August AD Yell: Ross Bjork

HOWDY!

The world of college athletics continues to evolve in these unprecedented times and things have the ability to change every 10-to-15 minutes. Instead of the normal AD Yell from my desk, lets host a virtual chat with my friends Andrew Monaco and Will Johnson in Studio 12.

We appreciate all that you do for Texas A&M Athletics and the 12th Man and I look forward to seeing everyone on the other side!

Gig 'Em Aggies!
Ross

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Will Johnson: Ross, I'll start with this. Yesterday, probably the biggest news in a while has come down with the decisions of the Big Ten Conference and the Pac-12 Conference as well to not play football or an athletics schedule in the fall semester. Your reaction to the Big 10 and Pac-12 announcements.

"Since Friday afternoon, the narrative started to shift around us, especially coming out of the Big Ten. The MAC obviously postponed their fall sports as well on Saturday morning. the Pac-12, the rumblings of all of that. You go into Sunday, and things are kind of pivoting with the players speaking up and #WeWantToPlay that started gaining traction. Then a little more news on Monday, and then there's sort of silence. And then we knew that the Big Ten and the Pac-12 were having meetings on Tuesday. Everyone anticipated the news. So we all were ready for that. Nothing really surprised us with those outcomes, but we know that things are fluid and things are changing. The quote that I've used is we're not day by day, we're '15 by 15'. We're 15 minutes at a time because things are rapidly changing. And I'm sure when we get off here, there'll be something else that has changed throughout all of this, or some new report or whatever.

"But the decision…look, we're not in their shoes. We have to respect their processes and their procedures. We can only go off of what we know, and that is patience, medical guidance, data. We gave ourselves time for a reason, to allow our universities to open up. We start school here at Texas A&M next week. Students are starting to move back in to dorms and apartments, and the college town that is College Station and Bryan is starting to rev back up. Grocery stores are packed. We're starting to see all that. So to me, we have to stay the course. We can't let the noise around us affect us, even though it's very noisy. It's very bumpy. It's going to be rocky over the next couple weeks as things are just evolving. But my mindset is look, we have to try. We provide opportunities. That's our job, every single day we wake up. We just saw Jhamon Ausbon in the in the hallway here, and I mean the glow on his face, and the smile…that young man, he wants to play. He looks great. He's trimmed down. He's lost some weight. He says that he's faster. He's like, 'We're good, man, let's go'. That's what we do. That's why we do what we do for young men like that. And so we were not going to give up, and we're going keep pushing until they say we that we can't."

WJ: Jhamon, I asked him, what concerns you about the season? He mentioned, I hope enough people get to see us play. He knows what they've been working towards and he's like, I want people to see it. Then there's always the capacity issue after that. But one of the phrases that we hear, and we heard it from Trevor Lawrence early on when the hash tag #WeWantToPlay was used, he mentioned there is a way forward. You've used that, there is a way forward, even after the announcements of the Big Ten and Pac-12. And does that come with a belief in the process that Texas A&M and the SEC has put in place to keep these young men safe, healthy and on their way towards a season?

"That's exactly right. And again it goes back to the playbook. The playbook that we've used every single time has been, the more time you have, the more info you'll have. The more time you have, the more you'll know about the virus, even though that's still evolving. Give us time to put the protocols in place. So just last Thursday, we announced the testing protocols that would take place during the season for all of our fall sports. So now we have that piece of information to say, this is how it will operate. The latest conversation has been around this myocarditis. We've known about that heart issue for eternity, really. In modern medicine, we test for that. We do initial screenings when athletes come on our campus. We did initial screenings when they return to activity for any cardiac issues. If anyone tested positive, they had to pass those cardiac tests before they could return after a positive test. So that's not necessarily a new piece of data, either. We've known about that. We have the protocols to make it as safe as possible. So to me, that's the track that we have to stay on. Again, it's easy to get distracted and noisy. I appreciate the players speaking out, not only here at Texas A&M, but nationally, saying we feel safer in our facilities. We trust the protocols. Do they have questions? Absolutely. They should have questions. We've tried to be accessible. We've tried to over-communicate. Coach Fisher has done a great job. We just had a head coaches meeting this morning, talking about sort of what's next and parameters around certain things. You've got to do those things, and if we do that, then I think and I believe that the student-athletes will say, 'Okay, I'm is protected as much as possible. I'll make the choice'. We've also given them the choice that if they do not want to play, then there's going to be opt-out parameters and those things are in place. So I believe we've done everything within our control to to put all the parameters in place."

