When Georgia Tech begins the first phase of its voluntary on-campus workout program June 15, the number of football players who will participate will be in the low 20s, according to coach Geoff Collins. The total roster size, not counting incoming freshmen who didn’t arrive in January, is about 105.
The first phase of Tech’s program in bringing athletes back to campus is restricted to athletes living in metro Atlanta. Incoming freshmen are not able to participate. Isolation for 14 days before the start of on-campus training is another requirement.
“There’s a whole bunch of steps that they’ve got to go through before they return,” Collins said Tuesday on a video-conference call with media.
Athletes in all of Tech’s sports will be allowed to return under those guidelines. Ensuing phases will return more athletes to campus and broaden training regimens. In the first phase, athletes will be limited to weight rooms and training rooms. For the football team, Collins said, the weightlifting work will be done in the Brock Football Practice Facility, a building that will allow football players more space to train. Collins said that the team had ordered five additional weight racks to facilitate the workouts, which will be done in groups of 10 or fewer.
In addition to leaving the facility’s garage-style doors open to improve air flow, players and staff will have designated entry and exit points.
“There’s all kinds of things that are being put in place to make sure the guys are safe and healthy,” Collins said.
Team members not returning for the first phase can continue to work out on their own, following plans prescribed by strength-and-conditioning coach Lewis Caralla. Players are not required to work out.
“We have a great leadership group on our football team that is really affecting the other guys, and it’s one of those things that, it’s trust, it’s faith, it’s hope, and you try to motivate, inspire and engage the guys on an individual basis and a collective basis without making it mandatory.”
The first phase will be two weeks, Collins said, before more players begin their workouts after that. Tech’s schedule is behind some of its competitors. Clemson, Tech’s opponent for its season opener scheduled for Sept. 3, was scheduled to begin June 8, with the entire team able to return. At Central Florida, Tech scheduled opponent Sept. 18, a group of 60 football players returned Monday, with plans to begin workouts the following Monday. Collins called the June 15 start date a “very intentional” decision.
“It may be to the outside world it looks like we’re being very cautious, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Collins said. “I think there’s a level of thought and care that went into every single decision throughout this thing for our guys and even for our staff.”
Collins expressed confidence in his staff’s ability to guide the training of players who have been away from campus and beyond in-person supervision of coaches since mid-March, when the coronavirus pandemic closed Tech’s campus. He noted that, having coached at the high-school, Division III and FCS level, he has familiarity in situations where players didn’t have summer workout programs or even spring football.
“So I think that affords and gives me an edge to understand there are ways to do it,” he said.
He lauded coaches and staff members “who look outside the box to try to find answers to the questions and aren’t going to be stuck in an archaic system that it has to be done this way in this time frame in this amount of reps, whatever the case may be.” The video-conference meetings that coaches have conducted with players may have placed them further ahead in their schematic knowledge than they would be otherwise, Collins said.
Collins also said that “almost every guy on our roster” will be able to fully participate in workouts upon their return following offseason rehabilitation. During the quarantine period, most have done their rehab sessions with trainers conducted through FaceTime calls, videos and other means.
The incoming freshmen had their first official meeting (via video conference) with Collins on Sunday night, beginning their “JumpStart Jackets” program to facilitate the beginning of their enrollment at Tech.
“Obviously, there will be challenges, but I think the way that we have our culture set up, we have our program set up, lends us to being able to be innovative, think outside of the box and find the best way for our players to have success,” Collins said.
