AUBURN, Ala. — All the way back in the first week of April, Gus Malzahn was already looking ahead to the beginning of June.
When Malzahn and his Auburn staff were allowed to contact their players for virtual meetings — a long-distance replacement for the Xs and Os work that would have occurred if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t forced the cancellation of spring practices — they started to discuss what would happen if everyone would be allowed to return on June 1 or June 15.
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The answer turned out to be right in the middle. Next Monday, June 8, Auburn players will be allowed to participate in voluntary on-campus workouts again.
“I’ll just say this: I’m very excited, and I know our staff is excited to have our players back,” Malzahn said during a Zoom call with local reporters Tuesday afternoon. “This is really big. We’re ready to get things back going.”
According to Malzahn, team physician Dr. Michael Goodlett and other members of the Tigers’ administration have been working on the specific plan for bringing players back on-campus safely “for four or five weeks.”
“We still have work to do,” athletics director Allen Greene said. “It’s not foolproof, right? It’s not foolproof. This virus, it’s different. But the plan that we have in place is one of the best plans I’ve seen.”
Below is a closer look at that return plan for Auburn football — from testing schedules and quarantine preparations to accommodation and workout structure — along with some more news from Malzahn and Greene’s comments Tuesday.
Returning to campus
Auburn’s coaching staff has already been back on campus for the last few weeks. Meetings have continued to be run through Zoom, and that will continue after players arrive, per NCAA regulations. Malzahn added that the program has gotten into a good routine with Zoom meetings after using them for most of the last three months.
Players will arrive Thursday evening, with the program’s newcomers leading the way during a three-hour window. Returning players will then arrive in 30-minute waves.
On Friday morning, all players will be tested for COVID-19. The results are expected to come back within 24 hours. For those who test negative, physicals will be administered, followed by concussion tests and other tests by strength and conditioning coach Ryan Russell on Saturday and Sunday. Workouts with Russell would then begin Monday.
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Players who test positive for COVID-19 will be sent to a separate dorm. By bringing back the players and testing them in waves, Auburn will be able to do contact tracing.
“Strategically, we’ve got guys coming in at certain times, so we’ll know who was around who,” Malzahn said. “They’re going to go to their rooms. Before they get back with their test (results), they’re going to be with them and their roommate… Doc Goodlett has done a super job of making sure that if someone tests positive, we will have a record of who’s been around, who’s in contact, and obviously they’ll be tested at the same time.”
One question that still is yet to be answered in the plan, though, is the exact frequency of testing after the players arrive on campus.
“That’s still undecided at this point,” Malzahn said. “We have the ability to do that at any time, but we’re going to have the temperature gauges and check for symptoms every day before they enter the building. We do have the ability, but that’s kind of undecided at this point.”
Returning to workouts
The last time Auburn coaches were with their players in-person was March 5. The Tigers had just wrapped up their pre-spring practice conditioning and were leaving for spring break. They never returned, as the COVID-19 shutdown began that next week.
Players will work out with Russell in groups of eight. That number could grow throughout the summer, depending on any changes in regulations.
Russell previously estimated that only 25 to 30 percent of Auburn’s players had safe access to weight rooms during their time away. The Tigers have had bodyweight exercise and workout guidelines for the last few months, but those couldn’t compare to the on-campus strength training and conditioning that would have happened during that time.
“I’ll be honest with you: Like, we haven’t seen our players in, what, 10 or 11 weeks?” Malzahn said. “So we’re going to be very slow. Coach Russell is well-prepared to start building that foundation, not assuming anything. We’ve got extra ways to make sure our guys are hydrated more than they normally would. So we’re going to make sure we’ll gradually bring the whole team along.”
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That will be good news for the incoming freshmen and transfers who didn’t enroll early on the Plains. (Malzahn added that one undisclosed newcomer might not arrive on campus Thursday.) The new arrivals would train separately from the returning players, as they normally would during a typical offseason. Thanks to all the time apart, the rest of the team won’t necessarily be as further along as usual.
“Coach Russell is going to do the same thing he’s always done with the newcomers — they will be by themselves,” Malzahn said. “They’ll be a little bit slower… But Coach Russell, he knows our guys very well. And I think after a short period of time, he’ll be able to really identify the guys that are in a little bit better shape than the others, kind of put those guys in groups whenever regulations allow us to.
“It’s almost like in the old days, when I played. You go home for summer and come back, and everybody’s in a different kind of shape. You kind of go back to old school. I think older coaches will probably have a better understanding of that than the young ones.”
Returning to the community
For the first seven days of workouts, all of Auburn’s players will stay at the South Donahue Dorm, which is across the street from the athletics complex, in order to keep them isolated. Team-building exercises will be a focal point during the first week since there will be a lot of free time for players who are having to stay on campus.
Throughout the week, Auburn will go over proper safety measures for when they are allowed to go off campus. All players will be given masks.
As Malzahn said Tuesday, the ultimate goal for the Tigers will be in the front of their minds — keeping players safe and healthy in order to keep the hopes of a fall football season alive.
“I think the big thing is just getting our guys to understand how we’re going to operate as far as keeping ourselves safe after that first week,” Malzahn said. “It’s bigger than them. You’ve got to understand — I probably worry just as much about my coaches and older guys, support staff. We’re just going to be responsible. And I think the motivating factor is that we all want to play football. I promise you our players are probably at the forefront of that.
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“So, with coming back, there’s going to be a responsibility. And that responsibility is going to be making sure that you stay safe and you do the things you’re supposed to do… social distancing, the masks.”
Malzahn said he hasn’t received any word from the SEC on when on-field practices could begin. He believes the conference’s decision-makers are waiting to see how the early portion of the post-June 8 returns go first.
“I think they’re still kicking around some ideas, whether it’s to extend fall camp or OTAs,” Malzahn said. “But I’m very hopeful that we’ll have some kind of football, working with our players. I think, too, getting off to a good start will help that… That’s why we decided to go overboard the first week and isolate and quarantine for seven days. I don’t know what other teams are doing, but I’d bet very few are doing that.”
Returning to normalcy (or the closest thing to it)
When asked Tuesday whether Auburn planned to have fans in the stands at Jordan-Hare Stadium this fall, Greene said any answer to that would be premature — but the athletics department was operating as if a normal fall was possible.
“No. 1, it’s too early to tell what the endgame is going to be,” Greene said. “But we are planning to have the fall seasons — whether it’s football or cross country or volleyball or soccer — we’re planning on doing those as normally scheduled the way that we want to do it. I think it’s naïve to think that there won’t be some tweaks and some twists to that, but we don’t know what those are, so we’re contingency planning, in case we have to use it.”
Elsewhere, Auburn is still on track with its plans for a football-only facility, which Greene called a “very important project” that “we’re still working our way through.”
But a return to normal for Auburn athletics goes well beyond football. Auburn plans to bring back its basketball players toward the end of June, followed by the rest of its sports in phases during the month of July.
“Thinking about returning to sport is very important to us, and we want to make sure we do it the right way,” Greene said. “We want to do so within the context that, there’s other things that we have to navigate and move onto our plate.”
(Top photo by Todd Van Emst / Auburn Athletics)