Will Healy Interview

So, if you haven't heard, in the last hour the breaking news is that the Big Ten university presidents have officially voted to postpone the fall college football season to the spring. Well, Nebraska isn't on that train. Nebraska is a part of the Big Ten Conference, but they seem interested in playing ball right now, not in the spring, so this is a statement they just put out in the last 10-15 minutes. Quote, We are very disappointed in the decision by the Big Ten Conference to postpone the fall football season, as we have been and continue to be ready to play.

That is the degree of the statement. They are looking to join a conference or to play independent for this football season. Welcome to 2020, am I right?

Will Healy, Charlotte head football coach, is now with us. And you have a couple changes to your schedule as well. But before we get to that, you tend to be a pretty optimistic guy. It's why we like having you on this show. You are fairly entertaining as well.

That helps. What is the source of your optimism that we're going to be playing football in about a month? Well, I think first off, thanks for having me on. Secondly, I think things have gone pretty well here.

Testing our protocol, what our players feel about their health and safety. You know, I think that it's anytime you refresh Twitter, there's a news story that's out there. Some good, some bad. Some true, some not.

And so I think you can drive yourself insane with some of that stuff. But I know what's happened in this building. I know what the mindset is of our players.

I know the games that we've been able to schedule. And, you know, I can't help but, maybe I am optimistic. I believe we can do it. And I believe we can do it with our players' health and safety at the forefront of every decision we make, which that's never changed. So as long as they'll let us keep going out and practicing. We are, I mean, I'm having multiple conversations weekly with our medical professionals. Here's how, I mean, I'm going through the practice script.

Here's how we're practicing. And I mean, I'm the first one that, like, there is risk playing football. There was risk without COVID playing football.

And that's a story that's been heard over the last couple years as well. There's injuries, there's concussions, there's, you know, all kinds of things that already go on with playing the game of football. We added another one to it, and it's one that we don't know a whole lot about. So we are taking it very seriously. You know, obviously we're testing weekly. We had another test today.

So we tested about 200 people today. We'll see how that goes after you've been in close contact with each other during practice, you know, now four times. And they had OTAs and some of that for the last two weeks.

So that'll be interesting to see how that comes back. But our players have handled it really well. It's important to them that they stay safe. They believe that we can do both.

We can play football and stay safe. And I think they're also really comfortable and confident in the environment that we're putting them in. You know, I mean, think about this now, like we're practicing, we're starting meetings at 8am every morning. They go eat breakfast at 630, come over, we meet, we practice. So we know that we're, you know, we're going to be able to tell pretty quickly in the morning if they've been going out the night before.

We have tremendous support from a medical perspective. We are testing. We are asking every single day when they come in, come in the office, you know, we're testing their temperature. We're doing a temperature check.

We're doing a questionnaire with any symptoms. If you don't eat like it's something if you feel 99% instead of 100, right, stay at home. Let's feel better. Let's not take any chances. We're feeding them properly with their hydrating properly.

They're building their immune system. I mean, we can do it. And if somebody tells me we can't, then I'll support them. I'll, you know, if my boss comes to me and says we can't do it or our president or our medical professionals believe that it's going in a different direction, then I'm going to listen to them because I'm not the expert in this. But I know that right now we've got a football team who's really wanting to go play.

And I want to make their dreams a reality. Charlotte football coach Will Healy with us here on Sports Hub Giant. I know you have a lot of admiration for Davos Weenie because we've talked about it. And he said a lot of the same things that you're saying about your program and your protocols about the program that he is running right now.

And he also said something last night. I want to get your reaction to this is something from Dabo when he met with reporters at about this time yesterday. They are student athletes. They are not just students. They're student athletes.

That's part of why they came. And we've always been on campus as long as I've been in college athletics before the student body. We've always had camp. We've always been on campus for a month or so before the students get here. This year is just a little bit few weeks long longer. But they're student athletes.

And yes, it's a unique year. But we can they can do the student part or we can still all be students online. But you can't be an athlete online. You can do the you could still be a student online. You can't be an athlete online.

We hear from the athletes we saw the chorus of it essentially guys begging to play they want to play. Do you think they want to play so much based on the conversations you're having with your guys that they wouldn't mind taking classes online, essentially being in an on campus bubble, if you will? Well, I do believe right now with a lot of professors choosing to go online that you are probably creating the closest thing you'll ever create in college athletics to a bubble. You know, we are still planning on going on campus classes. But I know that a lot of our guys classes have been moved online. And then I know when they are going to class that there's going to be six feet or more separation, everybody's going to have a mask on, including the professor.

So you know, same thing with the dining halls, you know, I mean, you're obviously adding more people to the mix, right? There's no question about that. I think that what we have seen with the guys who have tested positive in our program, that it hasn't come from here, it hasn't come from a workout, it hasn't come from, from a practice or something like that. Now, this week will tell a lot, right?

What happens with the test today? Now, I don't know if I'll be able to sit on here and tell you the same thing if we get some positives back with that. But it's it's the decision that they're making on the weekends or when they get free time that we've had.

