Notre Dame Football: University outlines plan for players to return to campus

Notre Dame football continues to progress towards opening the season in a slightly altered fashion on Labor Day weekend in Annapolis, Maryland.

Today, administrators revealed its plan for Notre Dame football players to return to campus to begin preparations for the 2020 season.

According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, Irish players will begin moving into the Morris Inn on Monday to start a quarantine period that may last up to a week. Players will take a COVID-19 test prior to commencing voluntary workouts on June 22nd.

The voluntary workouts will proceed in a series of phases beginning with groups of no more than 10 participants. The next phase would expand the group size to no more than 50 players. Finally, after the completion of the first 2 phases, workouts could proceed with an unlimited number of athletes – perceivably the entire football team.

Notre Dame’s team physician, Dr. Matt Leizler, told Dinich, “…there’s an element of this that’s kind of like building an airplane as you fly it, in that we’re learning so much more every week. Which in some ways is fantastic — we’re learning more about this virus and we can use it to help us keep our players and our staff safe — but it’s a moving target at times.”

In conjunction with testing, Notre Dame football players will undergo daily wellness checks where their temperature will be checked and a symptom questionnaire will be administered.

Inside the weight room, the team will notice some differences to the layout. Equipment has been moved to provide a more linear flow where those working out can move from a single entrance to a single exit.

The Fighting Irish open the season against the Naval Academy on Labor Day weekend. The game will be played in Annapolis for the first time in the rivalry’s history. It was originally scheduled for Dublin, Ireland but was moved due to concerns over COVID-19.