbreak would have to be massive to shut everything down again. Don’t expect a couple of positive tests to shut anything down because each school will probably have a few.
The key to all of this really has been how to handle it since everything was shut down in mid-March without a single SEC baseball league game being played.
There will be “voluntary” workouts for the players. That’s in quotes because while the schools can’t force players to attend these workouts they also can’t force coaches to give playing time to players that just don’t want to show up.
The Southeastern Conference is expected to give a thumbs-up to members Friday as the NCAA’s move was one of the worst-kept secrets in sports.
Yahoo Sports reported that the Division I Council is expected to address sports other than football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball as soon as possible, but it’s expected within the next week.
Conferences, schools, governments and other places will, of course, have to give the go-ahead but the NCAA wanted to at least maintain the appearance of being in control of something with this news leaking out more than being announced.
There will be no NCAA mandate on required frequency of testing, according to the story at Yahoo Sports. Each school will have to develop protocols on the tests, which cost approximately $100 each.
“No one wants to get into that,” a source told Yahoo Sports. “They want to leave it to your own campus and state.”
Arkansas never had stay-at-home orders given by the state and many of the players stayed in Fayetteville during the shutdown.
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Young leaders could be key to Razorbacks turning football around, says Wright
Jarius Wright has a pretty good take on what’s required to get Arkansas football out of the ditch it’s been in for the last eight seasons and the leadership may have to come from some talented younger guys.
“They don’t put an age on leadership,” Wright said Wednesday morning with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas. “That doesn’t matter.”
It was his high school coach at Warren, Bo Hembree, who pointed out before Wright played a down with the Razorbacks his football IQ. Bobby Petrino agreed.
That know-how about football translated into leadership on the field from early on in his career.
“When I stepped in I always wanted to be a leader,” Wright said. “I didn’t say a lot but I tried to show it by example.”
A lot of that young leadership could come from young receivers like Trey Knox and Treylon Burks. Throw in an experienced quarterback in Feleipe Franks and it’s off to a good start.
“Coach (Sam) Pittman is an offensive line guru so we’re going to be fine on offense up front,” Wright said.
It comes down to having that right mix of players that can actually follow through on a lot of what previous coaches talked about but never got players to actually buy in.
“You have to get the right type of guys, the right type of leaders and guys who put it on the line for each other,” Wright said. “You have to be able to trust each other. You have to be able to look at each other and know the guy beside you is going to do his job. That just comes with the right type of guys.”
But it starts at the top with the guy in charge and Pittman has impressed Wright so far.
“Number one the right coach,” Wright said about what it takes to turn things around. “I think we have that set in place. He’s got the right coaches around him set in place.”
Through eight seasons in the NFL with Minnesota and Carolina, Wright knows having the right assistant coaches is a huge key.
“A lot of it is the right coaching, the right teaching and the right things,” he said.
Wright’s relationship with Burks
When you come from Warren, just about everybody knows everybody else to some extent.
No exception with Wright and Burks.
“I basically watched Treylon grow up as a little kid,” Wright said. “Me and his uncle were pretty good friends and hung out a lot each and every day. I got to watch him grow up and it’s like we’re almost family.”
The price for players turning things around
When Wright was a freshman in 2008 the Hogs were 5-7 that included a big comeback win over LSU in War Memorial Stadium the day after Thanksgiving.
“We all knew we could have had a better year,” he said. “We knew it was a building process and we understood that. We also knew what losing felt like and we knew this next year we didn’t want to lose. We don’t like the feeling of losing. It was contagious and the team wanted to win.”
They improved to 8-5 in 2009 then went on a 21-5 run. It didn’t come easy.
“A lot of blood, sweat and tears … that’s for sure,” Wright said of the Hogs’ price to start winning. “I can honestly say there were times that I didn’t know if I wanted to play football anymore. It came to that as far as conditioning, working out each and every day.
“As a young kid it can be a little overwhelming. We worked hard. It wasn’t easy at all. We pushed each other to work hard and we wanted to win.”
