{"id":29160,"date":"2020-04-10T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=29160"},"modified":"2020-04-10T09:46:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T13:46:30","slug":"29160-keeping-ucla-together-during-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/04\/10\/29160-keeping-ucla-together-during-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping UCLA Together During A Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The country, and indeed the world, is in new territory in trying to get through the Covid-19 virus. In a less significant manner, the sports world is struggling to figure out what is next, when does it start, and what does it look like, in terms of potential games being played. So now for UCLA head coach Chip Kelly<\/strong>, it is about keeping UCLA together during a crisis<\/p>\n

This space has sometimes smirked at Kelly\u2019s so-often-used claim that he and his team are just trying to control the things that are within their control. But the UCLA coach met with the media Thursday via conference call. Now, the statement sounded less clich\u00e9 and more pragmatic under the current circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to weigh in on what my opinion is on how we should do that, (on current plans for college football in the Fall), because I am not well versed on infectious diseases. I\u2019ll leave that to the Dr. Fauci\u2019s<\/strong> of the world. I\u2019ve got a lot of faith. When I listen to him, he seems like he has a pretty good grasp on it,\u00a0so when he says \u2018Go,\u2019 we\u2019ll go.”<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/2020\/03\/06\/ucla-football-trying-to-regroup\/\"
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 27: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci.(Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Bruins were just two weeks into Spring camp<\/a>, and then getting ready to take a pause for the academic Spring Break, when everything came to a screeching halt. The media showed up for the regularly scheduled media availability with Kelly when we saw that all players were being pulled off the practice field and the media relations staff told us all practices were postponed until further notice. That led to the UCLA announcement of a more long-term postponements for all Spring sports. Then came the Pac 12, and finally the NCAA.<\/p>\n

Who Knows What Is Next?<\/h3>\n

Whether there is a 2020 college football season is anyone\u2019s guess. Taking the same schedule as normal is less likely. With each state handling their own shutdowns or stay-home orders in different ways, there is no one answer. Each state is going through it on its schedule, or actually the virus\u2019 schedule. That makes one unifying answer for a national landscape game like college football impossible as we near mid-April.<\/p>\n

Kelly said he and his staff have no choice but to prepare as though there is going to be a season, so that they do not get caught flat-footed by the constant changes in medical updates.<\/p>\n

So how do you maintain a college football team while everyone is at home in some form of quarantine. It\u2019s not easy. \u201cIt\u2019s managing your players. Making sure that they are on track and their routine is accountable,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

Maintaining A Daily Routine<\/h3>\n

Like every college across the country, UCLA went to on-line class instruction. Kelly said he and his staff made sure all the players had the equipment and facilities at home needed to take the classes. He said the position coaches check in with their players to make sure they are staying up in their classwork. They also go over at-home workouts.<\/p>\n

Kelly said they also do what he called \u201cmental health\u201d checkups on all the players. \u201cHow are they doing? Is there anybody in their family that is affected by this? Or anybody that is close to them? How do we handle that? It\u2019s been coordinating and making sure our guys have a good foundation so they can succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly is working from home. He says he has not been in his office at the Wasserman Center in a couple of weeks. He meets with the coaches via Zoom, and then staff meets with their players in the same fashion several times a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou prepare like you are going to play a season.\u201d He said what they cannot afford to do, as players working out on their own, or as coaches trying to keep them all focused is assume an indefinite suspension, and then someone decides it is time to open camp, or practice, or school. Kelly said he estimates the Bruins would need six weeks of practice and workout time prior to playing a game. He said most of that would be spent doing more game-ready fitness training with the strength and conditioning staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll prepare like there is going to be a season, but I will leave, are we going to play to the experts. There\u2019s medical experts that understand this a whole lot better than any football coach ever will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who Makes The Call<\/h3>\n

Clearly, big picture perspective is important to Kelly right now also. He said he spoke earlier in the week to ESPN analyst Lee Corso. He said the former college coach told him the game of football is not more important than one person\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

That segues into the topic being discussed in some parts of the country of playing games with no fans. It is a non-starter for Kelly. \u201cIf it is not safe for fans to attend the game, then I don\u2019t know why it would be safe for players to participate in the game. \u201c<\/p>\n

Because any decision to re-open schools is going to be done on a state by state basis, the NCAA can issue statements as it wishes, but Kelly says it is the individual governors that will have the real final say. \u201cThe NCAA may weigh in on it, but the governors of the states and the mayors are the ones that are going to tell you when you can do it. The NCAA can say anything. You guys are all going back. But if Governor Newsom says you are not going back, then you are not going back.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the staff and the players are just, as he put it, working to \u201ccontrol the controllable.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The country, and indeed the world, is in new territory in trying to get through the Covid-19 virus. In a less significant manner, the sports world is struggling to figure out what is next, when does it start, and what does it look like, in terms of potential games being played. So now for UCLA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[2539,79,6429,5383,208],"class_list":["post-29160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-pac12","tag-chip-kelly","tag-college-football","tag-dr-anthony-fauci","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-ucla-bruins"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}