As soon as major events like March Madness and professional sports leagues pulled the plug on their seasons, most coaches forced themselves to come to terms with the fact that if we were able to take the field this fall, football was going to look a whole lot different.
Now, as most states can see their first game on the horizon, coaches have a pretty good idea of the new protocols that will be in place on game day that will certainly feel different. But as out of the ordinary as it may feel and be, there will still be 11 players on offense and 11 on defense, right?
Well that may not be the case for one state looking to play football this fall.
In Vermont, one of the options being considered, according to WCAX, is moving away from "high-impact" 11-on-11 football, where under current conditions competitions are not allowed. However, the state is reportedly considering going to a 7-on-7 approach for the fall to abide by social distancing guidelines more effectively.
"There's almost no situation where there's going to be a lot of people together and because seven on seven is usually played with one hand touch, the closest somebody gets to somebody else is an arms length and it happens and then they go in different directions. So you can play the game and socially distance," St. Johnsbury HS (VT) head coach Rich Alercio shared with WCAX.
It is important to note that options are being weighed to get lineman involved, just not in the traditional way of firing off the ball from a three (or four) point stance.
"Most of the week of practice they would still be working on their offense of an defense of line skills but on the weekends, Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, they play inside linebacker, they play free safety, they play tight and they play fullback. You could play a quarter of bigs versus bigs, just go against each other," Alercio added.
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