College Football

The Return of Friday Night Lights

Updated Aug. 29, 2020 1:54 p.m. ET

Special to FOX Sports

Josh Niblett put it as simply as possible: Hoover football is huge in Alabama.

"You can go anywhere in the country and if you have a Hoover shirt on, most people will know."

Niblett is entering his 13th season as the head football coach at Hoover, and on Friday night, the No. 2 team in the state of Alabama (according to MaxPreps) will play its second game of the season.

Moreover, tonight is the return of high school football for thousands of students and hundreds of schools in the United States, where the sport is just as huge as it is Hoover.

To celebrate, we spoke to coaches and administrators across the country about what it means for those communities, and how the teams have approached getting back on the field.

For Hoover, like every high school football program in the nation, the road in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a rough one. Yet despite the difficulty, Niblett is ecstatic to see his boys take the field at Hoover Met Stadium, with their fans – socially distanced – in the stands.

“We’ve been together all summer, doing drills and working out, and we’ve been very fortunate not to have any issues,” Niblett explained. “Hopefully, we can continue to follow all the guidelines like we’ve been doing so far. The kids want to play. It’s what they love to do. And the community is excited.

“Where we play, the capacity is 10,000 to 12,000. So if we sell 3,000 tickets, we’ll still have an awesome crowd.”

Todd McVey oversees the Tompkins Falcons football program in Katy, Texas, and in the coming weeks, the No. 11 team in the state will kick off its season, after a difficult summer wondering if they would get the chance.

“It’s been an unknown journey," said McVey. "We’re all first-timers at this. As coaches and players, we’re used to having order and not chaos. But now we have an opportunity to play, and we feel blessed.”

“There is so much more than the game itself. There is the camaraderie. We’re all used to being around each other. It’s a great thing to have that back during such a hard time in the world right now.”

McVey said that the list of protocols to follow is lengthy, but that his message to his players has been blunt: if you want to play football, you have to follow these guidelines.

“Safety is first for the players, coaches and staff members. We all wear a mask everyday and I tell the kids, it’s just the new normal. It’s another piece of equipment. We need to do what we need to do to have the opportunity to play the game we love.”

At American Fork High School in American Fork, Utah, the No. 3 ranked school in the state, coach Aaron Behm has taken a similar approach, informing his players that sacrifices must be made in order to play.

“Unless you’re on the field, you’re wearing a mask," said Behm. "We don’t really use the locker room. We have them do what they can at home. And tonight before the game, there will be an administrator taking their temperature. We’ve done as much as we can outside. We’ve even moved our team dinners outside.

“We’ve had to limit capacity at 25 percent for tonight's game. People have been texting me today like, ‘Hey, I need tickets.’ But they’re all gone. So I think the fact that the games are selling out shows that people are supportive of the kids getting back on the field.”

While every school in every state has faced its own set of challenges, many of the protocols put in place across the nation have been the same.

Matt Gray is in his first year as head coach at Mentor High School in Mentor, Ohio, and he discussed how his squad has been forced to adjust in recent months in anticipation of Friday's season-opener.

“It’s been such a journey to get here. We had a great offseason but we were shut down on March 12, just like everyone else across the country. We’re happy to get back to a sense of normalcy. We needed to be able to come together.

“We’ve had lifting groups of nine players and one coach. In the past, all the different skill groups would lift and workout together. We’ve been using every third locker, and the boys have had to dress in shifts.”

Despite the shift in approach, Gray said that he's proud of how his players and coaches have been willing to change on the fly.

“Words can’t express how proud I am of our players and coaching staff. They could have complained, but they handled this incredibly well.

"They understand the overall picture of wanting to play and that required us to make sacrifices.”

However, for all of the joy tonight will bring, some programs remain sidelined due to their specific city's bout with COVID-19, or, their opponents' geography.

Roland Smith spent his college years playing under Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson at the University of Miami, and now serves as the head coach at Miami Central.

His team was scheduled to face national powerhouse St. John Bosco of Bellflower, California on ESPN in early September. But the state of California canceled fall football, and Dade-County – the home of Miami Central – is not out of the clear when it comes to the coronavirus, meaning Smith's team won't appear on ESPN and might not even play a full 10-game season.

"We haven't even touched pads. No helmets and no balls. Only conditioning."

But, postponements aside, Smith is just happy that his players and their families are healthy, and that football is on the horizon.

"I'm thankful that the kids are safe and we're going to keep doing everything right – staying masked up and staying healthy. That's the No. 1 goal.

"The kids are eager to play, so I'm just glad the season is not pushed back until the spring."

There are also the financial ramifications of teams not being able to play and not being able to fill the crowd.

John Hart is entering his 36th season as the head coach of Brownsburg High School in Brownsburg, Indiana, and the Bulldogs opened their season last Friday.

On Saturday, they will face St. Xavier out of Cincinnati, Ohio on ESPN2. And even though the national broadcast will generate revenue for both schools, the reduced crowd capacity throughout the rest of the season will take a toll on Brownsburg sports, according to Hart, who said that their games normally draw 5,000 to 6,000 fans.

Still, Hart has found the silver lining, as has St. Xavier athletic director Brian Reinhart, who said that their community is only concerned with seeing the boys play.

"We'll get 10,000 people at some of our big games, but the community has been outstanding. This has brought the best out of people. They just want the boys to be able to play. If they can come to the games, great. But if not, it's more important that the boys get to play."

In regards to Brownsburg, has set up an internet pay-per-view link so that fans can purchase a live stream of the game online, and the team itself has done its best to take the necessary precautions to stay safe in recent months and as the season gets rolling.

And if you let Hart tell it, he would do anything in his power to make sure his kids see the field.

"If they told me I had to put on a suit of armor and ride a horse to our games, I would do it for my team."