Notre Dame’s Latest (Thursday) COVID-19 Update
Tempered by an always guarded outlook, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and Fighting Irish director of athletic training and rehabilitative service Rob Hunt were still optimistic during a Thursday afternoon conference that the scheduled Oct. 10 game versus Florida State at home will be played.
Notre Dame has a bye this weekend, and its game at Wake Forest Sept. 26 was postponed and then rescheduled for Dec. 12. The postponement was because of a surge that saw 25 Notre Dame players test positive for the COVID-19 virus and 14 others put into quarantine.
The numbers this week have been far more encouraging, with zero surveillance tests positive for COVID-19 on both Monday and Wednesday, and another full-team test to occur this Friday.
“Currently we have 18 players in isolation and 11 players in quarantine,” revealed Hunt, also the head athletic training for football. “Nine players have been released in the last two days from quarantine and isolation, and 14 more will be released in the next two days.”
“We’re going to be able to prepare the football team to play Florida State,” Kelly summarized. “We have modified our schedule to make certain we’re taking care of our guys first in terms of their health. And secondly, preparing in a manner that allows us to get our entire football team intact.”
This week’s schedule included mainly conditioning work on Monday, weight training on Tuesday, a voluntary conditioning workout again on Wednesday, and finally practice today (Thursday) and Friday.
The team will then have a weight-training session on Saturday and a live scrimmage situation on Sunday.
“It’s important that we’re extremely strategic in the way we practice and when we practice,” Kelly said. “Getting the whole group back together is very, very important.”
Kelly cited the example of running back Dexter Williams coming back from a four-game suspension at the start of 2018 to bust out with a 161-yard rushing performance in his first game back (versus Stanford), yet being ready to play out of the chute. Doing it with an entire team, as opposed to an individual, is a different ball game.
The “whole group” also now includes junior wide receiver Kevin Austin, who was expected to be the top pass catching target this season but underwent foot surgery on Aug. 3.
“Kevin Austin is in a running program right now, he ran the last couple of days,” Kelly said. “He will be modified over the next few days with practice. Right now, we’re on track for him to compete against Florida State.”
Meanwhile, starting sophomore safety Kyle Hamilton (ankle) and top boundary receiver Ben Skowronek (hamstring) are both in “great shape,” per Kelly, after incurring their injuries in the season opener versus Duke Sept. 12.
While not revealing what position groups or individuals were affected among the 39 released by the school last week, Kelly said the decision to close down had two elements: One was the uncertainty of not having a handle on the coronavirus at the time. The other was “can you put together a team that is at least resembling in some fashion the competitiveness of your group?”
Explanations also were once again reviewed on the difference between those who test positive and face a minimum 10-day isolation, and those under quarantine for 14 days.
While in isolation, there is zero conditioning activity. On day 11, if there is clearance there are cardiac exams.
“Once they leave that 10-day period, as long as they're asymptomatic on the back end, they're released out of isolation,” Hunt explained. “Their first day out, we go through our cardiac screening process. … The first day post-clearance may include 20 to 30 minutes worth of cardiovascular exercise. If that goes well, we’ll begin some on-the-field activity at maybe 50 percent of what would be the previous total.
“If that goes well, we progress to 70 percent, maybe 75, and then ease them back into that 100 percent full competitive practice prior to being released to full activity.”
Players who are in quarantine, and those who have been in close contact, are tested on the fourth and seventh days. If both tests come back well, then on the eighth day they can both begin a modified conditioning regimen and attend class on campus.
“On the 14th day they can hit the field running,” Kelly said of the modified workouts that aid the process.
“We’ve not had hospitalizations,” Hunt noted. “The majority of our players have had mild to moderate symptoms, and have done very well from a recovery process.”
Evaluated heavily in the past week have been locker room distancing, meals, housing, hotel operations and field activities. Hunt also was confident that interacting with family after games has not been a root cause of the outbreak.
“That was one of my biggest concerns,” Hunt admitted.
He did acknowledge that perhaps some complacency might have set in after a superb summer of testing results.
“There’s a component of our testing regimen that makes people feel comfortable with the negative tests,” Hunt said. “I think what we’re realizing with the current situation is that a negative test on Friday doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re completely negative from the standpoint of clearing … you should maintain the protocols that are clearly established.
“I think we may have gotten a little loose with how we operate within the locker room, mask compliance, our spacing on the sidelines … There are areas we can get better.
“Prior to September, I think we had 12 or 13 positives leading into the start of the season, and now we’re looking at 30 in September. Part of it is that cluster outbreak, but we need to get back to the detailed work that we had prior [to it].”
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