COVID-19 Impact on Clemson Football

With the suspension of all spring athletic events due to coronavirus concerns, Clemson football is entering uncharted territory.

The past three days have arguably been the strangest in sports in at least a generation. 

Just in the past 72 hours, the NCAA canceled the men's and women's basketball tournaments as well as suspended all winter and spring sports. The NBA, NHL, MLS, and NASCAR seasons have all been put on hold, and Major League Baseball delayed the start of its regular season by at least two weeks. 

The news is not all bad for senior student-athletes who compete in spring sports. On Friday, the NCAA "agreed to grant relief for the use of a season of competition for student-athletes who have participated in spring sports," meaning that all athletes who compete in spring sports, like baseball and softball, will be granted another year of eligibility."

With the cancellation of spring practices and the high probability of a spring game cancellation for Clemson football, the obvious question remains: how does this pandemic affect the team?

For all college football programs, the spring is the opportune time to begin to gather information about the players and the team as a whole. Position battles and cross-training further clarify a player's role on the team. Of course with the abrupt end to the spring schedule, this team will not have the benefit of definitively answering some of the lingering questions that followed this team into late February, at least until fall camp starts in August. 

As for who will be most affected, it's hard to believe that any group will be more impacted than the young freshmen who were just beginning to find their footing on this team. From what the coaches and upperclassmen have said, most of the mid-year enrollees were making an immediate impact that was difficult to overlook. For those young men, they will have to wait for five months to continue to make impressions on the practice field. 

On the positive side, there will be plenty of time for players that are dealing with injuries this spring, like Justyn Ross, Derion Kendrick and others, to get fully healthy. Luckily for the Tigers, no player is dealing with serious injuries and looks to be full-go for August. As was reported on Wednesday, Ross is dealing with "stinger symptoms," and Kendrick has been nursing a hamstring injury for much of this spring session. These five months off should give those players the necessary time to heal. 

This is an unprecedented time for Clemson football and all of Clemson athletics, but if there is anyone that can guide a group of young men through uncharted waters, it's Dabo Swinney.