Boise State’s Harsin ‘optimistic’ there will be a 2020 college football season
Bryan Harsin had a cotton swab stuck up his nose and blood drawn from his left arm Wednesday, all in the name of college football.
Well, sort of.
Harsin and other members of Boise State’s football staff were tested for the COVID-19 active virus and antibodies at CrushTheCurveIdaho’s Ten Mile Crossing testing site with the hope that others throughout Idaho will follow suit.
Wide-spread testing will better equip decision-makers with the information they need to reopen the state’s economy, which includes Boise State football.
“To have coach Harsin come out here with his (staff), it means the world to us,” said Tommy Ahlquist, a CrushTheCurveIdaho board member and CEO of BVA Development. “He’s part of the solution.”
The Broncos missed the majority of spring practices after the Mountain West canceled competition for the remainder of the school year on March 12, and Gov. Brad Little issued his stay-home order on March 25. Like many Idahoans, the Broncos are eager for life to return to normal, but they want to make sure they can do so safely.
“They’re excited for the work they have to do for this season coming up. We’re all very optimistic about we’re going to play,” Harsin said. “It’s just, when do we get started? That’s the question, and we don’t have those answers. … That’s why we’re out here to help that, to help some of those decisions that others have to make.”
The Broncos have been directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Outside linebackers coach Zac Alley revealed in early April that he tested positive for the virus and spent one day in the hospital. Alley is doing well now, Harsin said, and no one else on the team is known to have contracted the virus.
Boise State coaches also will be required to take furloughs as the university deals with funding shortfalls due to the pandemic. Brad Larrondo, the football team’s chief of staff, is coordinating the schedule for those furloughs. Harsin said the furloughs will be staggered, and graduate assistants could be “elevated” to help fill in for furloughed coaches.
“We’ll make it work for us,” Harsin said. “We’ll make it a positive. We always do.”
While managing his team from afar, Harsin remains optimistic that the 2020 college football season will happen. But he acknowledges there are more questions than answers right now.
“I’m an optimist that way as far as us being able to play. I think we could get players back on campus, students back on campus, people back in the community doing what we all want to be doing,” Harsin said. “We can start going towards that model of what it looks like. Right now the discussion is how many weeks does it take for a program to prepare to play? Is it eight weeks? Is it six weeks? Is it four weeks?
“There’s all these different models that they’re talking about right now, and there’s a lot of really good information behind it. But at the end of the day, it’s as much time as we can get to prepare our guys.”
Boise State is scheduled to open the 2020 season against Georgia Southern on Sept. 5 at Albertsons Stadium.
Harsin: Getting drafted just the first step
Harsin said he was “excited” to see Boise State’s Ezra Cleveland (second round), Curtis Weaver (fifth round) and John Hightower (fifth round) hear their names called in the 2020 NFL Draft. It’s a rare opportunity most college football players never get.
“Every single one of our guys that gets a chance to play in the NFL,” Harsin said, “I hope they all expect and know from being in our program, this is just getting your foot in the door, now go put in the work.”
Harsin said he considers Cleveland to be a “first-round talent,” but he wasn’t sure why Weaver slipped as far as he did.
“If I knew those answers, I would be in the NFL. I would be a GM. I would get every single guy and we’d win the Super Bowl every year if I knew all those answers,” Harsin said. “… I know this: Curtis is excited. I know he’s gonna go out there and work his tail off. I know this is gonna give him an even bigger chip and edge.”
Broncos add to 2020 class
Jaylen Clark, who announced his verbal commit to the Broncos on Tuesday, officially signed with the football team on Friday.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound defensive back from Lincoln High in Tacoma, Washington, is slated to join the Broncos this summer.
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
