Just like the rest of us, college football coaches had to adjust to life amid the global pandemic.
As UCF co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Alex Golesh can attest, stay-at-home orders and social distancing directives completely changed the structure of team sports. Instead of daily meetings and practice, coaches and players had to shift to teleconferencing. The changes have been just as significant in the recruiting world with in-person visits off the table for the foreseeable future, plus dealing with the impact of no spring evaluation or summer camps.
Golesh, a new member of the UCF staff who arrived in January, spoke about the ongoing situation during a Thursday video teleconference with local media. Here's a breakdown of his key comments during the 30-minute interview.
-Making the best of a bad situation? With the typical routine thrown out the window, the staff pivoted to spend time on things they probably wouldn't have otherwise done.
"It's been a really interesting couple months, but I think a productive couple months," Golesh said. "It's given us an opportunity to do some projects we haven't been able to do in the past, from a self-scout perspective, a deep dive into your own playbook. Really even your process of everything and how you approach things. It's been a really interesting process from that regard.
"It's also been a once in a lifetime opportunity to see your own kids throughout the day a little bit. I've never seen their process of waking up and getting ready for school and that part of it. That's been fascinating. There's been some really good positive things in that regard."
-Golesh came to UCF from Iowa State where he had spent the past four seasons.
"My family moved (to Orlando) right at spring break," Golesh said. "That was always the plan, to get the kiddos into school after spring. Then we went on this lockdown deal. So a lot of home schooling going on at the house. Everybody is settled in. We've got the whole family here. I probably get one call or text a day asking if it's better to be quarantined in Orlando than Ames, Iowa and the obvious answer is yeah."
-Golesh said all coaches received a crash course in technology as they became more familiar with the various tools to enhance communication (Zoom, video calls, etc.). It still doesn't replace face-to-face interaction, something Golesh, the self-described "new guy," had been looking forward to.
"The one part you miss out, especially with me being a new guy, is the relationship part," Golesh said. "I was really excited about spring ball to build relationships with players outside of my position group. I've been able to develop some. It's forced you as a coach to create those rather than letting them happen organically as you deal with situations coming up in practice. True colors come out when you deal with adversity. In that regards, that's the part that has been tough, trying to build relationships with the guys in the program."
-The team only spent four spring practices together on the field, so player evaluation going forward will be a little more difficult. Golesh hopes they'll have some time together in the summer before preseason camp begins.
"(Evaluation) is the biggest challenge," Golesh said. "Especially the guys who didn't play a lot last season or redshirted. Those are the guys you wanted to find out about. At my position, we had two guys come in at the midyear. On the o-line, we had a grad transfer we wanted to take a look at. The guys who redshirted, what role can they have?
"I think fall camp will be critical in that regard and you hope to get a little bit of summer to work with these guys. It'll be interesting how fall camp is handled. You've got to be smart to prevent injuries. Depending on how much time you have with them, at some point you've got to strap it on. When adversity strikes, who is going to respond? Fall camp will be huge. Hopefully July leading up to that will be huge. You hope those first couple games you can figure things out heading into league play, but the first game you've got to be ready to roll too.
"Luckily for us on offense, we've got a good feel for guys coming back because we have guys who have played football at almost every spot. It's about the two-deep."
Golesh added that the incoming recruiting class will be the group affected the most because they likely won't get a full summer. He did appreciate that the NCAA recently allowed college coaches to spend more time communicating with signees, allowing them to participate in teleconference meetings, so they can begin the learning process.
-A "typical day" for Golesh usually begins around 7:30 or 8 a.m. and ends around 6 p.m. He'll sometimes do some quick recruiting work first, send off some messaging before they meet as a staff (virtually) at 8. The communication with current players begins around 9 and that could basically be a wellness check (just seeing how players and their families are doing, catching up with their academic progress, etc.). On the football side, they could review some installation. It's a little bit different now because they're in "summer installation mode" whereas a few weeks they were in "spring ball mode."
