Football is a sport where conditioning to the collisions that take place in shoulder pads are a critical part of the process in getting ready for a season. In a normal year, the Michigan Wolverines would have had padded spring practices and a full summer camp, usually about a month or so, where pads are entered into the equation.
With the coronavirus pandemic altering the Big Ten’s plans for a full season, padded sessions ahead of the Oct. 24 opener at Minnesota kicked off around Oct. 1 — less than four weeks before kickoff. Given that Michigan has breaking in an offensive line with four of five new starters, that has not been an ideal development, but it is one that the conference as a whole has dealt with nonetheless.