For the time being, uncertainty is the only certain when it comes to the future schedule for the West Virginia football program in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But that doesn't mean the Mountaineers can't plan.
The Big 12 Conference has currently suspended all organized team activities including team and individual practices, meetings, and other organized gatherings until at least March 29 where it will then be reevaluated. That means until then football is off the table as the focus from the coaching staff has been solely on health and well-being of the individual players.
That means video conferences with position coaches or accountability teams and encouraging players to find a routine as things are currently halted in Morgantown.
There can be no mandatory workouts, but players can voluntarily receive workouts from strength and conditioning coach Mike Joseph. Those workouts range from players that have access to a normal weight room set up, those that have limited access and then no access to weights at all. The focus is geared toward conditioning but can not be tracked or monitored by the coaching staff.
But what if things change after that March 29 date?
Well it remains to be seen if that will occur, however, if it does Brown and his staff have been practicing without the players how to best handle remote teaching and position meetings. They have been preparing with a little bit of old-fashioned trial and error to see what the most effective ways are to have participation and how to quiz players to see if they are retaining that knowledge.
The focus has been to simplify the amount of technology being used so West Virginia has primarily put all their efforts into utilizing the Zoom video conferences. That way if there is a change and the suspension to team activities is lifted the Mountaineers would be able to hit the ground running.
“Soon as that goes down, boom. We have a plan, we’re ready to roll,” Brown said.
Discussions are currently on-going with Big 12 athletic directors and administrators on how to possibly makeup for lost time from spring practice but for now the focus has been primarily on the immediate future. That means mapping out a plan for the next few weeks with what activities could be allowed.
Once that is determined, the natural discussion will drift to what will happen if the entirety of spring practice is canceled? How do schools make that time up?
Brown is a proponent to doing something to address the lost time but simply adding more time onto fall camp is a solution that isn’t in the best benefit of the players from a productive or positive standpoint. So, what could be the solution? Brown believes that possible regulated OTA workouts could be on the table where teams would wear helmets, but no pads in order to get quality work in during the summer.
You could base the number of workouts around the conventional 15-spring practices and simply subtract the total that teams were able to get in to provide the number programs could have. For example, because West Virginia was able to hold two spring practices that would leave them 13.
The OTA events would need to be limited from a time and equipment standpoint but there could be clear benefits to that approach if officials decide in that direction.
“I would be in favor of that. There is a lot of logistics on how you have to work through that to make that a reality, but I think all things are on the table right now,” Brown said.
Again, with so much uncertainty at this stage it’s hard to investigate the future but Brown has been able to somewhat look at how those type of scenarios could play out at West Virginia.
But for now, we wait until that March 29 date to see what direction the conference elects to go.
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