How TCU football is readying for its first plane trip in the time of COVID-19
TCU athletics feels good about how its COVID protocols have worked so far this fall and, as of Wednesday morning, the department is confident about the football team taking its first plane trip to West Virginia this weekend.
With COVID cases spiking across the country, the SEC has been forced to postpone four games this weekend, including Texas A&M-Tennessee, Alabama-LSU, Auburn-Mississippi State and Missouri-Georgia.
But TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati provided optimism on Wednesday morning about the football team playing West Virginia on Saturday in Morgantown. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m.
“I think our travel plan is really good and well thought out,” Donati said. “Everyone on the travel party will enter the bubble on Friday after we complete testing and will remain in that bubble until we return to Fort Worth on Saturday evening.”
TCU’s soccer and volleyball teams have made successful plane trips this fall, and the expectation is the football team will do so too even with a larger traveling party. Everyone who is making the football trip will go through COVID testing on Friday morning in Fort Worth before boarding the plane for Morgantown.
For the most part, TCU and the Big 12 have had success in playing games more often than not this fall. There have been disruptions, though, including the football opener against SMU, a soccer match at Kansas State and volleyball matches against Kansas and Texas being postponed.
“Overall, it’s gone really well,” Donati said. “There have been disruptions and interruptions — those are inevitable — but we have planned for those and there have been fewer than anticipated.”
TCU football coach Gary Patterson addressed the team’s first plane trip during his weekly news conference, saying the structure and process for each game is essentially the same. With the plane trip, Patterson said, the team may just have to leave a little earlier and take extra precautions in the air.
“Probably everybody will have goggles and a mask sitting on the airplane,” Patterson said. “As a general rule, I think the plane’s air is actually clean. And we’re not really traveling with anybody else, like we usually do. It’s just basically the team, doctors and those kind of people, so we’ll be a little bit more spread out than what we usually are.”
Wuerffel Trophy nominees
The Wuerffel Trophy, which honors college football players for their community service, announced its nominees this week. There were 97 players nominated for the award.
TCU linebacker Garret Wallow is the team’s nominee. Other nominees from Texas-based colleges include SMU QB Shane Buechele; Texas QB Sam Ehlinger; Baylor LB Terrel Bernard; Texas A&M QB Kellen Mond; Texas Tech DB Zech McPhearson; UTSA LB Solomon Wise; and Houston DL Payton Turner.
Semifinalists for the award will be announced on Nov. 29 and finalists announced on Dec. 8. The winner is expected to be announced the week of Dec. 26.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 10:56 AM.
