The major college football decision-makers are doing what they can to ensure college football gets played this fall.
If the season gets shifted to the spring, however, Ohio State will be without its star cornerback.
Both of Shaun Wade's parents – his father, Randy, and mother, Gwen – told First Coast News, a Jacksonville, Florida television station, that their son would sit out the college football season if it eventually gets moved to the spring of 2021 due to concerns about the coronavirus.
"He's outta here, baby," Randy Wade said when posed that hypothetical.
In that case, they said, Wade would spend the time preparing for the NFL rather than covering wide receivers as a Buckeye.
"I want him to be smart," Gwen Wade said, "He could get hurt. Anything could happen. So, why play in the spring? I kind of voiced my opinion to him, talked to him. Pretty much, mama said, 'We're not playing.'"
Wade is already viewed as one of the top defensive back prospects for the 2021 draft. The Athletic's Dane Brugler had him going No. 6 overall to the New York Jets in his way-too-early April mock draft, and ESPN's Todd McShay ranked him No. 9 on his big board in May.
Justin Fields is the other obvious candidate playing for Ohio State who could sit out if the season got pushed to the spring. Personal quarterback coach Quincy Avery recently said he'd recommend Fields sit out in that scenario, though neither Fields nor his parents have publicly discussed what he would do.
Ohio State's Gene Smith, appearing on 97.1 on Wednesday, said his fellow Big Ten athletic directors haven't yet discussed the possibility of moving the season to the spring.
If they get to that point, however, the Buckeyes would have to move forward without Wade, who pushed back the start of his NFL career earlier this year in order to return for his redshirt junior season.
