Northwestern starts practice after brief COVID scare
Even with the college football season hanging by a thread, you'd figure Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald as someone who would be fired up about the challenge ahead.
"If I could write a story for The Daily Northwestern, I would write, 'Please, wear a mask if you want football! Socially distance, wash your hands and make great choices socially so we can play Wildcat football,'" Fitzgerald said in a Zoom call with reporters Friday.
"And I'm looking at the positive, looking at the glass half full. Let's be great stewards of the community and that's what our guys have done. My hope is the entire student body can do it."
There was already some good news for the Wildcats. They shut down football workouts earlier this week because of a positive test for COVID-19 from a player. But according to Fitzgerald, that turned out to be a false positive.
Using contact tracing based on the positive test, Northwestern had 37 players in quarantine for a few days, but Fitzgerald said everyone was back on the field for Friday's first practice. The new conference games-only Big Ten schedule has the Wildcats opening at Penn State on Sept. 5.
Asked how often players will be tested for the coronavirus, Fitzgerald said at least twice per week.
"We've talked about how the decisions we make are going to be the difference," he said. "There's going to be certain teams that stay healthy. There are going to be certain teams that make great choices socially. There are going to be teams that put the work in when no one's watching.
"That's how we define character, who you are when no one's watching. I thought from a football character standpoint, our guys knocked it out of the park. But that's going to be a continual challenge. We're onboarding more (NU) teams every day. We'll be onboarding our student body here soon."
Most college teams have been together during the summer, which provided a head start in conditioning and learning the playbook. Fitzgerald talked about what Friday's first official practice looked like.
"Right now, everybody's on air," he said. "We're hitting sleds. It's like a car wash, we're spraying them down. We're doing everything the docs told us to do.
"If you were just walking down the Lake Shore path, I think you'd be like, 'That looks like a football practice.' Then when we go to team drills, group drills, it's more on air, trash cans and things of that nature right now."
Fitzgerald joked that he feels like a seventh-grade gym teacher at a junior high dance, trying to find socially-distanced activities to keep his players occupied.
"It's a unique time and it calls for unique leadership and unique decisions," he said. "If and when we play in the opener, we'll be ready."
Northwestern finished 3-9 last fall, its worst record since 2002. If the Wildcats start playing for real, there will be an interesting battle at quarterback.
Clemson transfer Hunter Johnson is back after a disappointing debut season. T.J. Green, who was injured in the opener, was granted a sixth year of eligibility. Senior Aiden Smith ended up getting the most playing time last fall. And the Cats added grad transfer Peyton Ramsey, who posted some impressive stats at Indiana.
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