Pre-Camp Message Carrying More Variables Than Usual

Typically, a college football player will hear about his team’s season-opening opponent on a daily basis during the blistering heat of July workouts in preparation for the start of fall camp that commences every year in early August.

It serves as a form of motivation to get up one more bench rep, dig a little harder to finish strong on the last sprint of that day, or to simply get out into the sun and work after waking up with heavy legs and a cloudy focus. It’s fuel and it’s necessary.

Coaches also use it as a measuring stick: 80 days until UCF; 60 says until UCF; “Keep pushing, because you know UCF is…” and so on.

That message is a tougher pitch these days given the COVID-19 climate affecting literally every facet of American society. The narrow focus that has met each previous July includes a lot of company these days. Social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands, warnings about going places and with whom the players spend time with outside of football are harped on much more by North Carolina’s coaches than anything about the Tar Heels’ first scheduled opponent for this coming season.

At Central Florida in Orlando on Sept. 4 is still on, for now, and the Heels are preparing for the Knights, but complicating the players’ thinking is the obvious question if they will even play the game. Or a season. So that message requires some balancing by UNC Coach Mack Brown and his staff.

“What we’ve tried to do is be very transparent with them and overcommunicate,” Brown said Tuesday during a Zoom Q&A session with the media. “So, any time I have some information, I go to our staff immediately and then I go to our players immediately. And we’ve tried even earlier in the process educate parents, and until we have more information we can’t do that.

“But we’ve just tried to tell them, we’re planning on playing our regular season as of now, that’s all we’ve been told. ‘So do the best job that you can do to prepare like you would normally prepare for us to start on Aug. 6.’”

August 6 is when the Tar Heels are slated to begin fall camp, though they are now into the second phase of the NCAA-approved six-week return that includes 20 hours a week coached and monitored by the staff.

Further convoluting matters is that some Tar Heels recently tested positive for COVID-19 and all football-related activities were shut down at-least for a week July 8. The Heels returned to practice July 16 and have not reported any positives since. Brown said by the end of this week, the team should be nearly at 100 percent.

So juggling the football mentality of getting guys ready for battle while also easing concerns they may have about essentially opting out of the season for fear of the virus is a delicate one, but it’s being pushed daily by the staff.

“We’ve also told them, and I think it’s also important to tell your players they don’t have to play if they don’t feel comfortable,” Brown said. “And it’s important that they believe you. There’s a lot of macho in young people and young men in college football and they don’t want their buddy making fun of them, so we have said, ‘This is real and this is real stuff. And if you are uncomfortable at all and anxious, if you want to miss workouts and if you don’t want to play, let’s do it.’”

The program’s culture is aiding the staff in this quest. Discussions about the virus as well as race relations the past few months have allowed for open dialogue among the players and coaches. Brown fosters an environment that encourages players to speak their minds without repercussion, thus making it easier for anyone who might want to sit out the season.

It also helps that any player who chooses to would retain their scholarship and remain on the team. Brown says no players have asked out of the season.

Collectively, and from a purely football perspective, their focus is a UCF program that has won 35 games over the last three seasons, and next up a week later is Auburn in Atlanta. This shapes up as one of the most important opening two games in program history considering the soaring expectations of the Tar Heels and the opportunity these two games present. Plenty could be at stake.

And, it’s not like the COVID crisis isn’t affecting the Knights, Tigers and every other program in the nation. They’re all in the same boat right now, but perhaps the teams that are the most focused right now will be the ones that get off to the best starts.

“We can only prepare for what we know is there right now,” Brown said. “And right now, we have not been told anything different about the season, and we’re planning on starting on time.”