Greg Schiano will not be engaging in the amateur epidemiology practiced by some of his counterparts.

The Rutgers football coach thanked New Jersey’s essential workers for their efforts in battling the coronavirus pandemic during a Thursday conference call and said his focus is keeping his players and their families safe, not opining on how and when the upcoming season will be played.

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“We are preparing for any number of different situations. But the reality is I’m not really qualified, nor is it my place to speculate on what would happen, when it would happen or how it would happen," Schiano said. "What I’ve tried to stay focused on is the health and well-being of our players, and where we can help families. I owe it to these kids’ parents and guardians to make sure they’re safe and they’re healthy. I’ve spent the majority of my time on that.”

Schiano later added, perhaps as a nod to controversial comments made by Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney since the COVID-19 outbreak: "I’m going to stay clear of speculation, because that truly would be all it is from me. What we don’t need now is more guys, especially coaches, trying to speculate on what that’s going to look like.”

Schiano recently told BTN he believes programs would need about six weeks to safely prepare for a season after being off campus and away from team activities for what is expected to be several months. But he did not discuss details of the “contingency plans” he has worked on during the call with local reporters.

Schiano said he did not want to speculate about the possibility of pre-season practices before the university’s tentative August 14 date to re-open campus or playing regular season games played without fans in attendance (which may already be a non-starter with FBS league commissioners). Schiano also declined comment on the potential for the entire season to be pushed to the spring of 2021 - a hypothetical that is gaining steam in the industry given college athletics’ dependency on football-related revenues.

Rutgers players are allowed to have up to eight hours of countable athletic-related activity per week, according to NCAA guidelines. Two of those hours can be spent reviewing game film and doing playbook work through video conferencing. Schiano said he has let his assistants handle the contact for the most part, but he did hold a virtual team meeting Thursday.

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Schiano said several players have had family members contract COVID-19, with some succumbing to the virus.

“You just try to educate as much as you can. I’ve tried to educate our staff from the information that I’ve received, and they in turn try to educate each position group. Anytime there is a situation that comes to my attention I immediately get on the phone with our players and ask how can we help, what information we can give a player to protect him. But it’s hard," he said.

"It’s sad. There are things you don’t even think about, like they had to do a virtual family service for their lost loved one. Those are hard things.”

Rutgers’ season opener against Monmouth is scheduled for Sept. 5 at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, but it’s anyone’s guess as to if the game will be played.

Emphasis on guess.

“I think it’s so far above athletics or college football," Schiano said. “These are national and international decisions that have to be made, and then it’s going to trickle down through the states and then down through the universities, the leagues and the NCAA as a whole.”

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James Kratch may be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.