Andrew Monaco: I have heard this time and again that conferences are just hoping. And when I hear that on a national level, I think, personally from March until now that's the absolute last thing that we've done here at Texas A&M. You have you have told us before there are so many plans and many that go off to the side because as you get more data, but there's this thought that they're just they're just hoping to play the season. That's the absolute last thing that's occurring here and throughout the SEC isn't it?

"Hope can be a strategy. It almost has to be in this in this case a little bit, and we have to be optimistic. But you also have to confront the brutal facts, right? And we've said that in our athletic department meetings…Hey, look, we want to have belief there's a pathway forward. But we also have to confront our brutal realities too. So I think you have to really combine both. But the optimism is based on the plan. It's based on the data. You have to have realities, and the realities are we have good protocols in place. You can still be hopeful. You can still be giddy. That's a word, right? We were giddy when we announced our football opponents last week. Some people were, some people weren't. But at least you had some good news. You had some some refreshing news like, 'Hey, we can do this'. You're moving forward. So it is a piece. We released the uniforms. That's a good thing. So I think you have to have a little bit of hope, but you also have the backup of the planning and the processes and the diligence and the input of all kinds of experts, and that's what we've tried to do. Stay informed with all that info. And then you sprinkle in the hope piece, and I think the combination allows you to have that confidence."

In the past week since we were with you last, where's the data pointing?

"Well, Texas is trending in a much better direction. We saw an uptick yesterday in cases (on Tuesday). But there was a downturn really the last seven days before that. So they're still kind of bouncing. But hospitalizations are looking terrific right now. They're going down. Brazos County continues to be on a really low pace in terms of positive cases and hospitalizations. And so I think our local health officials feel good about where we are right now. What we have to get through, and we've talked about this, is what happens when students return? There will be a surge. There will be an increase in positive cases among the student population. So we have to make sure that we are educating our athletes. We've created what we call 'functional units' around our teams. We can't really do bubbles, but essentially, if you're a part of the soccer program, you need to be on the inside. You need to be part of that functional unit. You can't have a lot of people going in and out of that functional unit that don't really have a working function, if you will. So we've created those to try to protect our student-athletes the best that we can. Classes are virtual for our student athletes. Almost 100 percent of our student-athletes are taking online classes, so we're doing the best we can to make sure that the data continues to go in a positive direction."

WJ: You're living in that '15/15' world, because news comes at you quickly. Things change. How do you define 'next hurdles to clear' to eventually get to September 26th and a kickoff to the season?

"I think a big thing that we need to learn from is what's happening during practices. Soccer and volleyball have already started…and so far, so good with our protocols. So far, so good with the safety measures. Footballs in a walk-through workout mode right now this week. We can start practices on Monday, August 17th. I think we need to see what that looks like. The NFL, most of those training camps are opening up, I think either August 14^th or the 17^th, depending on when their first games are. We're going to learn some lessons from that. You're going to see data based on students returning. You're going to see your communities and where that all goes. So to me, those are the next checkpoints over the next couple weeks, let's see what happens. It may turn for the worse, we don't know yet. But it also may give us a clearer window and a clearer pathway to get to that first game."

WJ: You mentioned talking about trending cases. Brazos County, essentially doing very well, at last check yesterday it was barely over 300 active cases. Now that's down from probably about 1,300 a month ago. One of the messages is, as far is getting to that September 26th date and hoping to play football, Aggies, Texas A&M, Bryan/College Station, they can still do their part to get us there, right?

