Mustafa Johnson explains what's different about this year's voluntary workouts

BOULDER — Mustafa Johnson works out at the CU athletic facilities every morning at 9 a.m. with his group of 10-15 teammates.

When he arrives at the facilities, his temperature is taken and he’s asked if he has any symptoms that could be related to COVID-19. When he’s cleared, he’s allowed to enter the building. A strength coach is waiting for him and his teammates with a workout plan of calisthenics and lifts.

The entire CU roster is broken into these small groups and each group has its own window of time to use the facilities. While the groups stay the same, the strength coaches rotate the groups that they work with every day.

In the afternoons, small groups of players link up to practice sections of the playbook.

“I really haven’t skipped a beat,” Johnson, a senior defensive lineman, told reporters Wednesday. “I’ve been running, doing all my training even with all of this COVID going on.”

For the most part, Johnson seems to adapted to his schedule. Once the school-mandated, two-week quarantine after returning to Boulder was over — and Johnson had a negative result in the less-invasive version of the COVID-19 nasal test — he was able to begin his routine.

There’s still one big difference.

“I miss the whole hitting aspect,” Johnson said.

There’s more that’s missing from the workouts as well.

“Normally all of the linemen would be doing this workout together and skill (position players) doing that (workout). It’s easy to compete with these guys,” Johnson said. “But now — since we’re doing the whole social distancing — we’re separated so there isn’t as much competition as I’d like.”

That lack of competition is dissappointing for Johnson. He likes working against offensive linemen in drills and he wants to outlift the rest of the linemen in workouts.

But Johnson says the protocol put together by the CU athletics department is running smoothly, even if that doesn’t mean the team is in the clear.

“The only thing is that we have to make sure guys aren’t going out and hanging out with a bunch of people because right now Boulder is a hot spot for Colorado,” Johnson said.

Johnson and his teammates talk about the COVID-19 pandemic daily. They share tweets that break the news of other teams’ breakouts. As of now, both of last season’s national championship contenders are facing breakouts; Clemson has 20 players quarantined and LSU has 30.

Much of the conversation among CU football players focuses on what will happen to the 2020 football season. Everything is on the table, from playing every game in a full stadium to having the entire season canceled.

“We’re all worried about it because this is our life,” Johnson said. “We’re here all the time. We get small breaks to go back home. We talk about it and it’s interesting to hear what some people think about it, what some people feel about it, but for the most part, people are optimistic.”

Despite the optimism, doubt sometimes creeps into Johnson’s mind.

“The weirdest thing for me is just the anticipation of what the plan is for the season,” Johnson. “My thought on it is: If we can’t even really have contact with our own teammate, how are we going to get on the field in a full-contact sport?”

But Johnson isn’t concerned about contracting COVID-19.

“I’m not nervous,” Johnson said. “The only thing I’m really nervous about is there is a higher risk of injuries (because of the decreased offseason work) and I’m already coming off of an injury. That’s the only real concern I have.”