And it's not they haven't been like bar hopping or anything like that. I mean, we had, we had one that tested positive, he was moving somebody in the dorm, right, and just around people outside of our football bubble. So I get what Davos saying, I think that we're doing as close as we possibly ever could to that right now. You know, I've never been a big fan of online classes, because I really want our players to be in class and have that relationship with a professor. I think that's a big part of the college experience. But we're moving away from that right now for for health and safety reasons. And I understand that. But it is limiting the risk by not being sitting by not sitting next to, you know, somebody in a 300 seat classroom, you know, with it packed full. So I just understand where he's going. And I think that it definitely helps with some of that with it being online.

Charlotte football coach will Healy with us on sports hub triad. I don't want to get you in trouble. So don't be too honest enough where you might get in trouble. But have you and your staff already begun discussing if the big 10 were to cancel? What that might mean from a transfer perspective? You know, I don't know how you legitimately call a guy in the transfer portal right now and say, you can come here and come play and I promise you, you'll have the ability to play this fall.

I, you know, I'm sure that it's blowing up and I'm sure getting guys are getting calls from everywhere. But until you got 100% certainty you were playing, I don't think I could I could do that in an honest way and get guys off of some of those rosters. Other guys may know more than I do and may feel more comfortable with doing that. But for me right now, I got to get answers to our own players before I'm worried about going to recruit somebody else to come out to the roster. And I think you're seeing a lot of guys that I mean, to be honest with you, if you're in week two a camp and you just got a bunch of extra scholarships sitting around, you probably didn't feel that great had been through it anyway. You know, I mean, most guys are probably going to be right around 85 scholarships right now. So I don't know how many spots will be left unless guys are opting out. And I don't know that the NCAA has come out with a statement on can you replace those numbers if a guy opts out.

So if they say that, then I could see some some guys hopping in the portal and being picked up pretty quickly. How pleased are you with the schedule you've put together now with North Carolina and Duke on it? Well first off, no one for either one of those weeks is allowed to compare head coaches. Mike Brown and David Cutcliffe versus Willie Lee is not a great matchup.

I think it's incredible personally for me to go against those two guys because I have so much respect for them and they've been so good to me. David Cutcliffe's been a guy that I mean, growing up in the state of Tennessee, I mean, he was a hero. And, you know, he's always been so willing to share and just such a great football coach that has taken a different path. You know, I think about the number of times that David Cutcliffe could have left Duke and taken another job where maybe people would say was more of a followed program. And he felt really good with his quality of life and what he could build there.

And he didn't fall into the temptation of just taking a job that would pay more money, you know. And then you got Mack Brown that's already won a national championship that's back at North Carolina for the second time, that I would argue with you that program probably has as much momentum as any program in the country right now. It's a top 20 team in the country a year after he takes a job that's got a top five class, recruiting class in the country and they're rolling. And Mack Brown's always been a mentor, but I don't know if I could have navigated through the last five months without him.

I mean, we talked, you know, a couple times a week. And so just idols of mine, you know, you're playing a top 20 program and then you're playing Duke, which I know they are ecstatic about getting the chance to get out on the field this year and will be a really, really good football team. So those are tall tasks for our program. But I know great experiences and extremely well coached, talented football teams, but incredible that we could find an opportunity and give our administration a lot of credit and thanks to North Carolina for scheduling this game when everybody is looking for games right now. Will Healy with us, Charlotte head football coach, before we let you go, there's two quick things that my producer was very curious about when it comes to, I mean, Governor Cooper, he had the phase two extended, which makes things difficult for a lot of us and maybe football as well.

But he's most curious in this. If bars remain closed, Will Healy, what does that mean for Club Lit? All right. So Club Lit is going to be six feet of social distancing mask on for 14 minutes and 59 seconds in a space that is large enough to be able to hold that amount of people. So we may be the only club in the state of North Carolina who plans on reopening as soon as we have the opportunity. So, yes, I mean, I've got even a better looking dad bot than I did a year ago, and I'm extremely excited to show it off. What does the CDC say about taking off your shirt and putting on a mascot head?

As long as your nose and mouth is covered, then it's within guidelines. I've already checked. You're the best, man. It's good to hear from you.

I hope we're going to be playing ball sometime soon and that we'll be catching up around that time. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate you.

Have a good day. There you go. That's Will Healy.

He's about as good as they come. Charlotte, head football coach, what other questions did you have about Club Lit that you wanted to have addressed? But we just ran out of time. I didn't know if beverages, I guess they can't be shared anymore. And if everyone has to wear a mask, then how are you going to enjoy the beverages?

Is there a straw? Are you going to strap IVs in? Just tons of questions. Yes, yes. Things are very concerning. Speaking of things that are concerning, the Pac-12 has a press conference set for 4.30. So we need one more league to dump out so we can hit... Oh, that's right. Yesterday, I said an over-under at six and a half FBS conferences playing football this year because you had the Mountain West drop out and the MAC, which if you don't know, there are 10 FBS leagues that had us down to eight. So I said at the end of yesterday's show, by the end of today, will we be at under six and a half? I took the under, you took the over on that. So we need to see what Larry Scott has to say from the Pac-12. All right. In honor of Cane's Bruins tonight, game one, I'm going to list off the top five Boston movies ever. Next on the drive.