"We can't let up, and I think that's the key. Wear the masking, the face covering, all those PSAs, all those messages. There's going to be lots of signage when students return to campus. We're already seeing a lot of that because we're working on campus. That's the key. We can't let up. We can't let up on the pursuit of playing for the student-athletes, and we can't let up on the safeguards. That's the key as we get into the next few weeks, especially here locally. As I go out in the grocery stores and whatever retail places, I'm seeing pretty much 100 percent now. And obviously it's required when you walk in a business. But no one's letting their guard down. A few weeks ago, that wasn't necessarily the case. So we're all seeing that. We're seeing a difference. And we can't let up, that's the key. Don't let up right now."

AM: You told us last Wednesday you were going to have the virtual meeting, and you were going to get the question from students about how many tickets they were going to get…you got that question, didn't you?

"Yep. First response is let's hope that we're playing and let's make sure that were playing by, to your point Will, doing our part. The stadium piece will work itself out. We believe we have a common-sense, safest-possible plan that's based on data, based on trends in people attending games. Right now, the only ticket that someone could buy for a football game is a student ticket. A student all-sports pass. We still have availability. We have not sold out even whatever the allotment will be. We have not sold that out yet, so students can still buy an all-sports pass. That's where we are today. Today we're still under the 50 percent governor's executive order. Again, could that change? Sure. But we also know it's August 12th and we still have five and a half, six weeks before that first game. Let's see where we go. But we're going to accommodate as many students as we can. We'll make it as safe is possible. There will be people that choose to come, and people that choose not to come. Let people make a personal choice. But you're going to wear face covering. You're going to social distance. You're going to have to do all those all those safety precautions. And then, again, let's just play some football. Let's just get to that point. And then we can debate who gets in and who doesn't."

AM: That was the reason for September 26^th? Was it not to buy some time?

"Exactly. See where our communities are, see what we learn more about (the virus), let's put in all the safety protocols for the players. That was the key to all of that. More time gives you more data and more input."

AM: We've talked a lot about the medical side of this. But as a conference, does the economic part ever come up in your conversations? For the Bryan-College Stations, and the Starkvilles, and the Oxfords, and the Tuscaloosas…is that a consideration or is it not?

"It's in the back of our minds. We know the fallout that has already happened, obviously, because of this. We know the impact of not having football. We know what all that looks like. But it really has to be health and safety. It has to be community impact of health and safety. It has to be obviously your student-athletes. You've got to stick to that piece of it first. And then we need to be good partners. So we're going to communicate. We've communicated with the mayors. We've communicated with the health officials. You have to be good partners with communication. And that's what we've tried to do. Reality is going to be reality, whatever it is. But it has to be the health and safety piece of it first."

WJ: When you get to the football component, we learned two additions to our 10-game SEC schedule, the Gators and the Vols. We always wondered when we're going to Knoxville. Perhaps it's right here in 2020. How much can you tell us about what went into the addition of the two opponents for each team? Everybody's going to have their thoughts, can you tell us what went into it? And your feelings about Florida here and at Tennessee being our two additions.

"It wasn't just a cookie-cutter process, because this was just now thrown on the SEC's lap. They've got to come up with some sort of plan. It couldn't be uniform across the entire conference. But what they tried to do was create some sort of balance. So we have South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Their programs may be in a different place. I'm not going to judge them. But, hey, they're in a different place. And then we also got Florida, who's probably viewed as the second-best team in the East behind Georgia. And then we got Tennessee, who's kind of emerging. So the balance piece was a part of it. But then we also look at other programs like Arkansas. There wasn't much balance there, right? They got Florida, and Georgia, I think. And LSU got Missouri and Vanderbilt from the East. So that part, it was hard to achieve across the board. The other thing that they tried to do was tried to avoid any repeat matchups from last year or repeat matchups from next year. So for us, avoid Georgia. We already played them. And avoid Missouri. Now again, that couldn't apply across the board, but that's what they tried to do. Look, it's all relative. It's the SEC. It's the toughest conference. It's the best conference. But it's an opportunity. You play this schedule and you win nine games, even eight games, whatever the playoff and postseason look like…hey, man, you're right there. You're right there in the playoff conversation. It is tough, but you have success and you're in the driver's seat."

WJ: How close might we be to the dates being released?

