Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – If there is one task Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin has become an expert at during the coronavirus pandemic, it's participating in Zoom calls.

He has taken part in the omnipresent video conference calls consistently the past four months, from regular chats with UAA staff to informative calls with Florida's coaches and Southeastern Conference officials. He asked UF head football coach Dan Mullen to arrange a special one last week.
 

Stricklin, following months of discussions about the road toward an uncertain future, sought input from the team's leadership committee, an initiative Mullen introduced to the Gators soon after taking over the program in late 2017.

"I wanted to hear from them about how they think the voluntary workouts went in the month of June and what their comfort level was related to how things had gone and just get their feedback,'' Stricklin said Tuesday afternoon on, what else, a Zoom call with about three dozen members of the media. "They were positive, but I made a point to them during the call, after I asked them some questions, I told them to make sure you guys understand the No. 1 priority for when we are able to begin having games again, is the health of our athletes and our staff and our fans. That's the No. 1 priority."

The majority of players returned to campus in late May to begin the process of being tested for Covid-19 and cleared to participate in voluntary workouts following a standard physical examination. For more than a month, small groups of players have worked out inside the team's indoor practice facility and on the outdoor practice fields under social-distance guidelines and other precautionary measures. Once one group finishes, another one soon arrives.

It's not ideal in developing chemistry over the summer, but few things are as teams across the country begin to prepare for a season that may or may not happen. The most important takeaway for Stricklin was that the players he spoke to are pleased to be back and working toward a common goal.

"We have to balance the importance of their physical well-being along with their mental well-being," Stricklin said. "The thing I took from that and other conversations is, the student-athletes do want to play games.

"I think having them here on campus for a month has taught us a lot. One of the things it's taught us is we do have a way to care for them and provide for our athletes while they're here and if they happen to test positive."

As he has throughout the pandemic, Stricklin cautioned that until there is a way to devise a safe path toward the return to competition, everything else that remains unclear is secondary, whether it's scheduling, the stadium experience or financial ramifications for programs across the country.

He made sure he delivered that message to the players directly amidst the loud drumbeat of opinion on social media.

Asked if he was concerned that some might view it as bad optics for college football to play during a pandemic, Stricklin offered this:

"I don't think we're going to put them in a situation where we're going to have bad optics,'' he said. "I think we're going to be careful enough. Really, that's our job."

These days, that job often gets done with a Zoom call.