The past week has arguably been the strangest in sports in at least a generation.

Just in the past 72 hours, the NCAA canceled the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments as well as suspended all winter and spring sports. The NBA, NHL, MLS, and NASCAR seasons were put on hold and Major League Baseball delayed the start of its regular season.

On Sunday, Clemson announced the suspension of all university events, and activities. This includes the 2020 Spring Ring Ceremony, the annual Spring Game and all campus tours.

The news is not all bad for senior student-athletes who compete in spring sports. This past Friday, the NCAA “agreed to grant relief for the use of a season of competition for studentathletes who have participated in spring sports, meaning that all athletes who compete in spring sports, like baseball and softball, will be granted an other year of eligibility.”

The obvious question remains: how does this pandemic affect the team? For all college football programs, the spring is the opportune time to begin to gather information about the players and the team as a whole.

Position battles and crosstraining further clarify a player’s role on the team. Of course with the abrupt end to the spring schedule, this team will not have the benefit of definitively answering some of the lingering questions that followed this team into late February, at least until fall camp starts in August.

As for who will be most affected, it’s hard to believe that any group will be more impacted than the young freshmen who were just beginning to find their footing on this team. From what the coaches and upperclassmen have said, most of the mid-year enrollees were making an immediate impact that was difficult to overlook. For those young men, they will have to wait 5 months to continue to make impressions on the practice field.

On the positive side, there will be plenty of time for players that are dealing with injuries this spring, like Justyn Ross, Derion Kendrick and others, to get fully healthy. Luckily for the Tigers, no player is dealing with serious injuries and looks to be full-go for August.

These 5 months off should give those players the necessary time to heal. This is an unprecedented time for all of Clemson athletics, but if anyone that can guide a group of young men through uncharted waters, it’s Dabo Swinney.