24 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2020 FOOTBALL PREVIEW
BY JOHN BORTON
A
sk Jon Jansen how many times
a week he is probed for whether
there will be college football in
2020, and you'll draw a hearty
laugh.
The Michigan All-American, two-time
captain and now communications specialist
within the U-M athletics department insists
that is not putting a fine enough point on it.
"How many times a week?" he retorted.
"How many times a day, is more like it."
Jansen gets it. He knows how big of a deal
it is, how big it's always been in his own life.
But he also knows football isn't bigger than
life, or bigger than COVID-19.
That doesn't lessen the interest, and only
enhances the intrigue, with football players
across the country reporting for summer
workouts in hopes of a 2020 season.
"That's the one thing everybody wants to
know," Jansen said. "It used to be, who is
the starting quarterback? What's the offen-
sive line going to look like? Now everybody
wants to know, are we going to even have
football?
"I hear it multiple times a day — walking
through the grocery store, talking on the
radio. That's the No. 1 thing. When it comes
down to it, I truly believe we are going to
have football."
At the same time, Jansen and Michigan's
athletics department staffers — from AD
Warde Manuel on down — know it won't be
a normal football season, if it develops at all.
"It's going to be a different year," Manuel
GAME ON?
College Football Takes Stutter Steps Toward A Season
