OXFORD | Mike Bianco admits to moments of frustration.

The 2020 season was cut short with the Rebels 17-1 and poised to make a Southeastern Conference run with a young team that was overflowing with confidence and swagger. The precocious group was a year ahead of schedule but disbanded with only unanswered questions.

Then, on September 24, Ole Miss had to pause two weeks due to COVID-19 issues with the roster. It’s a lot of uncertainly and stop and start, and Bianco is both handling it well and admittedly human in frustrated moments.

“I feel it,” Bianco said. “I go home and just go ‘damn,’ you keep getting kicked in the gut. That’s human and we’re not all invincible. There are times like that, but you have to snap out of it. You can’t go into that state of depression where you feel sorry for yourself. We have a choice in this and the choice is to get better. I’ve been really proud of the guys.”

Fall practice occurs in a 45-day window each season, but the NCAA relaxed those rules somewhat, allowing teams to pause the clock if affected by COVID-19. So, instead of finishing up with the Pizza Bowl on October 30, the Rebels will continue until the second week of November.

The academic calendar was the biggest obstacle in that scheduling because exams are before Thanksgiving, but Ole Miss shouldn’t miss any scheduled practices as long as no further pause is necessary.

Bianco said the shutdown caused progress to be stagnant instead of a step back. Pitchers threw two innings in intrasquads this past weekend — just like opening weekend — when full team activity resumed instead of the 4-5 innings they typically would be at during this part of the calendar.

While the roster couldn’t be together in its entirety those two weeks, all players who had previously tested positive and recovered could be on the field. Bianco said that wasn’t quite half the team but it was a “fairly significant group.”

Also, any quarantined players who weren’t sick — after a period of time — could return as well, though only two of those players could be in the building at a time. It made for disjointed work and a lot of required flexibility, but it was better than nothing. Bianco said it wasn’t “as devastating” as a two-week pause would seem at first blush.

“Everybody will have their story and there are certainly a lot worse stories than ours losing a baseball season or a pause in practice when you look at the health crisis and the loss of jobs and the economy,” Bianco said. “There are a lot worse things, but people don’t usually look at that.

“We embrace that we can’t control two weeks from now. There’s no structure... but let’s just be the best version of ourselves today. Get whatever we can out of today. We are spending every day we get together to be the best we can in February.”