SALT LAKE CITY — It was Utah coach Kyle Whittingham’s turn on this week’s four-part Pac-12 football coaches media webinar. Whittingham joined Colorado’s Karl Dorrell and Washington’s Jimmy Lake in the Tuesday morning session.
Surprise, surprise, the coaches were asked about when the season might kick off amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think there’s a lot of questions that need to be asked first of all,” Whittingham said. “I mean the ideal situation is we start on time, we play the normal schedule and got fans in the stands and away you go. I think the odds are probably against that.”
Whittingham later added that college football is several weeks out from having any real concrete direction of what’s going to happen or how things are going to be set up.
“I think there’s a lot of questions that need to be asked first of all. I mean the ideal situation is we start on time, we play the normal schedule and got fans in the stands and away you go. I think the odds are probably against that.” — Kyle Whittingham
Dorrell said he would prefer an eight-week process to get his team ready for his first season at the helm — a month of training and conditioning, and then a month of camp.
“I don’t think we’re going to get anything close to that. I know that it’s going to be a little bit faster process,” he said. “But I think given the circumstances and this season — and what we’re dealing with — I think all of us coaches feel whatever time they give us we’ll be appreciative of it and we’ll just make the most of it.”
Like Dorrell, Lake is gearing up for his first season at his new post without the benefit of any spring practices. However, he’s been in the program as an assistant since 2014 — most recently as defensive coordinator.
“There’s a lot of positives there,” Lake said. “But definitely going through spring football practice would have been a huge deal for our program and for me as a new head football coach.”
Such is the case in a world with more questions than answers these days. Whittingham heard there was some talk about allowing small groups of players back into the weight on June 1, but acknowledged it isn’t definitive.
“We’ll see if that comes to fruition, but right now there’s nothing concrete,” he said. ”We’re just playing it by ear each day and getting the updates each day.”
The webinars, which began Monday with Clay Helton (USC), Nick Rolovich (Washington State) and David Shaw (Stanford), conclude with gatherings on Wednesday and Thursday. Herm Edwards (Arizona State), Chip Kelly (UCLA) and Jonathan Smith (Oregon State) are the next trio, while Mario Cristobal (Oregon), Kevin Sumlin (Arizona) and Justin Wilcox (California) will close things out.