As BYU holds its annual football media day, all signs point to normalcy for 2021

Provo • As of Thursday, 47,000 tickets have been sold for BYU’s season opener against Arizona in Las Vegas on Sept. 4. Those trekking to Nevada will have the opportunity to attend Fan Fest at Craig Ranch Regional Park the night before the season opener.

All signs point to the program, as well as businesses and other institutions around the nation, returning to a new sense of normalcy as 2021 unfolds.

“We had tremendous support last year,” coach Kalani Sitake said. “… it’s going to be nice to see [the fans]. I know we’ve been looking forward to this. And then football is right around the corner.”

The first sign that the 2021 season will play out differently than 2020 came on Thursday when BYU hosted its annual football media day (which was canceled last year). After either rapid testing the morning of or providing proof of full vaccination, participants, coaches, players and staff could be seen roaming around the BYU Broadcast building sans masks. For the first time in more than a year, coaches and players conducted face-to-face interviews rather than through Zoom calls.

Assuming the pandemic continues to wane and BYU continues to take necessary precautions, the Cougars should be able to play the current Power Five-stacked schedule without incident.

Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said part of making sure there’s no hitches in the upcoming season is by encouraging players to get vaccinated and continue to take precautions.

“I’m happy to say it — I got [the vaccine] as soon as I could,” Roderick said. “I wanted to play football and do my job and just enjoy it. I think we all do, it was a hard year. Encouraging, definitely, everybody to be vaccinated.”

When it comes to what coaches and players are most excited about going back to a normal season, the consensus was having stadiums filled with fans once more.

There’s also no replacement for the energy fans bring to a game, especially against tough competition like BYU will face this fall. (The Cougars have seven P5 programs on the schedule.)

“I appreciate that energy that fans bring, whether you’re at home or on the road,” Roderick said. “There’s nothing like the electricity in a football stadium on Saturdays. Can’t wait for that.”

This story will be updated.

from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/3wEBeti