SEC football players set to begin an altered preseason camp they hope to finish

Crimson Tide Photos / Alabama senior running back Najee Harris and his Crimson Tide teammates will have their first practice of 2020 on Monday, with all 15 of their spring workouts in Tuscaloosa having been scratched by the coronavirus outbreak. Crimson Tide Photos / Alabama senior running back Najee Harris and his Crimson Tide teammates will have their first practice of 2020 on Monday, with all 15 of their spring workouts in Tuscaloosa having been scratched by the coronavirus outbreak.

By David Paschall August 17, 2020 4 min read

Talk about giving it the ol’ college try.

The Southeastern Conference is scheduled to begin preseason football practices Monday amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has already resulted in several conferences canceling their 2020 seasons, including the Big Ten and the Pac-12. Even the SEC, which is electing to press forward along with the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12, postponed the start of practices, which were originally set to commence Aug. 7.

“We all want to play,” Alabama senior running back Najee Harris said, “but we’re all going into fall camp wondering if we’re going to play or not.”

Given that eight of the 14 SEC institutions never conducted their first spring workout, it will seem like an eternity for many players throughout the league since their last practice. It may also seem like an eternity until Sept. 26, which is when the SEC is targeted to begin its 10-game schedule consisting solely of league contests.

The league will release its schedule at 7 p.m. Monday on the SEC Network.

David Paschall

David Paschall has covered sports at the Chattanooga Times Free Press since 1999 and wrote for the Chattanooga Free Press in the nine years before that. David has mostly covered college athletics, with a focus on the University of Georgia from 2000 to 2019 and the University of Tennessee since 2020. He grew up in Chattanooga and is a graduate of the Baylor School and Auburn University. David has received multiple writing awards and has served as a Heisman Trophy voter since 2003. He has also worked in radio in Chattanooga and has been on the SEC Network's "Classic Rewind" series since 2014. David and his wife, Kelly, have three children — Conner, Emily and Spencer.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.