How are football programs being impacted by the pandemic?

Those are the operative three words being uttered by so many people across the globe as we all try to figure out what's ahead as a pandemic engulfs the world.

Spack's job is to coach football at Illinois State. But the former Purdue linebacker and long-time Boilermaker assistant knows football is the least of the worries for humanity at this historic time.

“This is bigger than just football,” said Spack. “It’s about people’s health, not just your players. It’s your coaching staff and staff and all the families involved. This could really blow up into a bad situation. You don’t want to put anybody at risk. Our spring sports were asked not to participate, and we are gonna have spring practice? We couldn’t do that.”

So--like every other school in the country--spring ball was given the kibosh at Illinois State. Still, Spack has a job to do. And, he wants to make sure he's doing it well during these unprecedented times. He has no guidebook. This is unchartered territory for Spack and all football coaches.

Coaching staffs have been forced to come up with alternatives to keep their teams on track as if a 2020 season will be played. Spack, who spent 16 seasons in West Lafayette as a Boilermaker assistant coach under Jim Colletto (1991-94) and Joe Tiller (1997-2008), has a plan. Will it all work?

"I don't know," he said.

Spack is entering his 12th season at Illinois State with an 84-50 record, primed to become the program’s all-time winningest coach this year. He has made five FCS playoff appearances, advancing to the title game in 2014. Spack’s 2020 squad should be among the best in an always-rugged Missouri Valley Conference and push for a deep run in the FCS playoffs.

But Spack’s squad never even suited up for spring drills, which were to begin March 15 in Normal, Ill. So, he has had to radically alter his approach this spring for the Redbirds as the nation deals with the coronavirus pandemic that has no end in sight and threatens the coming season.

“I am hopeful we have a season,” he said. “But I am getting less hopeful that we won’t have at least some type of modification to the lead up to the season and to the season.

"I just don't know. No one does."

Spack discussed how this new “normal” will impact college football programs on a variety of levels.

COACHING

“We have learned to use the technology around us to educate our players. We use an app called Zoom to communicate with our players. We meet once a day on Zoom to go over what our players are doing to touch base to help them with issues.

“Our coaches are doing their position meetings, as usual. We are installing our offense, special teams. How does Zoom work? You send an invite out to, say, the running backs. They have an app on their phone. They hit that invite and everyone comes up. We can talk back and forth.”

WORKOUTS

“We anticipated the first thing to close would be our fitness facilities. We can’t use our weight room. They are back at home. They are all gone. They were told not to come back. They had to leave campus. We have alternative workouts through isolation and plyometrics. Our guys are having a hard time trying to find a place to lift.

“Our strength coach sent out one workout for players who have access to a weight room and another workout for players without a weight room. But it’s hard for players to really push themselves without having someone by them to compete with.

“We are gonna see who likes football by seeing who comes back in shape.”

INDIVIDUAL WORK

“Our position coaches send drills for their players to do over the phone on Zoom. Players can take selfies of themselves to send to coaches to make sure they are doing things right. Coaches are even sending footage of how NFL players do some movements. We are breaking it down to the very minute process, where we want our feet placed and how to get in and out of stances.

“We give them an individual period where they can go through their football drills by themselves. Some things, you can’t do without a partner. We also are showing them film from last year. We do it all on their phones or computers. We even can do voice-overs and send it to them.”

ACADEMICS

“We have some students who are anxious about taking all on-line courses, being able to do this from home. Not having any help to get on-line or whatever. But once they get through this first week, I think there will be some comfort. Could we go to pass/fail in some courses? Some could have that option. I am not sure how that will work yet.

“It is gonna be difficult for us to help our kids with academics. We have tutor assignments set up on Zoom. They all have time slots to go in there for tutoring. They are busy during the day. We wanna make sure no one falls through the cracks.

“People who can navigate this will be the ones who are successful. It takes maturity and discipline.”

FUTURE OF SPRING FOOTBALL

“The powers-that-be would like to eliminate or modify spring ball. If we have a normal summer schedule and start training by June 1, and the games look the same in the fall, what will happen to spring practice? I think they wanna modify it because of player safety. The risks of spring football outweigh the rewards. Maybe we would go to OTA-type practices in the spring. You can get bad injuries in the spring with full-contact practices. I think it would be a mistake for young players not to have contact. Players still can hurt a knee doing non-contact work.”

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START OF 2020 SEASON

“To start the season on time, the latest we probably could start training is the middle of July. Maybe six weeks to get ready, conditioning the first couple weeks. Take a week off, and come back for a four-week training camp with pads, etc. Then, you wouldn’t have to alter the start of the season. If you didn’t begin until August 1, I think you’d have to alter the start of the season.

“Football players need time to train. Coach Tiller used to always say there is strength training, cardiovascular training and in football, there is hitting conditioning. You have to have some of that in practice. The first time you hit can’t be in your first game.

“If we had to delay the season, maybe we would have to cut some non-conference games.

“Some have suggested having a spring practice in July. That’s the worst thing you can do now. You would be cramming a bunch of stuff into a short period of time which could expose players to injury. You don’t want to push and over use guys who could get hurt. Player safety is important.”

IMPACT ON NEW COACHES

“This will make things difficult for coaches in their first year on a job, or staffs trying to install new systems. It’s a disadvantage, I think. We don’t have any new coaches. We are fortunate. At least Purdue got eight practices in (for new defensive coordinator Bob Diaco).

“If this had happened last year, it would have been bad for us because we were a young team. But now, we have an experienced team, so it’s a bit easier for us to do this. We have 17 starters back. No doubt, schools with veteran teams should be able to deal with distance learning and coaching better than younger teams.”

INJURED PLAYERS

“We have eight guys sitting our with surgeries. They can’t rehab here. We had to send them home and get things set up at rehab places in their home areas. One is our QB, who had an ACL. This isn’t ideal.”

GAMES WITH NO FANS

“If you are in school, and you have 100 guys practicing and you have 60 of your guys playing 60 guys from another school, sweating, and passing stuff along, you are gonna take a risk. If you are in school with students on campus, why not put 100,000 people in the stands? It’s either all or nothing, I think.”

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