In the world of coaching, one of the vague go-to terms when describing a player’s injury status is “he’s day to day.”

It now aptly seems to describe the 2020 college football season. Whether one wants to refer to it as pins and needles, walking on eggshells, last man (or team) standing, or even delaying the inevitable if you dare, the COVID-19 specter will hover.

This week, it has even led to the first postponement of a Notre Dame football game in 19 years — or following the 9-11 terrorist attacks — and third overall in the last 100 years. The university, which had already canceled Tuesday’s practice, announced later that same afternoon that Saturday’s game at Wake Forest will be postponed because of another surge of the coronavirus.

On Monday, a depth chart was not released by the school during head coach Brian Kelly’s weekly noon conference because more testing had to be assessed, and filling out a personnel chart would be premature, if not presumptuous.

It was supposed to be today (Tuesday). Instead, university physician Dr. Matt Leiszler announced there were seven new COVID-19 positive tests, with the close contacts also identified. That raised the current number of players (as of Tuesday afternoon) in isolation to 13, with 10 others in quarantine.

That’s basically a full unit on offense and defense, plus change. More could be coming as well.

Thus the pause button has been pressed on all football-related activities.

Following the Sept. 12 Duke opener. Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick indicated that the pregame of that contest was the most emotional he had been in his 12 years with the Fighting Irish, mainly because of the skepticism that morphed over the previous six months about whether there would even be classes on campus, never mind football.

At the same time, he issued this caveat on the Packer and Durham ESPN Radio Show.

“We have to manage expectations,” he warned. “I don’t think there’s any point in time where you say, ‘We’re past this, it’s over.’ We’re going to have games canceled, have interruptions. We understood that when we headed down this path.”

It was as propitious a statement as one could find. Plus, managing expectations doesn’t mean the season can’t resume at some point — just as it didn’t mean it would progress once it started.

But I confess that since March, it has felt to me like the famous Five Stages that Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote about in “On Death And Dying.” In order, the stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Stage four — as it relates to the 2020 college football season — is potentially what might be taking hold now with the postponement at Wake Forest.

This occurred mainly during the spring months, when COVID-19 infiltrated the country and even canceled “March Madness,” in addition to all other spring and professional sports.

When it carried into June, the realization occurred that the virus was not going to magically disappear, although the denial aspect was “no way can there not be a football season!” It would be un-American. It also was a coping mechanism.

By July, the ire was beginning to emerge while reality became more pronounced.

The Aug. 29 opener versus Navy in Ireland was shifted back to the United States, and then moved to Sept. 5 or 6 (eventually canceled).

The Big Ten decided to play conference-only games, resulting in canceling the much-anticipated Oct. 3 Notre Dame-Wisconsin contest at Lambeau Field.

A day later, the Pac-12 followed the league-only model, thus eliminating Stanford’s trip to Notre Dame on Oct. 10 and USC not hosting the Fighting Irish Nov. 28. For the first time since 1945, Notre Dame would not face the Trojans.

As social protests reached a crescendo in the summer months, the rage poured over into the world of sports. Limited or no fan attendance? No tailgating or social gatherings?

It was beginning to get out of hand, and a classic scene from the 1976 movie Network came to mind.

With the clock ticking and the college football season reaching a point where it was now on life support, some final desperation attempts were made to salvage anything.

That meant a later start to the season, or maybe even the spring. A 10-game campaign, instead of 12. Quarantine protocols when anyone on the team would incur the coronavirus.

Anything to keep the heart of college football beating and not pull the plug on a season.

Yet, when gradually and one by one the Ivy League, independent Connecticut, the Mid-American Conference opted to cancel their seasons, the actuality of the severity began hitting home more. It also made college administrators of Power Five schools feel angst and perhaps even guilt about balancing the immense need for revenue and severing the hopes of thousands of student-athletes, with protecting the long-term interests while keeping the coronavirus with arm’s length, or better yet, at least six feet of distance.

And then when the Big Ten opted to hold off on fall sports, followed a day later by the Pac-12 in mid-August, depression hit home, or at least certainly in those parts of the country.

I don’t think we’re there yet. The postponement now is maybe more a jolt to the system (perhaps a return to denial?) than complete sadness. Whether it has a snowball effect down the road is to be seen.

There are byes as cushions. However:

• Oct. 3 might not be enough time for the 14-day quarantine period (10 days for those who test positive), again not including potential new cases.

• Nov. 21 is open for Notre Dame, and then maybe the Friday Nov. 27 game at North Carolina could be shifted to Saturday, Nov. 28 while Wake Forest gets filled in for Nov. 21.

Unfortunately, the first semester final exams are slated for Nov. 16 through 20. Traditionally, no Notre Dame sports have been held on finals weeks when the semester concluded in mid- December.

The reason the ACC championship game has been left open for Dec. 12 or Dec. 19 (College Football Playoff bids aren’t announced until Dec. 20) is to leave Dec. 12 open as a potential make-up date prior to the league title game. That might be the most plausible possibility at this point, unless other changes in schedules can be arranged on bye weeks to accommodate everyone.

What does keep hope alive is the safeguards, medical testing and treatment in this university setting, which provides a chance. It’s what keeps everyone from yet “accepting” that it cannot be done.

But as today revealed, this is truly a day-to-day football season.

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