Thursday, Texas Tech football head coach Matt Wells spoke to the media on the eve of fall camp. Here are some takeaways from what he had to say.
For the first time in months, Texas Tech football head coach Matt Wells held a press conference on Thursday, one day prior to the start of his program’s fall camp. So let’s take a look at some of the most important insights he shared. (You can watch the entire media session here.)
No positives after recent tests
Of course, Wells began with an update about his program’s health as it concerned the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this summer, 23 members of the football program tested positive for COVID-19 prompting many people to sound the alarm bells. However, it now appears that Tech is in better shape in that regard.
"“We’ve had, obviously, a few positives. Everybody’s recovered,” Wells said. “We had great news yesterday. [We] tested a tremendous amount of people inside the program; players, staff, a lot of our support groups,100% negative.”"
Obviously, this is the best possible news Wells could have shared. Not only does it mean that all of his players, coaches, and staff members are healthy but it means that there shouldn’t be any players missing time at the start of camp (at least due to COVID-19). Of course, that will likely change in the upcoming weeks but this gives us hope that the safety measures Texas Tech and the Big 12 have put in place are going to be effective in curtailing the spread of the virus.
"“We’ve got plans in place,” Wells said. “And we are certainly in the process of finalizing those plans with alternative plans for when we get sick or when we test positive cause it’s probably going to happen. “I’m proud of the discipline and all of the negative tests we’ve had for quite some time. But there are some things that are out of our control. We’re going to control what we can control within this building and that’s our attitude, our effort, and our ability to plan for change. “We’re gonna do everything right. We’re going to have a mix of virtual meetings and in-person meetings. We’re gonna be wearing masks at all times…But everything from [sanitizing] to the way we’re doing our locker rooms. We’re gonna have split locker rooms this year in terms of we will activate the game-day locker room and spacing guys out. The meetings the weight room all of that has been well thought out and I think we’ve got a great plan.”"
The head coach went on to say that the football program was close to finalizing plans as to how it would handle a scenario in which he or one of his assistants were to be quarantined. However, he did not provide any specifics saying instead that he would do so when the plans were finalized.