Late last week, University of Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman laid out a plan for student-athletes to return on a voluntary basis to campus beginning in early June.

On Wednesday, it was the players’ chance to respond to Whitman’s plans, and as expected, they are raring to get back amongst their teammates and begin preparing for the upcoming season.

Kendrick Green, who will be one of the anchors on the offensive line this season, road out the shutdown in Champaign, and has been working out during the time away from football.

“I’ve actually been in Champaign most of the time but have traveled back to Peoria a few times to visit my mom,” Green said. “She downsized a few years ago when I moved out, and she doesn’t have the space for me anymore. Since I’m a big guy, I’m not sleeping on the couch, and I have a big bed here at my apartment, so that’s why I chose to stay in town.’

Green did say that he began the quarantine period in Alabama with a teammate but came back shortly afterward and has basically been here ever since.

“I was down in Alabama with my roommate Jamal (Woods), and we were working out down there some together,” he said. “Early on in the pandemic, guys like (center) Doug Kramer would post videos of him pulling a vehicle, so Jamal and I decided to push his dad’s truck down the road to keep in shape.”

Green is not alone in thinking that most guys will end up coming back when they can but cautions that there are some factors that might inhibit returning too soon.

“Josh (Whitman) and Jeremy (Busch) have put together a good plan, and you can tell that it has been well thought out,” Green said. “The main concern I see is guys not being able to get everything done that they will need to.”

Since spring practice was wiped out due to the pandemic, that denied some of the younger guys on the offensive line such as Verdis Brown, Jordan Slaughter and Julian Pearl to get the necessary reps. Green, a veteran of many spring seasons and early summer workouts, stresses that those are important times, but cautions that missing those workouts isn’t necessarily the worst scenario.

“Spring ball is vital for guys to keep conditioning and for some of the younger guys to be seen by coaches, but since spring practices didn’t happen, guys can’t get too wrapped up in that because if you try and compensate for missing those by working too hard. You’ll burn out quicker if you do that,” Green said.

Although Green has spent much of his time on campus, he really hasn’t been out of the house much since being sheltered. Still, the advent of Zoom meetings has helped him connect to teammates and get some online workouts that the players can do from the comforts of their home.

“I actually couldn’t tell you what’s been going on on campus for the past few weeks, and with the exception of going out a few times to get groceries and maybe to visit one of my fraternity brothers, I haven’t really been out of the house very often,” Green said. “Coach (Bob) McClain has regular meetings with us, and has given us some things to work on, so we are getting a lot of football without actually stepping on the field.”

Green knows that there are risks at returning, but with the other offensive mainstays, who get together on a regular basis via online chat, knows that setting an example for others is the best course of action.

“We leaders on offense talk regularly, and even though we know that most of the guys will return when able to, me being one of the players that the guys look up to, if I’m not sold on coming back, how am I going to talk the other players into returning?,” Green said.

As far as playing this season to a possible empty stadium or limited fans, which is entirely possible due to the extended social distancing guidelines, Green is preparing for any scenario that is presented to the team.

“Obviously, first and foremost, I want to play, but if we must play in front of limited fans or none at all, we’ll deal with that when the time comes,” he said “We feed on the student section and it would be different to not have them in full force, but if we have to play to no fans, it will be just like a practice when we are in the stadium.”

With players slated to begin returning next week, obviously there are still a lot of factors that need to be determined before the decision is made to have a 2020 football season. Fall training camp is supposed to begin on August 6th, but right now it is anyone’s guess where the situation will be when that date arrives.