Herm Edwards: More players might play once college football season starts

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the sports world in a variety of ways, and among those could be the efforts teams go to to make sure their players are in proper condition.

Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Wednesday that more players could be forced to play as the team grapples with a lack of standard time to condition ahead of the 2020 season.

“We have enough time,” Edwards said. “You wish you always had a little bit more — coaches always want more time, you know that. But I think we can make do with the time we have, and we will never put a player in harm’s way. That is for sure. And I think early in the season, you’ll see more players play. More players will probably play in the fact that their conditioning’s going to be critical.

“I just think that second guy has to be ready to get some snaps in real games. Because we probably won’t be in the best football shape; we’ll have to work our way into that. But we’ll be in good enough shape to avoid injuries, which is probably the most important thing.”

ASU football was in its spring season when the pandemic halted the sports world. Now, teams are just beginning to flirt with returning to facilities — and doing so in an environment where players will be tested and their health will be scrutinized. According to 247Sports, multiple Alabama football players have tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of returning to campus.

“We anticipate trying to play a full season,” Edwards said. “How we go about doing that, I think it’s baby steps. As you bring guys in, it’s not the whole team at one time. It’s more of an effort to bring players in slowly, try to integrate them and then from there — and they’re only going with the weight coach right now — our meetings are basically on zoom. We’re still just apart, having meetings. We’re just trying to take it slow. Safety is probably the most biggest concern for everybody, for players as well as coaches.”

TURK RETURNS

Punter Michael Turk, who left ASU to pursue his NFL aspirations, was not drafted or signed. So he and ASU applied for a waiver for him to return to school and reestablish his eligibility, and the news broke Wednesday that that waiver was granted.

“We petitioned,” Edwards said. “Didn’t know, quite for sure, if it was going to happen or not. And lo and behold, it did. Our compliance folks did a nice job. Just wrote the situation out and how we felt about it, and they granted him the ability to come back, which is kind of interesting, which is good. We didn’t know. It wasn’t even 50-50. It was like, ‘Uh, this might not work, but we might as well give it a chance.’

“Now he has the ability to come back and to help us. So that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for him, a good thing for our football team. So we’re excited about the opportunity of bringing him back.”

Follow @mattjlayman