That's usually done by 10:30. The rest of the morning is spent formulating plans to fall camp, how to work with the summer when players can return, etc. The afternoons are usually spent exclusively on recruiting. There's a lot of calling high school coaches as well as communicating with prospects and their families. Sometimes that's doing Zoom chats or FaceTime.
-What will be the emotion when football returns?
"I think it'll be awesome," Golesh said. "The old adage of 'you don't know what you had until you lose it?' I think we as coaches realized the part we love about this is the day-to-day with our players and the camaraderie with the coaches. When you get that taken away from you, I think it makes you love it even more."
-Speaking more about recruiting, Golesh explained the concept of "virtual visits" but said it's really not a replacement for an actual visit.
"Probably the biggest selling point outside of the football program, it's the city of Orlando and the beautiful campus," Golesh said. "I think there's nothing like stepping your feet on the campus and seeing it. It's been trying to come up with creative ways to deliver that to the recruit and his family. Having the ability to meet everybody has been tough. For a recruit, outside of the position coach or coordinator or head coach, there's so many other people involved in the day to day with these guys. Strength staff, academics, player development, nutrition and all these things that are so important. That's been the biggest challenge is trying to deliver that to them.
"Virtual visits is one in terms of being able to use a platform like Zoom to connect recruits and their families. Even just the interaction of your everyday communication with the recruit. There's been a lot more of, 'Hey man, let's jump on Zoom and we can talk more about how we use certain positions.' Or, 'Let's use Facetime.' I feel like the constant phone calls probably get a little bit redundant when you can't get in front of the athlete. Using technology in that regard and presenting what you have on the football side, the support side, trying to bring it all together."
-Going forward, evaluation becomes a lot more trickier as high school players won't have the benefit of spring football or working out with coaches at a summer camp.
"You're counting more on the film you saw in their junior and sophomore year, so relationships with these high school coaches and trusting what they have to say," Golesh said. "You're missing out on the spring evaluation. You're missing out on these camps which are critical in June and July to evaluate guys. There's so much growth from a young man's junior year when they're 16 and a half, 17 and now they're going into their senior year. These last six months are so critical to their development. That's the part you're missing out on.
"There's a little bit, in the back of your mind, of letting it organically happen to where you'd like to see a lot of these guys play their senior year before you want to make concrete decisions. A lot of changes in that regard. Probably more in that regard than anything else."
-Asked when commitments might start to pick up (UCF currently has two), Golesh believes there will be an uptick soon due to the NCAA lengthening the dead period, plus emphasized the point of adding the right players and not concerning yourself with early numbers.
"I think a lot of guys were waiting for this June period to happen," Golesh said. "We had so many guys that were waiting for June to make an official or unofficial visit. We as coaches knew June would probably go dead and the NCAA announced it yesterday. Recruits and their families were waiting for June to come see the campus. You've seen in influx (in national commits) in the last week. In the next month, I think when guys realize they're not getting on a college campus (this summer), more decisions will be made.
"We're on the right guys. We're on really good players. I feel the same way Coach Heupel does. Not to put words in his mouth, but we don't to fill up. We want to get the right guys. When that happens isn't really important. I understand the recruiting side of it. Right now there's so much interest in the recruiting side because there's no live sports going on. There's so much attention on recruiting. But I don't know if it's super important to win the recruiting day now on Twitter as it is to win recruiting battles in December and February when it really matters because that's when guys sign.
"I'm not making an excuse for anything. Just being very honest. I don't think it matters when they jump in, but it matters when they sign. It's getting the right guys. There's a lot of philosophies out there. 'We gotta get momentum. We gotta guys to jump in.' Then you don't get the guys you wanted because you weren't willing to wait. I think Coach Heupel and I are the same way. We're really patient to get the right guys. We've got really big needs at certain spots and we're in it with high-end players."
