UGA football news: Be wary of Jere Morehead’s optimism for on-time 2020 season

University of Georgia President Jere Morehead is optimistic about the 2020 UGA football season starting on time, but don’t get too comfortable with that idea.

UGA football fans have been waiting for something … anything … to give them some hope about the 2020 season. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, questions have swirled around about how, when, or even if the 2020 football season would begin.

In a recent interview with WGAU’s Tim Bryant, University of Georgia President Jere Morehead expressed some optimism about the season not only taking place but beginning on time.

Morehead stated on the Mission: Tim-Possible podcast:

"“Our hope at this point, our expectation at this point is that we’ll have a normal football season and be able to play all of our games. We’re certainly working toward that goal. I think as time goes by and we see the course of the pandemic, we’ll have a better sense of when, for example, have football players back on campus. That’s a key issue because the football players need to get into conditioning. They need to be involved in practice. We didn’t have spring practice this year so at some point this summer, that will have to happen for us to have a normal football season.”"

All that optimism is great for Georgia fans, and certainly is a breath of fresh air compared to the sullen, gloomy reports fans have been getting since this entire pandemic began.

But in the words of Lee Corso … not so fast, my friends.

With there being no real timeline in place nationally and every state pretty much going by their own schedule for re-opening the economy and the chance for a second wave of the virus, how can we possibly expect 130 different schools to come to an agreement on when the season can start, if fans can be present, and what extra precautions need to be taken?

The biggest problem is this, simply put.

Different areas of the country, different states in those areas and certainly different metropolitan areas within those states have all been affected (or not) by the coronavirus in vastly different ways. Hence, some states feeling comfortable with people returning to a more normal routine while others see the need to continue a shelter-in-place order.

The determining factor in whether or not the 2020 college football season begins on time, or at all, really isn’t up to the NCAA, the athletic directors, or even Nick Saban (gasp…the horror!). It’s really up to the 130 individual school presidents.

If the president of USC doesn’t feel comfortable allowing students back on campus and re-opening the buildings, dorms, and classrooms, then there is no possible way the football team will be able to return to practicing, let alone playing in games.

That’s just one school in a major conference, and if USC isn’t able to play football, then that throws a monkey wrench into the entire Pac-12 schedule, not to mention the non-conference opponents the Trojans have scheduled.

See how the dominoes might begin to fall?

If you get just a handful of Division 1 schools that decide not to open for anything beyond virtual classes, there is no possible way to logistically handle and play a football schedule.

For goodness sake, look at the commotion and uproar that was caused by a single Florida-LSU game having to be moved and rescheduled due to Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Be optimistic, hope for the best, and accept what happens, but it would seem that University of Georgia President Jere Morehead hasn’t thought about what 129 other universities might do based on how their state, city, or campus has been impacted by COVID-19.

An on-time 2020 UGA football season? Sure, we’d all love to see it, but we can’t let unchecked optimism bring false hope to an already beleaguered group of fans — not just in Georgia — but all over the country.