Coronavirus Impacts Local College Football Teams

Coronavirus Impacts Local College Football Teams

Hey good evening everyone..

Well not only is coronavirus impacting your typical spring sports like baseball and softball, it's also affecting college football teams across the country..

Some squads were able to get a few spring practices in before everything was shut down..

Others, like saint francis and trine, weren't able to get on the field at all..

Petar hood has more on how those two programs are trying to navigate this unique situation..

Narr: while college football championships aren't won in the spring, that doesn't mean the work that teams typically do in march and april is insignificant.?nat pop- whistle blows?narr: for squads like saint francis, those practices can serve as a springboard into a succesful fall..kevin donley: "well obviously missing spring ball will be a factor.

It will have an effect, but you can't use that as an excuse.

Everybody's dealing with the same hand that's been dealt."narr: that said, cougars head coach kevin donley believes not having spring ball will affect some programs more than others..

Donley: "you miss out on experimentation, guys at new positions, new schematics, that sort of thing.

We're not as devestated as some.

I mean, if you have somebody coming in that is a sole coordinator of one side of the ball or the other, that's extremely difficult."narr: for division three programs like trine, they can't put pads on in the spring anyway.

So for head coach troy abbs, it's not so much the football he misses, it's all the other stuff that comes along with running a program..troy abbs: "i think the biggest thing that we missed out on is the day-to-day interaction with the young men and counseling them academically.

Football will take care of itself, but not being a part of our young men's lives on a day-to-day basis has bee the biggest challenge for us."narr: and the other big challenge that comes along with this situation is trying to make sure guys stay in shape without having access to the facilities they're used to..

Abbs: "right now, it's all body weight workouts.

It's a lot of the speed and agility training that we did during the winter.

And it's on the kids to do those.

And i think, really, the college football programs that have the most success getting guys to do things on their own will be the ones who have the most success in the fall."narr: and right now, the plan is to play in the fall.

We'll have more from abbs and donely on what the future may hold for college football coming up on sunday.?nat pop- crowd cheers?

Narr: for now, reporting in fort wayne, petar hood, fox 55 sports..