JSU & Samford prepping for spring football season

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - With practice a little over a week away and gameday five weeks away, both JSU and Samford said they’ve learned a lot from watching the Power 5 play this fall, and they’re ready to begin the season, during a season, they never thought they’d ever play in.

Jacksonville State Athletics Director Greg Seitz believes playing a spring season has it’s benefits.

“We’re very excited about, I think FCS will have it’s own niche in the spring because you aren’t competing against FBS,” he said.

Seitz along with Samford AD Martin Newton said they’ve been in contact with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to see what worked for them and what didn’t to help shape their protocols this spring.

“Watching what they did and keeping up with what they did in the SEC, the Southern Conference picked up on a lot of those similar protocols that relates to COVID testing and how we’re going to be able to create that inner bubble,” said Newton.

JSU, who played four non-conference games this fall, will play on Sunday’s this spring, due to staffing issues. Samford in the SOCON, will continue to play on a traditional Saturday. Both schools will play conference-only schedules and will continue to test for COVID-19 on a weekly basis.

“For us and our conference, we are following the NCAA and will have to have a negative PCR test 72 hours prior to game day,” said Seitz.

“We will be testing three times a day,” said Newton.

Samford will kickoff the season on February 20th with JSU on the 21st.

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