One interesting wrinkle in South Carolina’s plan to get back to football normalcy
South Carolina football debuted its plan for how to bring players back on campus in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic last week. Players will start arriving in Columbia on Monday.
And this week, Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp provided a little clarity on the day-to-day operations of the return to voluntary offseason work.
The initial plans talked about clusters of players going to the building together, small groups of four to six. In speaking to the ESPN/the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum, Muschamp clarified how multiple clusters of four will occupy South Carolina’s weight room at the same time.
“It’s not done by position, it’s not done by side of the ball,” Muschamp said. “It’s done by who they live with and who they’re going to be around. So clusters of four will enter the building together. We will take their temperature. Ask them if they felt any symptoms change, breathing issues or anything like that.
“We’re very fortunate to have a 20,000-square-foot weight room. In the state of South Carolina, they want five people for every 1,000 square feet. So we’re going to be able to get 20 to 25 to 28 guys in there at a time. And we’re going to have four to five groups in there throughout the day.”
Muschamp noted there will be 30 minutes between groups, with sanitizing done in the areas they occupied.
Players will start arriving back on campus this coming Monday, a week before they can start offseason workouts.
They will have to get antibody and coronavirus tests after arriving on campus, and after those tests, which take 48 to 72 hours, come back negative, players will start in on physicals because of the layoff.
He noted the 14-day self-quarantine suggestion might be cut down to 10 days, according to the experts he has consulted.
Muschamp also said he’s having to rely on players and their families to hammer home a message about staying away from people. Five Points and close social contact is not only a temptation, but a normal part of student life.
Of late, life there is getting back to normal, but it could mean risk of infection and an interruption of the staff’s plans.
“I talked to the parents (Wednesday),” Mushcamp said. “I said I’m going to need a little help from y’all from the standpoint of direction. We need to make mature decisions right here. We can’t be out downtown. Those sorts of things can’t happen.”
