VERMILLION, S.D.—While college football sits still for the moment, evidence of a step forward for the University of South Dakota Coyotes is easy to see at the DakotaDome.
 
For the fans who enter the stadium next season and the players who perform in front of them, the surroundings are going to be different.
 
Coach Bob Nielson can rattle off the changes evident in what is an ongoing process at the Dome. The changes that are obvious now will be more obvious in August.
 
Railings are going up alongside the steps of the new west side stadium area – bleachers gone for good – and the addition of seats will follow.
 
"It's really starting to look like a stadium," Nielson said. "The suites and the loge level have been dry-walled. You can see how that level is laid out. Underneath, they're tiling the locker room and continuing with the drywalling and painting."
 
In comparison to a football calendar altered by the coronavirus – spring ball has normally run like clockwork on Nielson's watch – the construction progress has proceeded without major hitches.
 
"They continue to be on pace for the facility to turn it over to us by late this summer," Nielson said. "It's a little bittersweet with what is going on with the virus, but you see progress every day. What that is going to mean for our program is really, really exciting."
 
Spring football will not happen at USD. It's a reality Nielson and his staff and the players are dealing with. Obviously, it's a strange set of circumstances for the players, but that goes for Nielson, too, who took his first head coaching job in 1988.
 
In place of the buzz that would normally be thick with talk of a new starting quarterback to replace Austin Simmons and continued progress from a young defense, there are promises to stay engaged in football as best is possible. It is accompanied by a resolve to be thinking about next season.
 
It's going to be a challenge with players back home taking classes online and not able to access USD training facilities. Not having access to the expertise – nor the capacity to motivate – of the Coyote strength and conditioning staff are additional obstacles.
 
So if you're Bob Nielson and his staff how do you combat this as best you can? How do you minimize the effects of a spring lost to the coronavirus?
 
"The toughest part of it is that you don't have day-to-day contact with your guys face-to-face," Nielson said. "It's such a big part of coaching. So we're trying to do some creative things to combat that."
 
That involves using the internet to a much greater degree than a certain football coach, who began his career as a student coach at Wartburg in 1981, ever imagined.
 
"Electronically I'm sending daily messages to our guys," Nielson said. "If somebody told me five years ago – or even five weeks ago – that I'd be doing it like this, I'd have never believed them. But it's where we're at."
 
The Coyotes have group meetings online in an effort to stay connected with everyone. It involves monitoring academic progress and keeping USD football a big part of their lives via position meetings. Without being around coaches and teammates every day, that is going to be a more difficult process.
 
Some players lack conventional training facilities in their hometowns and have had to improvise. Some live in more populated areas where they can continue to work out, sometimes with fellow teammates.
 
Defensive lineman Ethan Burson sent in a workout regimen involving hay bales, for instance.
"It's one of those deals where you watch it and you say 'Well, that's a pretty ambitious routine," said Nielson, who grew up on a farm in Iowa. "It just shows some of the innovation and ingenuity of some of our guys."
 
More seriously, Nielson has talked about how – from afar in most cases – the team needs leaders. While it may be more difficult to establish that kind of role, it's more important than ever.
 
"We all have an opportunity to be a leader right now," he said. "We're challenging our guys back in their home communities to do their part. We need everyone to support what we need to do to get through this as a team, a country and society."