Fresno State takes step toward Oct. 24 football opener. Here’s what’s left to make it happen
Fresno State can move ahead with football players working out and practicing in larger groups and throwing around a football, with Fresno County moving forward from purple to red on the state’s color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy on Tuesday.
But contact in practice still is prohibited and remains a question during the coronavirus pandemic.
The university is expected to address those concerns with county officials later this week on a tricky timeline.
“As we move forward here talking about athletic activity, we’ll have to get more clearance as to what the county will allow us to do,” athletics director Terry Tumey said. “We have a meeting planned to talk about all of the things that we’ve experienced to this point, and now it will be what will they allow us to do moving forward.
“Whatever the county says is definitely what we’ll follow. But we’ll talk about what a traditional practice would entail and what the safeguards we’ll have in place for that and if those do match what would be acceptable from the county’s perspective.”
If the Bulldogs are to play in a fall football season, full practice will have to happen soon – the Mountain West Conference is intent on starting its football season on Oct. 24, pending approval from state, county and local officials.
Mountain West still making schedule
Mountain West teams will be scheduled to play eight game schedule against conference rivals, though Air Force and Boise State each could play one fewer game. Air Force is already scheduled to play Navy on Saturday and Army on Nov. 7 with the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy on the line, and Boise State could instead play a non-conference game against BYU.
Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson also said he expected there would be cancellations.
“I would fully anticipate that not all 12 institutions in the Mountain West will play eight games for various reasons, just based on what we’ve seen the first three weeks of this season,” he said.
Just this week, two games across the country scheduled for Saturday have been postponed – Rice at Marshall and Troy at South Alabama.
Fresno State does not yet know who its first opponent will be – the conference has not yet released a schedule. But they are at least taking a next step in getting to that first game.
After starting practices over the weekend, the Bulldogs on Tuesday were in shells (helmets and shoulder pads) as part of the NCAA acclimatization process, transitioning from two practices in helmets to two practices in helmets and shoulder pads before donning full pads.
“With the schedule coming out very soon, I would hope that we’d have some opportunity to do that as soon as possible in a safe manner,” Tumey said.
Basketball also can expand workouts
The Bulldogs’ men’s and women’s basketball programs, which can open practices on Oct. 14, also have more leeway in workouts. County guidelines allow for conditioning, individual skill drills and use of a ball within a pod, but no contact.