Boise State football coaches formulating a plan for players to start returning on June 1
Now that the NCAA has set June 1 as the date student-athletes can begin returning to campus, the Boise State football coaching staff is busy formulating a plan for how to do so safely as the country continues to battle the spread of coronavirus.
Broncos’ coach Bryan Harsin said during a conference call with reporters Thursday he has helped write and review upwards of 30 plans. They’re still in the early stages, but Harsin said not to expect the whole team back on June 1.
“I think everyone knows that June 1 is not going to be the day that everything just gets back to normal and we get back into our three lifting groups and go out there and run,” Harsin said. “It’s going to be a process, and that’s being worked on right now.”
There’s no immediate plan for the staff to begin trickling back into the facilities, but Harsin said that could begin happening in the next week. He said 35 players are already in town, and the players that return to campus first will be veterans, most of whom already have off-campus housing. Freshmen requiring on-campus housing won’t begin arriving until July.
“However they migrate here, it’s going to happen in stages,” Harsin said. “There is only so many guys you can handle at one time. … I think everyone’s take is going to be a little different on that.”
On Wednesday, Wyoming Athletic Director Tom Burman said athletes will begin arriving on June 1 but will have to quarantine for 14 days.
That is one of the many questions Boise State’s staff is wrestling with. There are also concerns over containing the spread of the virus in the weight room and locker room, testing players and staff members and simply how to train for a contact sport while maintaining some semblance of social distancing.
Harsin didn’t have all the answers on Thursday, but he said he and members of his staff have consulted team doctors, outside health professionals and colleagues outside the program in search of answers. He added the team will follow the advice and protocols set in Idaho’s multi-stage plan to reopen the state.
“The one thing with everybody in college athletics right now is we’ve got to do it right,” Harsin said. “We kind of get this one shot to really get back.”
Idaho is currently in Stage 2 of its reopening process, which restricts gatherings to fewer than 10 people where “appropriate physical distancing and precautionary measures are observed.” Visitors from outside the state are also encouraged to self-quarantine for 14 days.
The self-quarantine for visitors will go away if Idaho enters Stage 3 as scheduled May 30, but large gatherings are still limited to 50 people. If there’s no significant increase in cases and all criteria are met, the state is scheduled to enter Stage 4 on June 13, which will allow for gatherings of more than 50 people
During a radio interview with KBOI on Wednesday, Idaho Gov. Brad Little sounded pretty confident the Broncos could not only get back on campus but host games in the fall.
“We can play the games, no problem,” Little said. “And, of course, Boise State is pretty dependent on that TV revenue. … But the question is how big of a crowd can we have? We’ll continue to work on that.”
Boise State is scheduled to open the season Sept. 5 at home against Georgia Southern, and Air Force is supposed to be in town the following weekend. A home game against Florida State follows Sept. 19, and the Broncos travel across the country to face Marshall on Sept. 25.
“I don’t know anyone who is saying large sporting events are going to be the same as they were before,” Little said. “It will depend on how well we’re doing in Idaho.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 4:32 PM.
