With NC State’s fall academic semester beginning Monday, football players are back to juggling their studies and practice two weeks earlier than usual. Fall camp is typically considered to be the team’s August practices before school starts, meaning the Wolfpack only got a week of that and none of those practices in full pads.

“Our focus right now has just been on our install,” said head coach Dave Doeren at Wednesday’s Zoom press conference. “We’ve backed off on some things contact-wise with the players and made it more about operating our systems, the knowledge base, the mental stuff that goes on with it, and keeping them in physical condition. We’ll get back into, this weekend, putting helmets and shoulder pads on and full pads Saturday is kind of our plan.”

One major concern is the players being away from the Murphy Center and on campus, which is presumed to be the biggest danger for them getting COVID-19. Several players have in-person classes and experienced the safety measures NC State has including mask requirements, glass coverings in front of professors and socially distant seating.

“Our message to them was ‘Go to your first class. If you don’t feel safe, then go to your academic advisor and see if you can switch to an online class,’” Doeren said. “The guys that I’ve talked to that had class yesterday were very happy with the setup that they had in their classrooms. They were completely OK with it. I haven’t heard from one player yet that didn’t feel that way.”

This year’s offseason will likely go down as the most hectic in the history of the sport, and while returning players can use their existing knowledge to stay fit and ready to play, the August enrollees of the incoming class never got that. Just now learning of the rigors of college workouts and the nutrition practices necessary to maintain or gain good weight, they have to be resilient. Doeren praised the group as “one-timers,” quick studies who only need to be told the proper way to do something once. In a normal year, having players like that would be a luxury for a coach, but this year, that’s a necessity.

“Our freshmen were in Wolf Village dorm and there was no one else there,” Doeren said. “Imagine being dropped off by your family, ‘See you later,’ and you’re the only one on campus. It’s been hard, and they’ve really, really handled it. I think what it did is, it brought that class together. They have really good chemistry; they look out for each other. They have a good bond that shared adversity creates.”

If things continue the way they have, this freshman class will have an iron-clad bond by the time this is all over. The Big Ten and Pac-12 canceled their fall seasons in hopes of spring football, with the ACC, SEC and Big 12 standing firm so far. While not privy to the information that caused the former conferences to pull out, Doeren reiterated the ACC’s Tuesday statement that its medical advisors haven’t suggested against a season yet.

“We’re all listening to the medical advisory boards, and all their information flows through our medical staff and then to us, so everything that we know we’re doing,” Doeren said. “I think you guys all know that this thing evolves on what the best practices are. And, as they change, we change with them. So, we’re doing everything that we know how to do because of the experts and following their guidelines. And [if] all of a sudden, they change what they think we should be doing will change with them.”

With all the uncertainty surrounding this season, it’s been very important to keep the athletes in the loop with all decisions being made. Athletics Director Boo Corrigan spoke to the team on Sunday to answer pressing questions, and Doeren said the team appreciated his honesty even though, like everything else happening, information is changing and becoming outdated at a daily rate.

“I think that’s the hardest thing for all these young people right now, is they really struggle in the unknown,” Doeren said. “Tell them they’re playing or tell them they’re not playing. They may not like not playing but at least they know. When you’re sitting there thinking you’re going to play and the next day you’re not, then you are, then you’re not, that’s hard on the mental well-being of these guys.”

If the season does end up getting canceled, Doeren said the coaching staff would like to make sure the players aren’t sent home like they were when schools shut down last March. 

“The first thing is just giving us access to the guys, allowing us to have interaction in their lives and continue to help them develop,” Doeren said. “If you pull the plug on the season, and then just say, ‘Hey, go home, figure it out’, like they did in the spring … that’s not good for these young men. I think we all agree, and you’ve seen it even stated by Trevor Lawrence, that a lot of these young men are better being here where they’re tested every week, where they’re around health and safety [services], where they’ve got good food, than they are going back to their communities where they’re not going to have that kind of care.”