By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
It's been a busy month for new Benedectine head football coach Joel Osborn.
After being hired by the Ravens in mid-January, Osborn and his staff continued their work on building their initial 2021 signing class, which they announced on National Signing Day last week.
"We had 20 commits when I got there," Osborn said. "By the time we had signing day, we had 49 and since then, I think we're up 10 more since then. So they've done a great job. I could not have done any of this without our staff."
With signing day in the rearview, Benedictine, and another 20 or schools in the NAIA, are patiently awaiting the first NAIA football coaches' poll of the 2020 season - a poll that will determine the playoff seedings for this spring.
The NAIA playoffs were moved to the spring to reduce out-of-conference travel in the fall.
Osborn says it likely won't be until late March when that poll comes out and the Ravens find out who their next opponent is.
Strength and conditioning, skill development and install on both sides of the ball has already begun. Those things typically don't ramp up until July.
"What March will look like is essentially what August would look like," Osborn said. "Fall camp. But, we'll be in school, so it'll be a little different. No two-a-days. You've got classes to work around. We haven't gotten too much in the details of what every week will look like, but we know what we're doing moving forward."
The Ravens finished the 2020 season with a 7-2 record and a second place finish in the Heart of America Athletic Conference's north division.
Some of the players who were around for those nine games won't be around for the spring playoffs, with most of these student-athletes on 4 or 4.5-year plans.
However, NAIA athletes have been granted an extra year of eligibility if they wish to take it.
While recruiting for 2022 won't look much different for the NAIA, schools like Benedectine, or GPAC Conference champion Morningside, have to adjust to playing games in both the spring and fall of 2021.
"People are like, 'What do you think about next year?'" Osborn chuckled. "I don't know. To be honest, I'm not thinking about next year. We're just trying to take it day-by-day, and staying in tune to what the college football process is and right now, that's going to look a little different."
The pandemic's impact on college sports, from scheduling to recruiting to fan attendance, will be felt for some time yet. But, Osborn says it's important to remember the most important thing.
Kids have been and will be able to play - something that the pandemic has taught us not to take for granted.
"You gotta have fun at the same and let kids enjoy the experience," Osborn said. "Get to know kids as much as possible, because at the end of the day, it's about relationships you form and those will last the rest of your life."
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