Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Safety first as Herd camp gets underway
8/2/2020 12:12:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd
Opening weekend of practice features plenty of the unusual
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall's four quarterbacks – Joel Lambiotte, Eli Sammons, Grant Wells and Luke Zban – stood near the end zone on the Shewey Building side of Joan C. Edwards Stadium during the first day of preseason practice Friday afternoon.
Their offensive coordinator and position coach, Tim Cramsey, had some words of advice for the young quarterbacks.
"Louder," he said.
Cramsey, now in his third season at Marshall, wanted his quarterbacks to speak up, but not necessarily because the quartet of signal-callers weren't operating at the same volume that had worked for them in the past. Now, operating under strict safety guidelines because of the coronavirus pandemic, the quarterbacks had clear shields attached to the face masks of the helmet, so their words had an extra layer to cut through in order to reach their teammates.
This is one example during the first two days of fall camp – Friday was outdoors, but Saturday's session was pushed into the indoor facility because of intermittent thunderstorms – that showed there will be quite a bit of an adjustment. The Marshall football program's season opener remains set for Aug. 29 at East Carolina, so this weekend marked the official start of camp after nearly two months of voluntary workouts and then, last month, mandatory workouts. There are currently zero positive cases of coronavirus on the football team, and that is a tribute to the MU staff members who came up with safety guidelines for the student-athletes to follow, and the strict adherence to those guidelines by the student-athletes.
During practices Friday and Saturday, white poles represented stations separated by at least six feet. At those stations, players could remove their helmets and hydrate. Everywhere else, players kept helmets – all equipped with safety shields – on. Staff members brought them individual cups of water. Others walked around the facility with hand sanitizer to supply it when necessary. Coaches kept face coverings – black gaiters peppered with the green Marshall logo – over their mouth and nose while coaching on the field.
"This is the first time for all of us," Thundering Herd head coach Doc Holliday said. "We've never done a press conference like this before; we've never done a practice like this before. We have to worry about what we can control. We have to take it one day at a time."
"We're not in a bubble," Holliday added. "We have to create our own bubble and that's hard to do."
This is, indeed, an odd time with many challenges. The Herd football program had spring football drills canceled before it began at the outset of the pandemic. That means coaches lost five weeks and 15 practices to assess talent, and the staff relied on technology to continue to develop players mentally while in-person activities were suspended. The strength and conditioning staff went months without in-person contact with players, so workouts were conducted through the social media website Instagram, although not all student-athletes had the same access to the same equipment. Strength and conditioning coach Luke Day developed workouts that players could find adaptable to their situations at home.
"We have been doing a lot of virtual stuff since back in March," Holliday said. "Our kids, football-wise, as far as getting lined up and knowing where to go, I don't think we're behind at all. I thought Luke did a great job in the offseason as far as the weight room is concerned, getting them ready to come out and do what they did today. You miss spring ball because you weren't out there blocking and tackling and throwing the ball around."
The student-athletes, to their credit, have handled the adversity in admirable fashion. They returned to campus May 20, self-isolated and then went through COVID-19 testing and physicals. Week 0 – the first weekend of games in college football – is still set for this month, and Marshall is still on schedule to open the 2020 season. If the Herd is going to travel to Greenville, North Carolina, later this month and kick off the season, safety is paramount, no matter how unusual it all seems to be.
"It sure hasn't been normal," said Grant Wells, a redshirt freshman who is competing for the starting quarterback job. "We're trying to take it day by day. We're trying to be as safe as possible."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
