College Football in Coronavirus Quarantine: On this day in CFT history - NBCSports.com

The sports world, including college football, has essentially screeched to a halt as countries around the world battle the coronavirus pandemic. As such, there’s a dearth of college football news as spring practices have all but been canceled at every level of the sport. And there’s even some concern that the health issue could have an impact on the 2020 college football campaign.

In that vein, we thought it might be fun to go back through the CollegeFootballTalk archives that stretch back to 2009 and take a peek at what transpired in the sport on this date.

So, without further ado — ok, one further ado — here’s what happened in college football on April 7, by way of our team of CFT writers both past and present.

(P.S.: If any of our readers have ideas on posts they’d like to read during this hiatus, leave your suggestions in the comments section.  Mailbag, maybe?)

2019

THE HEADLINE: WATCH: South Carolina walk-on nails kick during spring game, then gets awarded scholarship
THE SYNOPSIS: These types of videos will never, ever get old.  The recipient in this video, Parker White, went on to be the Gamecocks’ primary placekicker in 2019.  He made all 25 point-afters and 18-of-22 on field goals.

2018

THE HEADLINE: Steve Spurrier is returning to coach football… but will remain a Florida athletics ambassador all the same
THE SYNOPSIS: The Alliance of American Football was officially announced on this day, with Spurrier piloting the Orlando franchise.  The Ol’ Ball Coach’s return to the sidelines lasted eight games as the new pro league shuttered eight weeks into a 10-game season last April.

2018

THE HEADLINE: Nick Saban, on making QB decision: ‘You have a time frame. I don’t’
THE SYNOPSIS: The Nicktator gives zero you-know-whats about you peasants and your timelines.  Tua Tagovailoa, the freshman sensation who was the hero of the 2017 national championship game, was the favorite.  Jalen Hurts, the two-year starter, was the subject of myriad transfer rumors.  Tagovailoa ultimately won the starting job. Hurts ultimately transferred to Oklahoma.

2017

THE HEADLINE: Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield enters not guilty plea in Arkansas arrest
THE SYNOPSIS: Run, Baker, run!

2017

THE HEADLINE: Shaq Wiggins barred by Louisville from transferring to five schools
THE SYNOPSIS: The Bobby Petrino-led Cardinals petulantly barred the cornerback from transferring to Kentucky, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Purdue and Western Kentucky. On appeal, MSU was removed from the banned list. Wiggins ultimately transferred to Tennessee.

2016

THE HEADLINE: Waco police investigating “prominent Baylor football player” for alleged sexual assault
THE SYNOPSIS: This was one in a series of events that marked the beginning of the end for Art Briles with the Bears.

2015

THE HEADLINE: Report: Big 12 may get title game in ’16; ACC to three divisions?
THE SYNOPSIS: Half of the report was accurate.  Kind of.  After a seven-year absence, the Big 12 did reinstate its football championship game.  In 2017.  Obviously, three divisions in the ACC never happened.

2014

THE HEADLINE: Ohio State will pay $2 million to non-conference opponents
THE SYNOPSIS: Six years later, UConn confirmed that Ohio State will pay them $1.95 million.  For just one game.

2012

THE HEADLINE: More details from Petrino’s Sunday motorcycle accident
THE SYNOPSIS: The soap opera that was Bobby Petrino had entered its fifth day.  Three days later, the daytime drama was canceled.

2011

THE HEADLINE: Writer: ‘Bama supporter paid for five-star recruit
THE SYNOPSIS: Alabama went on to find no violations in their investigation of the recruitment of Brent Calloway.

2009

THE HEADLINE: BAD NEWS FOR THE SEC: A.J. GREEN IS 100% HEALTHY*
THE SYNOPSIS: Dealing with a groin injury throughout his true freshman season, Green caught 56 passes for 963 yards and eight touchdowns in 2008. In 2009, his statline read 53-808-6. In 2010, it was 57-848-9. The wide receiver was the fourth-overall pick of the 2011 NFL Draft.

(*Yes, back in the day, we used to scream out our headlines at our readers in all-caps. The move to NBC a couple of months later mercifully ended that practice.)

In arguing that coaches should get back to work on May 1 and the season should start on time, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy inadvertently argued that college football players are professional athletes. That, or indentured servants.

In an hourlong teleconference Tuesday that began with a 20-minute monologue, Gundy said, though he’s not 100 percent, the season should begin on time because players are young and, thus, “have the ability to fight this virus off” and because “we need to run money through the state of Oklahoma.”

He also said there are “too many people that are relying on” college football the sport not to be played.

Gundy floated the idea that games could be played without fans in the stands and students on campus.

Is Mike Gundy aware of what he is saying here? pic.twitter.com/rjWUK6LM7W

— Kyle Boone (@Kyle__Boone) April 7, 2020

Here is some audio of what Gundy was saying about the May 1st target date. Interesting stuff… #okstate https://t.co/TJr7v67SFx pic.twitter.com/U0Vacd7BF3

— Jacob Tobey (@JacobRTobey) April 7, 2020

Others can debate about Gundy’s thoughts on testing and antibodies and the ability of a 22-year-old to “fight off COVID-19” — though I’d add Boise assistant Zac Alley, a 26-year-old, said his bout with the disease was like breathing with a knife in his ribs — but I’d like to talk about the economic implications of Gundy’s comments.

Gundy is not wrong at all that plenty of families depend on college athletics to put food on the table and that Cowboy football is an important economic engine of the state of Oklahoma. He’s exactly right, of course.

But to argue that a college scholarship is appropriate compensation for risking exposure to the virus while fans and students remain home — “We’re trying to find a way to pay everybody’s salary and keep the economy going.” — then either the players deserve a cut of that economy, or they’re nothing more than indentured servants whose labor belongs to others.

