The coronavirus pandemic has brought college football, along with most every sport in the world, to a standstill. Arizona State coach Herm Edwards says he hopes his players take this quiet time to reflect on their lives.
"Well, I hope they think that every day we wake up is a blessing. And we take a lot of things for granted," he said Thursday morning on ESPN's Get Up. "And this is a time to reflect -- to reflect. To reflect on your life and understand that, all of a sudden, this thing has come upon us. And how we react going forward, I think, is very important.
"But you know what? When you think about our world, we live in a noisy world. It's very quiet now. We're not used to quiet. And I think when quiet comes, we gotta reflect on our lives, and be thankful for the days that we're here. We just take it for granted that every day we'll get up and it's gonna be good. Well, all of a sudden, it's still good, but it's different. And I think it gives you a lot of ... you gotta do some soul-searching now, and prioritize and reflect on your life."
It's still unclear whether the college football season will start on time or if there will be a season at all. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, told Snapchat's Peter Hambry that the only way professional sports will happen this summer is by holding events without fans in attendance and by keeping players in hotels. The College Football Playoff management committee discussed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on college athletics in a teleconference with Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday and conveyed that such a plan wouldn't work for college sports.
"We conveyed to him how different college is from the pros," CFP executive director Bill Hancock told ESPN's Heather Dinich, noting how colleges can't quarantine athletes in the same ways pro teams can because of their differing lifestyles highlighted by classes, trips to the dining hall and other potential walks around campus.
Edwards on Thursday expressed his concerns about playing in September if students aren't back on campus.
"I've said this before: If the students aren't on campus and we feel they're not safe, then the question I have to ask -- well, if they're not safe, are the players safe?" he said. "And this is a sport that we play -- it's not a social distancing sport, by the way, last time I checked. If you're a social distancing football team, you're not gonna win many games, by the way; this is a game built on contact. Now, they're not saying that you can't play, but it'd be very interesting."
He said that as a coach he understands the "unexpected is always gonna happen" and he can apply that to America's current situation.
"That's what I always think about; that's what you think about as a coach -- the unexpected, and what are you gonna do?" he said. "Well, we gotta find a way to be on the same page and listen to the game plan of the doctors. That's the game plan; it's not our personal game plan.
"We can't be a selfish player now, as citizens. We have to all be on the same team and respect each other. I think that's very important."
Edwards, a former analyst with ESPN, completed his second season as Arizona State's head coach in 2019.