College Football is back … and so is the Big Ten
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Mary Margaret Ellison, Staff Writer
As one can imagine, this will be an interesting season of college football for players, reporters and fans. For Julia Morris, sports reporter for WYFF News 4, she’s been given a (virtual) front row seat to all the madness.
“The majority of players wanted to play and for that, I am for them,” expressed Morris. “If that is what they wanted, then good for them.”
Morris usually travels to different conference games each week to report, but that has come to a pause because of the ongoing coronavirus. This pause has especially affected Morris traveling to Clemson and South Carolina’s away games.
Clemson is only giving three passes to the media this season, and all of the passes went to three of the main newspapers in the state. Luckily for Clemson home games, Morris and crew will be able to report and capture shots, but that will only be able to happen in the stands and not on the field.
Another one of Morris’ biggest adjustments this season will be her lack of ventures to Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C., home of South Carolina Gamecocks.
“We will not go to any South Carolina games this season, which is very different,” Morris said. “I used to go to Columbia every Tuesday for their weekly press conference. We are not really allowed on site; everything is done through Zoom. It is weird, we are talking about the stories from our bedrooms when normally we would be talking about it outside of Williams Brice.”
Morris also shared her thoughts and feelings about watching the first games of college football. She thought that the little-to-no fans in the stands were a little crazy to see. Morris mentioned what stuck out to her was the media teams were pumping crowd noise. She said seeing it looked different but hearing it sounded the same.
“I am all for taking whatever precautions you need. As long as it doesn’t compromise the game,” Morris explained. “The last thing you want is an outbreak; that could compromise the whole season. Why not take the extra steps, if it doesn’t affect the game?”
Many have questioned if little-to-no fans have affected players performing at their best. Morris doesn’t believe so because the sound makes it seem real. She heard from a couple of freshmen who play for Clemson, and they said that they still had that nervous adrenaline, but when they made contact with another player, it all went away. Morris added it was a similar thing to what they would feel as if fans were there.
Clemson’s head football coach, Dabo Swinney, expressed just how happy he was to see his players on the field.
“If there were 100,000 fans there or not, the bottom line is that my guys are so happy to be out there on the field,” remarked Swinney. “They play to play; they don’t play based on how many people are in the stands.”
The Big Ten has decided to rejoin, but the Pac-12 hasn’t, yet. Morris affirmed that the Big Ten would start mid-October and will play eight games along with a conference championship.
“In terms of knowing the teams in both leagues, if the Pac-12 plays, there isn’t a team that would deserve to be in the playoff over another conference,” Morris explained. “If Ohio State is good enough only playing seven games and look as good as they did last year, they deserve to be in.”
