Temple University football will begin its season on Oct. 10 against Navy in Annapolis, Maryland. Originally scheduled for Sept. 26, the game was pushed back due to complications around the COVID-19 pandemic.
Playing college football this fall wasn’t always a given.
While The American Athletic Conference never postponed its season, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 conferences had postponed theirs, impacting teams like Stanford, Ohio State, Rutgers and Washington.
But after intense pressure from fans, parents and coaches, those conferences reneged in September, putting players and coaches on the field to play after all.
Perhaps the loudest outcry for this season to be played came from the players themselves, in the student-athletes’ #WeWantToPlay movement. Temple graduate-student quarterback Anthony Russo tweeted on Aug. 10, “So much uncertainty … but so much work was put in to get to this point.. #WeWantToPlay.”
In a rushed effort to prepare for the season, the players were unable to scrimmage until just two weeks before the original start of the season.
This regular season will be far from normal. Players will be tested for COVID-19 routinely, practice with the anticipation of a game cancelation at any moment and play with no fans in Lincoln Financial Field.
Even with everything that went into making the season happen, and the uncertainty in maintaining it, Temple’s first game is four days away.
The Temple News predicts Temple’s 2020 football season
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