Coming up just short in senior season
The last time the Hogs were in the race for the national championship was 2011, but they finished third in the SEC West after losing in the final week to LSU.
The loss still stings.
“We should have played in the national championship game that year,” Wright said. “We should have beaten LSU when we jumped out 14 at LSU. That was the same year LSU and Alabama played in the national championship game and if we’d won (against LSU) we wouldn’t have had to play in the SEC Championship and that would have been us (in the title game). I know it’s history now, but we definitely had opportunities.”
Wright understands now Petrino’s constant pressure
Petrino’s steady barrage on the players during practice each week made things tough on them and it too Wright awhile to actually take the positives from it
“Then I didn’t like it, but now as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized he prepared you for everyday life,” he said. “It was more than football. I didn’t realize the big picture at the time but he prepared you for rough times. This might sound crazy comparing football to life, but he definitely made you a tougher person.”
But he’s still not telling any Petrino stories, despite the fact he did the best impersonation of the former coach and once got caught. Petrino walked in during one of Wright’s “fake Petrino” deliveries.
“I don’t think I should share any of those,” Wright said, laughing. “I don’t think he’d be too happy. But I can tell you I never got it as bad as the quarterbacks. Just know there’s things we don’t want kids to hear.”
Not hearing much from teams during shutdown
After the radio interview Wright said he hasn’t heard a whole lot from NFL teams.
He played five seasons in the NFL and came close to playing in a Super Bowl in 2017. That was followed by a couple of years at Carolina.
Now he’s just waiting on a team to call, but that probably won’t happen until the NFL sets dates for training camps and starts talking to players.
Even without the current coronavirus shutdown the pace on that picks up in June.
Riley’s ‘ridiculous’ comment may end up being just a little off the mark
Bob Bowlsby managed Tuesday to grab a couple of headlines by once again appearing to wait until the bandwagon gets rolling before jumping under it, most people missed the fact we’re probably going to have football.
The Big 12’s man in charge too often sounds like a politician instead of a leader.
With everybody expecting the NCAA to announce Wednesday that players can return to campuses in June for those “voluntary” workouts, Bowlsby was trying to hedge his comments.
“If we’re not, we’re looking at probably having to delay the season a little bit,” he told ESPN, “but it’s too early to know if we’re going to be able to make that or not.”
You’ll notice he’s not saying — or even hinting — that there won’t be a season. It’s looking more and more like as common sense begins to return to some folks that we’re going to have college football.
And it won’t be shut down if there’s a few positive tests.
As Laura Rutledge pointed out on ESPN, the question of IF there will be football is fading fast as the questions now are starting to focus more on how schools deal with all of the safety precautions they’ll have to take.
Teams are going to handle it much the same way they’ve handled the flu. The disclaimer here is nobody is saying it’s the same thing, but that’s the way they’re going to handle it which is where I’ve kinda figured this whole deal was going to end up being handled.
Exactly what the facts are appears to rest with what scientist you want to believe.
Everything on this is moving fast. The facts are vaccines and treatments are being fast-tracked unlike anything I’ve seen.
And I’m old. I was born during the Asian Flu pandemic (that killed over a million people worldwide) and was in junior high during the Hong Kong Flu pandemic (another one that killed over a million people) and there wasn’t this sort of widespread panic.
Certainly no coaches said anything like Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley did last week.
“All the talk about these schools wanting to bring players back on June 1 is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard,” Riley said in a Zoom chat with reporters. “We’ve got to be patient. We have one good shot at it.”
Considering he’s had a team in the College Football Playoff every year has given him the confidence to wax poetic on the fast-moving target this whole coronavirus thing has become.
Shoot, even Notre Dame announced Tuesday it’s opening up the campus for fall classes, which means — at least in theory — the game with Arkansas on Sept. 12 is still on go.
The SEC is expected to make an announcement Friday they are allowing workouts to resume sometime in June with safety precautions and restrictions.
And Riley shows that even the best coaches are better off staying in their lane.
Which, apparently, doesn’t include gazing into a crystal ball to predict future events in the real world.
