Jaylen Twyman and Patrick Jones don’t know when they’ll be brought back to Pitt’s South Side practice facility to start playing football again, but the Panthers’ star defensive linemen will be ready when the call comes.
“I feel like if we had a game tomorrow, we’ll be straight,” Twyman said Wednesday during a Zoom meeting with local reporters. “I would say probably a couple weeks for camp just to knock off the little bit of rust. But as far as game shape, I feel like we’re ready for a game tomorrow as far as a whole collective unit. Even in our Zoom meetings, Coach Bates is doing pushups every day to give us motivation and stuff like that.
“But once we put on the pads and all that other stuff, we probably really only need a couple weeks to bang against each other and put some new plays in.”
“I feel like I’m ready to go now,” Jones added. “We didn’t have spring ball so my body’s not really beat up from spring ball, and I feel like the team’s been grinding and we’re all in pretty good shape. So I feel like when we get called back, we’re going to be ready.”
Pitt hasn’t held a practice since Friday, May 6. That was the first week of spring camp, and the players went on spring break the next day. The COVID-19 pandemic broke on a national scale the following week and the Panthers never returned to campus.
Twyman and Jones were in Atlanta with fellow defensive lineman Deslin Alexandre during spring break. When the University of Pittsburgh canceled in-person classes and went to online instruction for the remainder of the spring semester, Twyman and Jones went home - Twyman to Washington, D.C., and Jones to Virginia.
Twyman returned to Pittsburgh three weeks ago and Jones came back two weeks ago, but they were never all that far from the Pitt football program. New strength coach Mike Stacchiotti gave the players an outline of daily workouts, including running and lifting plus bodyweight exercises for players who didn’t have access to weights.
On top of that, the NCAA loosened restrictions on the virtual meetings coaches could hold with players, so Pitt’s staff has been seeing the players on a daily basis. The Panthers hold team meetings, special teams meetings and individual meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays and position group and unit meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Still, all parties are anxious to get back to live, in-person interaction, both on and off the field. For now, though, Twyman said the best the coaches have given him is something of a call to be alert, as the return to practice and workouts could happen at any point.
“They said to keep our eyes open and don’t make any big plans or anything like that. They’re going back and forth with the NCAA and trying to find a new date for us to come back since Pennsylvania went into the yellow. They want to make sure that we’re in good hands, and when we do come back, they have said that we’re going to be broken up in eight to ten groups, small groups, with everybody wearing a mask and stuff.”
That return could come sooner rather than later. On Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Council reportedly voted to allow voluntary workouts for football and men’s and women’s basketball starting June 1. There’s no indication of whether or not Pitt will jump at that first available date, but Twyman and Jones both said they’re not concerned about potential health risks when they return.
“I’m 100% ready to go back, get back to work,” Jones said. “At the same time, you have to trust that your brothers are doing the right thing and I trust all my brothers, so I’m 100% comfortable.”
Jones said that he’s not considering the lingering, if diminishing, possibility that the 2020 football season could be canceled.
“I keep that thought out of my head. I just saying there’s going to be a season because I believe in speaking stuff into existence. I believe words are powerful. So I just keep saying there’s going to be a season. Gotta keep working. Gotta keep that type of energy.”
