(Stats Perform) – The uncertainty of when they will be back at campus, back on the field together, back to a familiar routine that leads to the start of the season is harder than any preseason camp in sweaty August or a linebacker’s bone-jarring tackle.
The Austin Peay Governors are dealing with that anxiety as best they can while the COVID-19 pandemic threatens the 2020 campaign, like in other sports.
“You hear all the different models that are out there, you hear all the hearsay and everybody’s opinion,” said Mark Hudspeth, the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference coach of the year, “but, at the end of the day, nothing is set. And as coaches and players, we’re all creatures of habit, we all are structured where we like a timetable. You give us a date to be there, we’re going to be there, we’re going to be prepared.”
Hudspeth, starting quarterback Jeremiah Oatsvall and first-team All-America defensive back Kordell Jackson were talking football again on Tuesday, during a conference call with members of the media. But X’s and O’s or building off last year’s share of the OVC title and first-ever appearance in the FCS playoffs were hardly the main topics. The Governors, like so many people worldwide, are struggling to put into words how their lives have been turned upside.
“Do I want (the season) to start on time? Yes,” Hudspeth said. “Do I do think it could start on time? Yes, I do. But do I think there’s a really good chance that it could be delayed? Yes.
“The No. 1 thing, though, for me is the health and safety of my players. If that means being delayed for them to be safe, and our staff to be safe, and our sports staff and everybody to be safe, then I’m all for that.”
Austin Peay, which returns 13 starters from an 11-4 team that set the school record for wins, is scheduled to play in one of the season’s first games, a Week Zero matchup (there are only nine in Division I) against Central Arkansas on Aug. 29 in Montgomery, Alabama. It may not happen – there’s growing concerns across college football the season will be shortened and pushed back, even by months.
While they await answers, players are training on their own, staying in touch with each other from a distance and finishing the spring semester remotely.
“I think this is a big time where teams can separate themselves,” said Oatsvall, who was last year’s season-opening quarterback before suffering a season-ending injury in the second game. “Some teams will use this as a crutch and say, ‘I don’t have the resources that I need. I’m not going to work out, I’m not going to work on my craft.’ From talking to our guys, Kordell especially on the defensive end – I know he’s getting those guys right – I’ve been talking with the leaders of the offensive line, the running backs, tight ends and receivers to make sure that those guys are doing right. … I think this is a really player-led team. We’re really motivated.”
Hudspeth said his job is put in perspective by the fact he’s concerned about a football program when doctors, nurses and first responders are trying to save lives.
He doesn’t want a return to football until coronavirus is under control and testing will assure everybody’s safety.
“If you don’t have that in place and you don’t even have like a vaccine in place,” Hudspeth said, “I don’t think they can start the season, and I don’t think they will until they have some more definite answers.”
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