Tommy met with the media for about 30 minutes today, and it was AMAZING. He brought some heat today.
I'll recap it.
-- Tommy and other senior staff members are back in the office
-- Voluntary workouts start for football on June 8th. Physicals start June 1st. Will be groups of 10, will do our part in keeping everyone broken up while at the football facility
-- Hester will overlook the workouts
-- Both hoops teams will return the following week on June 15th, or maybe first week of July, haven't made that decision final yet
-- Coaching staff for football will be back in office on June 1st, other sports coaching staffs will be back in office when Gov moves to Phase 2
-- Trainers are screening everyone in athletics everyday. Temp check, series of questions asked, get a colored wristband for that particular day. Will continue for foreseeable future
-- In your office and its only you, no mask. In contact with anyone else, mask must be on.
-- Actual Coronavirus testing will be done based on symptoms
-- No conversations or interest in merging with the SunBelt from CUSA's side
-- If Tommy was at Lafayette, he'd be trying to move up into CUSA too
-- No one in CUSA has any interest in the SunBelt
-- The savings that would be gained would be minimal at best, which is not enough to for a merger to make sense
-- We are investing in our program and our conference and we don't have an interest at all in merging with the Sun Belt
-- CUSA is working to do more geographical scheduling within the league, may play more division opponents more often
-- All schools are sharing ideas at this point on how to bring student athletes back to campus and stay safe, we all want to be back as quickly as possible
-- We need fans in the stands, that makes us more money that money games do
-- Worst case scenario for us is games with no fans, but we would survive
-- Very optimistic we'll play games with fans in the stands, but there could be some modifications
-- We are continuing to have discussions on what home games will look like, but we won't jump to conclusions like some schools have. We'll have plenty of plans prepared to be able to put in place at a moments notice. I doubt we'll be able to require people to have masks. Aramark will be modifying some of the self serve stations and things of that nature, will have hand sanitizer all around the stadium
-- NCAA relaxing the attendance requirements gives us more flexibility
-- Keeping an eye on UNLV game, have talked to other schools as back up plans for week one, but no reason to believe we will have to make any changes at this point
-- No contractual issues w/ UNLV game. Deal was signed so long ago by previous AD to be played in Sam Boyd. We thought we'd get a chance to play in new Raiders stadium, but we won't. We'll show up and play the game in Sam Boyd Stadium like was originally agreed to.
-- 65-70 football players will start reporting on June 1, won't have any issues breaking them up while on campus. **One reporter did ask him how you keep them separated when they are in their dorms/apartments, I just shook my head.
-- Trying to figure out how to get kids that live on campus but are returners a place to stay so that they can get here as quick as possible
-- We'll try to manage who the kids/players are around, but we are smart enough to know that 18-23 year old kids are going to hang out with each other off campus
-- Live cameras to be installed at construction sites early next week
-- We have the best custodian staff in the country, we will have things sanitized, we take pride in it
-- Cory wrapped up with one final Coronavirus question and Tommy joked that Cory must really be worried about this thing and he promised him that he'll have it all sanitized for him so that he can still come cover Tech. It was a joke, but it made my day.
I'll answer any questions you all may have.
I'll recap it.
-- Tommy and other senior staff members are back in the office
-- Voluntary workouts start for football on June 8th. Physicals start June 1st. Will be groups of 10, will do our part in keeping everyone broken up while at the football facility
-- Hester will overlook the workouts
-- Both hoops teams will return the following week on June 15th, or maybe first week of July, haven't made that decision final yet
-- Coaching staff for football will be back in office on June 1st, other sports coaching staffs will be back in office when Gov moves to Phase 2
-- Trainers are screening everyone in athletics everyday. Temp check, series of questions asked, get a colored wristband for that particular day. Will continue for foreseeable future
-- In your office and its only you, no mask. In contact with anyone else, mask must be on.
-- Actual Coronavirus testing will be done based on symptoms
-- No conversations or interest in merging with the SunBelt from CUSA's side
-- If Tommy was at Lafayette, he'd be trying to move up into CUSA too
-- No one in CUSA has any interest in the SunBelt
-- The savings that would be gained would be minimal at best, which is not enough to for a merger to make sense
-- We are investing in our program and our conference and we don't have an interest at all in merging with the Sun Belt
-- CUSA is working to do more geographical scheduling within the league, may play more division opponents more often
-- All schools are sharing ideas at this point on how to bring student athletes back to campus and stay safe, we all want to be back as quickly as possible
-- We need fans in the stands, that makes us more money that money games do
-- Worst case scenario for us is games with no fans, but we would survive
-- Very optimistic we'll play games with fans in the stands, but there could be some modifications
-- We are continuing to have discussions on what home games will look like, but we won't jump to conclusions like some schools have. We'll have plenty of plans prepared to be able to put in place at a moments notice. I doubt we'll be able to require people to have masks. Aramark will be modifying some of the self serve stations and things of that nature, will have hand sanitizer all around the stadium
-- NCAA relaxing the attendance requirements gives us more flexibility
-- Keeping an eye on UNLV game, have talked to other schools as back up plans for week one, but no reason to believe we will have to make any changes at this point
-- No contractual issues w/ UNLV game. Deal was signed so long ago by previous AD to be played in Sam Boyd. We thought we'd get a chance to play in new Raiders stadium, but we won't. We'll show up and play the game in Sam Boyd Stadium like was originally agreed to.
-- 65-70 football players will start reporting on June 1, won't have any issues breaking them up while on campus. **One reporter did ask him how you keep them separated when they are in their dorms/apartments, I just shook my head.
-- Trying to figure out how to get kids that live on campus but are returners a place to stay so that they can get here as quick as possible
-- We'll try to manage who the kids/players are around, but we are smart enough to know that 18-23 year old kids are going to hang out with each other off campus
-- Live cameras to be installed at construction sites early next week
-- We have the best custodian staff in the country, we will have things sanitized, we take pride in it
-- Cory wrapped up with one final Coronavirus question and Tommy joked that Cory must really be worried about this thing and he promised him that he'll have it all sanitized for him so that he can still come cover Tech. It was a joke, but it made my day.
I'll answer any questions you all may have.
