Liberty’s 2020 football season is scheduled to kick off in Blacksburg against Virginia Tech on Sept. 5. There’s a little more than five months between now and then for the coronavirus pandemic to play out across the country, although Liberty head football coach Hugh Freeze and his staff are adjusting to current social distancing requirements to keep the Flames on schedule and the possibility of the 2020 football season being canceled.
“I think anything is possible right now because I don’t think any of us have been through anything like this,” Freeze said when asked if he’s thought about that possibility. “What is the end game? When is the end game? When do you say it’s time to return to the practice of a normal life for the sake of economy as opposed to the risk that is involved with health?”
These are questions that we are all asking ourselves now as we learn to adjust to life in the aftermath of the reality of COVID-19.
“I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions,” Freeze continued. “As much as we all love football and the football season is a good thing for our nation, it certainly is not worth the risk if we don’t have a control on this virus. I think that’s why all football coaches are stressing to their players, their fans, their families – let’s take this thing seriously so that we can hopefully get back to doing what we all love to do and love to watch.”
Virginia’s statewide stay-at-home order announced on Monday and effective immediately will run until June 10, 2020 in an attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The university has shifted to online classes for the remainder of the spring semester. All athletic-related events have been suspended until further notice, in accordance with ASUN guidance.
While current projections vary greatly in terms of severity and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects the virus will peak on May 17 in Virginia before declining quickly and running its course by early-July.
While the entire country sits at home and anxiously waits for a return to normalcy, Freeze’s job is to keep the players on task so when the all-clear is given, Liberty’s football program can fire back up with little lag time. That’s been easier said than done. In regularly-scheduled programming, the Flames would be in the fourth week of spring ball.
Now, his team is spread throughout the country, with some in Lynchburg but most at home, and the coaching staff is unable to meet with the players as frequently as if they were all on campus.
“We are allowed to have two hours a week with our kids via Microsoft Teams to do position meetings,” said Freeze.
But he cautions that the players are not likely to be in peak physical condition.
“They’re probably eating donuts and Burger King,” he quipped.
Following the conclusion of the spring practice, most football players return to campus all June and July as they go through workouts to prepare for fall camp in August. Freeze cautions that if the players don’t return to campus until the end of July or into August, the season will not be able to start on time.
“I don’t see how in the world the season could begin on time because you just couldn’t take the risk,” he explained. “If it continues to where players and universities are doing online, players are scattered – some home, some in the town. They wouldn’t be ready to perform at the level we need them to perform unless they got back here at least a month before fall camp began.”
A shortened 2020 football season or even a canceled one is something that was unimaginable just a few weeks ago, but as time goes on it seems to be more and more of a real possibility.
“It’s hard to imagine it,” said Freeze, “but when you see people that have some credibility say that this is a real possibility, and they may have access to something I don’t, it certainly is concerning.”
