Notre Dame will soon begin bringing players back to campus for the first time since March.
According to multiple reports, players will move into the on-campus Morris Inn hotel starting Monday, take COVID-19 tests and quarantine in single-occupancy rooms for a week before voluntary workouts begin. Players will have meals provided to them during that time and live in the hotel all summer before moving into normal residences for the fall semester.
Notre Dame officials informed players and their families of the plan on a call Thursday afternoon, per ESPN’s Heather Dinich.
“I think we’ve come up with a really good plan,” Notre Dame team physician Dr. Matt Leizler said, via Dinich’s report. “That being said, there’s an element of this that’s kind of like building an airplane as you fly it, in that we’re learning so much more every week. Which in some ways is fantastic. We’re learning more about this virus and we can use it to help us keep our players and our staff safe. But it’s a moving target at times.
“Everyone needs to be aware that what are best practices are right now, may be different come September or October. We need to be willing to adapt and that’s going to be the reality.”
Notre Dame’s voluntary workouts will take place in three phases. The first will be limited to no more than 10 people, the second no more than 50 people and the third will be uncapped. Masks will be required for all indoor activities. Tests for players and staff will begin June 15.
“Success for us is going to be not having clusters of outbreaks,” Leizler said. “We want to make sure with each phase that our plan is working. We’re trying to minimize the close contacts if or when we have an illness.
“We’re going to have positives. That’s to be expected. … We need to do a really good job of controlling those. The things that play into that are a really robust contact tracing system to ensure if we have a positive or someone we think may have COVID, we’re going to move really quickly in coordination with the university to limit those other close contacts so we don't end up with a cluster.”
So far, players at Alabama, Arkansas State, Oklahoma State and Marshall have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
Notre Dame has not been together as a team since its lone spring practice, held March 5. Summer classes start June 15 and will be online, the university previously announced. The fall semester starts Aug. 10, two weeks earlier than normal, and ends before Thanksgiving.
Additionally, Yahoo! Sports Pete Thamel reported that the Division I Football Oversight Committee met Thursday to discuss plans for a formal return to college football. One idea discussed, per Thamel, is coaching getting access to players for eight hours per week starting in mid-July followed by a six-week camp.
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