NC State football returned to practice this week following an eight-day pause in fall camp after a COVID-19 cluster was identified within the athletic department that impacted the football program. All athletic-related activities were paused for a week, but most returned Friday before football received clearance over the weekend.

While Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren was pleased with how the team has handled the break, he also shared his squad’s frustration over an inconvenient pause while in the thick of preparation for the 2020 season.

“The guys came back excited to practice,” Doeren said. “We had a good lift and meeting session today, then back to the field tomorrow. It felt like coming out of our scrimmage, which now feels like a month ago, but 10 days ago, there was a lot of excitement. Then we had to shut down with all the things going on on campus.

“Once we got through that window, players were chomping at the bit to get back to work. Obviously we’re closing in two and a half weeks from a game. Each day it’s kind of one of those deals, not unlike for all of us, things change daily.”

The biggest obstacle facing the Wolfpack in its return to the field has been the presumed absence of multiple players due to not just positive tests, but the subsequent mandatory quarantines from contact tracing that goes along with it.

“It’s challenging,” Doeren said. “I think the contact tracing part of this has been the most, I don’t know if frustrating is the word, but the hardest part because these kids want to be out there and they’re being told they can’t when they feel completely healthy, and in some cases are, but that’s the safest thing for them.”

Doeren explained that once there is a positive test, trainers reach out to Julie Cassani in student health and Rob Murphy in athletics to begin the contact tracing part.

“They go through the steps of [contact tracing],” Doeren added. “Who do they live with, who have they been around? They’re not only asking the trainer, but then they communicate that with the student-athlete.

“Anybody that is in that contact tracing is then quarantined for 14 days. That’s really the biggest challenge. If you have four people that live together, for every one positive, you’re losing four players. In our case, a lot of times, only one of them is sick.

“There’s a lot of people that come out of your workforce every time that happens.”

For the coaching staff, it’s been as much of a mental obstacle as it has a logistical one. Following last week’s cluster, the roster availability can change by the day as the program exercises the ACC’s protocol.

“A lot of people focus on what they don’t have instead of what they do,” Doeren said. “That’s really been our focus. Here’s what we have to work with today, here is the amount of time we get and what’s the best way we can use this time with the guys we have.

“I’ve never been anywhere where you’re planning practices by the minute. We’re usually weeks out with what we want to do on the field, but you can’t operate that way right now. You have to really embrace what you have and do the best you can with it.”

Despite the challenges presented with limited roster availability as the team buckles down in preparation for its season opener now just over two weeks away, there has been some semblance of a silver lining.

While Doeren had already mentioned that select players were practicing multiple positions to prepare for the possibility of positive tests before games, the team has become even more proactive with that effort following the reality check of its current situation.

“I’ve already talked about how we do that on the offensive line with tackles, guards and centers,” Doeren said. “We’re also doing it in the secondary where corners are learning safety positions, safeties are learning nickel.

“Our Sam linebacker has to learn Will linebacker or Mike linebacker has to learn one of the outside linebacker positions. You just have to have enough double-training where you’re able to sustain your depth chart as things progress.

“We’ve done a lot of things that way so if you have the issue on game week or in the middle of game week, you’re not starting from ground zero trying to train somebody for a new spot.”

Not every player is capable of preparing for multiple positions, particularly younger players picking up new systems under first-year coordinators. It’s the veterans that Doeren will have to rely on to fill the gaps in the case of last-second absences.

“There are certain guys in our program that have mastered their positions mentally and we feel like it’s not a lot for them to handle,” Doeren said. “Those are the types of players, more experienced guys, that you feel like you can do that with.

“Our plan is, a guy like [receivers] Thayer Thomas or Emeka [Emezie], for example, they’re capable of learning multiple spots. They’ve played a lot of football.

“You don’t do that with a true freshman so you’re just trying to use your older guys that have played a lot, that aren’t thinking a lot and put a little bit more on their plate that way.”

Last week’s pause was really the first time the team suffered an extended delay due to multiple players in quarantine since returning this summer. In fact, leading up to last week, NC State was among the best in the country in terms of few numbers of positive COVID cases within an athletic department.

Although the head coach cited the return of the student body in early August as a potential disruptor in the team’s success in navigating a pandemic, he expressed optimism that a move to virtual classes and consensus cooperation with protocols should put the Pack on track as it enters the regular season.

“Leading up to the student’s return, we were really good,” Doeren said. “We tested for two and a half months and had three positives. Then once the students came back, just like you’re seeing across the country when you take 25,000 people that haven’t been here and drop them into however many city blocks it is here, that’s an influx of germs. What comes with that is what comes with that.

“I hope that we can return to where we were. We were doing really well. As we get on the backside of this thing and students are leaving our campus, you would hope that it protects the so-called bubble that we’re trying to have with our guys.”

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