How North Texas survived 35 days without football games
University of North Texas football postponed three games and has not played since Oct. 17. Here's how the Mean Green have dealt with those COVID-19 complications.
Every Thursday during football season, North Texas athletic director Wren Baker sits by his computer and anxiously waits for the winning lottery number to pop up on his screen: zero.
“You’re watching for testing results kind of like the rest of America was watching for election results a couple weeks ago,” Baker said. “For every result that comes in, the situation changes.”
Plenty has to go right to play football in a global pandemic. Your program has to contain or eliminate cases of COVID-19. If you have positive cases, you have to make sure the infected individuals don’t take out a whole unit through contact tracing. And then when everything is right on your own, you have to hope everything went right on your opponent’s end too.
Three weeks in a row now, North Texas has rolled snake eyes.
“I feel like everything happens for a reason,” Darden said. “I feel like this is God just giving me a chance to enhance and get more here (points at forehead) more so than on the field. I’ve been really taking time to study film.”
Staying positive hasn’t been easy, but shining attitudes like Darden’s help. Littrell and the coaching staff has tried to keep the atmosphere light. Without the physical grind of a game to look forward to, the staff has run more best-on-best practices, which ups the competition. They’ve also given out a few more practice awards to keep morale high.
However, no group has done it better than the defensive back group. With games being postponed and cancelled, Saturdays are for paintball.
“It’s been fun,” said Sanders, who claims to be the most accurate paintball shooter in the secondary. “It’s bringing us closer. We just happened to go out of nowhere one day and have been continuing to go as the games get cancelled.”
That energy from off-field bonding has translated to the field, even as the season has become one long practice.
“Our kids have been awesome, they really have,” Littrell said. “Obviously very disappointed on Thursday nights, but every week they’ve bounced back great. I think [Tuesday] is as good of energy as I’ve seen, so they’re overcoming it.”
After all of the frustration of previous weeks, the game against Rice looks promising. The Mean Green are close to full strength. Rice’s numbers have been low. Everyone from players to coaches to administrators to fans are praying this is the moment North Texas can finally get back on the field.
“Last week, I was excited and it just happened to get cancelled out of nowhere,” Sanders said. “This week, I’m going to stay a little cautious, but stay excited at the same time.”
Regardless, the players will practice. The coaches will coach. The administrators will organize. Dozens will converge at Apogee Stadium, do their job and hope – after 35 long days – for the best.
“At some points you want it to come to fruition, you know?” Elder said. “See the work you’ve been doing, see a game, win a game, enjoy that and experience that again.”
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