"Getting there. You know, I think we need a little more clarity around sort of the landscape of college athletics. And we hope to have that in the coming days, that just says that we're going to continue to move forward. Hopefully we can put those dates out there. We have to assume that everything just starts over. They'll try to protect some of the traditional rivalries at the end of the season for those games, but it just may not be possible, depending on how everything shakes out. I don't think by the end of this week, but maybe sometime next week we could have a full calendar of the dates."

AM: You and Kellen teased us all about uniforms way back. Everyone got all excited. Obviously, with what happened, that could not get here…until today.

"Yeah, we were really bored back in April. That's when we were sitting in our houses, right? I think it was a Friday night, and I think Kellen said something about uniforms, or when we going to see the new uniforms, something like that. And I'm like, hey, QB1, we'll see. Whatever I said. And that just turned into wildfire back then. So, yes, we are here. The uniforms got released this morning. The players are super excited. That traditional look…I love the fact that we had Coach Slocum with a quote in the press release going back to the kind old school, those Fightin' Texas Aggie teams under R.C., some of those legendary teams, and the uniform just speaks to that. I think it's a great way to honor the history and the traditions here while also have in the modern feel as well with the sleek numbers and the clean, crisp look of everything, and the white face mask."

AM: I like the barbed wire that's been incorporated, that's a nice little nod to the state as well.

"So Adidas did a great job with everything. Matt Watson, in our equipment operations, did a great job of designing everything. It gives us something to talk about, again, some clarity. It is a little bit of that hope and optimism piece, and that's what we need to keep doing. So I'm glad we could announce those. It took a little while, a little longer than maybe we thought. But we had to actually get the uniforms in the US first, that was step one, and then get them delivered to College Station. With the pandemic, there were a few hurdles to get through."

WJ: Since it is sort of a media day here inside 12th Man Productions, they're doing intro shoots. The ever popular Ask the Aggies that's on our video board, players are coming through here in that new uniform. It's kind of nice to get the real visual.

"That's exactly right. We had we had some pictures, we had some graphics. I think we had a few samples earlier this summer. But to actually have them here, to put them on the players and obviously doing it as safe as possible, that's the cool part. Again it goes back to hey, we can do this. There's a pathway forward. There's some reality here. So it's a good visual and a good symbolic message to get that out there."

AM: You describe how you would like to have had the uniforms in April. It becomes August. You've been so used to, okay, I'm going to get this done…when things are out of your parameters, has that been a big adjustment for you?

"Absolutely. Learn, one, you can only control what you can control. I've kind of had that mantra before, but especially now. Here's all we can control. Here's the information we have now. We're going to go off of this. If that changes in the next 15 minutes, we'll make another decision. But yeah. We wanted to unveil the uniforms at the spring football game, that was the original plan, unveil them then. Gosh, that was back in April. That's an eternity ago. And then, can we actually get the uniforms in time for the season? Where are they? Well, they're stuck overseas somewhere. On some ship somewhere. Can we actually get them to the U.S.? I'm glad we have a great partnership with adidas and that they were tracking on this. But yeah, that uncertainty, just trying to lead through that, again I think it goes back to communication, getting in front of people. Even though we're all virtual, just laying things out based on reality and sometimes the cold, hard facts of what we're dealing with. So that's how we tried to approach it."

AM: We've talked about this before…you're not afraid to say 'I don't know. Let me get the information'. Not every leader does that, do they?

"On our head coaches call we were talking about, what happens with eligibility? What happens with extension of scholarships if the worst-case scenario happens or if somebody wants to opt out? Right now, we don't have all those answers yet, and we hope we have them soon from from the NCAA and from the SEC. But right now, some of those answers are, I don't know yet. Give me a little more time. Or, we know that there'll be a decision by this timeline. We have to wait until till that timeline. So that's all we can do."

WJ: As usual, Ross, especially in these times, thank you for your time.

"Yeah, and just for the A.D. Yell purposes, those things have been great. We want to communicate. We've all done the written A.D. Yells until the last two months, but I think this is a cool way to do it. It's a conversation versus just a letter that goes out. We want to be thoughtful about these conversations and keep people informed as much as we can, and that's what we'll try to do throughout this process. Thank you."

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