“I’m not taking away from the danger of people getting sick,” Gundy said. “You have the virus, stay healthy, try to do what we can to help people that are sick, and we’re losing lives, which is just terrible. The second part of it is that we still have to schedule and continue to move forward as life goes on and help those people.”

Boise State assistant coach Zac Alley revealed to reporters on Tuesday that is among the 392,000 and counting Americans to test positive for COVID-19. And he said it was terrible.

“I had no symptoms, no anything, and in about a 24-hour period I went from 0 to 100,” Alley told the Idaho Press. “I just had some sharp pains in my chest and all that. It got to a point that night where I was pretty short of breath and couldn’t breathe, and thankfully my girlfriend was like ‘we’re going to the ER’. When we got there they were saying thank God you came in.

“Every breath was kind of like taking a knife and sticking it through your ribs.”

Alley, 26, is in his second year on Boise State’s staff, where he coaches the Broncos’ outside linebackers and co-coordinates the special teams. He spent his previous eight years at Clemson as an undergraduate and graduate assistant.

He said he and his girlfriend quarantined at home as all good citizens have, and the only place he’d ventured out was the grocery store, where he theorizes he contracted the coronavirus from a shopping cart.

“As a young healthy person I didn’t think it would affect me as drastically as it did,” Alley said. “I mean my health deteriorated so fast and really I didn’t show any traditional symptoms of what they were saying other than the shortness of breath.”

Alley spent one day at the hospital but was discharged the same day. He is now symptom free.

Not surprisingly, two former Nebraska football players have found themselves s former students as well.

Citing a document obtained by ESPN, Paula Lavigne is reporting that redshirt freshmen Andre Hunt and Katerian LeGrone have been expelled from the University of Nebraska.  The expulsion was effective April 3 of this year.

In late August of last year, Nebraska confirmed that the two football players, Hunt, a wide receiver, and LeGrone, a tight end, had been indefinitely suspended by the program for unspecified reasons.  A little over three months later, it was reported that both of the players have been “found to have violated the school’s sexual misconduct policies and face a 2½-year suspension from the university.”

The extended suspension stemmed from an alleged rape of an NU student on Aug. 25 and, even as a police investigation remained open, no criminal charges had been filed.  There was a development on the legal front in mid-December, though, as LeGrone and Hunt were arrested on one count of suspicion of first-degree sexual assault and one count of suspicion of aiding and abetting first-degree sexual assault, respectively, even as neither had been formally charged at the time.

Yet another disturbing development surfaced around that same time as local media reported that an additional six sexual assault reports have been filed with the Lincoln Police Department that “are connected to either one or both of the former Husker players accused of sexual misconduct.” Four of the new reports involved non-consensual sexual penetration, three of which were designated as rape, while two included allegations of inappropriate touching of private parts.

“The additional six reports date back to the summer of 2018, with three of the alleged assaults occurring in the same UNL dorm room,” the Omaha World-Herald wrote.

As it relates to the incident that resulted in their arrests, Hunt and LeGrone have claimed that any sexual activity was consensual.  The alleged victim claimed it was non-consensual.

Hunt’s hearing on the two sexual assault charges was continued from April to May.  LeGrone’s hearing is scheduled for June.  Whether those court appearances go off as planned is uncertain because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In early December, Hunt and LeGrone entered the NCAA transfer database.  An attorney for Hunt, Carlos Monzon, told ESPN that his client is “already at a different university, and he’s playing.” Monzon declined to specify to which school Hunt had transferred.  LeGrone, meanwhile, is still listed in the portal.

A three-star 2018 signee, Hunt appeared in just two games as a true freshman and didn’t catch a pass.  Because he played in four or fewer games, he was able to use a redshirt for that season.  Prior to the suspension, he had been running with the first-team offense.

Legrone, also a three-star 2018 signee, caught one pass in three games for the Cornhuskers last season

Cal is the latest football program to see its depth impacted by Ye Olde Portal.

According to Rivals.com, Collin Moore has taken the first step in leaving the Cal football team by entering his name into the NCAA transfer database. On his personal Twitter account, Moore has not yet acknowledged the move to the portal.

TE Collin Moore of #Cal has entered the portal as a grad transfer. He has seen action in 14 games during the last two seasons totaling 2 receptions for 11 yards and 1 TD; 6'4" 240 lbs @CalRivals @rivalsmike @RivalsWoody

— NCAA Transfer Portal (@RivalsPortal) April 4, 2020

Now, for what’s seemingly becoming a daily disclaimer — or twice daily today — when it comes to transfers.

As we’ve stated myriad times in the past, a player can remove his name from the portal and remain at the same school. At this point, though, other programs are permitted to contact a player without receiving permission from his current football program.

NCAA bylaws also permit schools to pull a portal entrant’s scholarship at the end of the semester in which he entered it.

Coming out of high school in Novato, Calif., Moore took a greyshirt in 2016. And for those unfamiliar with that term? “A greyshirt is an incoming college freshman who postpones his enrollment in classes until the second term of his freshman year. This means they don’t take classes until the winter term. The NCAA allows college athletes five years to complete four years of eligibility after initial enrollment.”

Moore then didn’t play in 2017 for Cal football and took a redshirt. In 2018, the redshirt junior played in one game. This past season, he played in all 13 games, starting one of those contests.

In that action, Moore caught two passes for 11 yards and a touchdown. That lone score came in Cal’s Redbox Bowl win over Illinois.

Moore is set to graduate from Cal next month. That would allow the tight end to play immediately at another FBS school in 2020. The upcoming season would be his final year of eligibility.

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