The question made Damar Hamlin chuckle.

He considered it for a moment and gave an answer that said a lot about what will push Pitt through a season overflowing with expectations.

Athletes and their coaches don’t usually like to play the what-if game with reporters. They prefer to deal with what’s real. But Pitt’s fifth-year senior safety from Central Catholic played along.

“Damar, what would your buddy and Pitt safety partner Paris Ford have said if you had decided not to return to the team this season?”

“I don’t know, for real,” Hamlin said. “We all got our own decisions to make, and we’re all our own people. So, he would have had my back regardless of what decision I would have made.

“But he wouldn’t have taken it lightly, for sure. We wanted another year playing together.”

On the first day of Pitt’s training camp at its South Side training facility, a movement is spreading throughout college football in which players, including those projected to be high NFL Draft choices in 2021, are opting out (a buzz phrase spawned by the covid-19 pandemic). If players decide not to play for the sake of their health, the NCAA has said scholarships will be honored.

The coronavirus still is in the air, and sweating, colliding with and leaning on other humans isn’t what Dr. Rachel Levin, Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, would recommend to quell the virus. (Preserving the body for the 2021 NFL Combine might also be a motivating force.)

The number of opt-out players has reached into the 20s, led by Penn State All-American linebacker Micah Parsons, who left a team that might challenge for the Big Ten championship and a berth in the college football playoff. Also saying they will sit out are Miami defensive lineman Greg Rousseau and Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley, players who would have lined up against Pitt.

Syracuse redshirt freshman defensive lineman Cooper Dawson also opted out and others at that school are considering it.

But all four of Pitt’s defensive players who would have found a way into NFL camps this year — Hamlin, Ford, defensive end Patrick Jones II and defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman — decided to return to school. They were at practice Friday.

“Feels like there’s a level of normalcy here,” Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates said. “Based on what I just read, maybe not at Syracuse, but our guys are excited to play.”

Jones said he made up his mind at the end of last season, and remained true to his conviction throughout the ongoing pandemic.

Hamlin went through the trouble of petitioning the NCAA for an extra year.

“We all came back with the same understanding that we’re coming back for each other and for this team and for this defense,” he said. “To go out the way we know we can come back and that’s on top.

“If I wanted to do all that (opt out), I would have taken my chances wherever I got drafted. Once I got my year back, it was no looking back. This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to come back. I’m here with my brothers. It was a no-brainer.”

All-ACC center Jimmy Morrissey said he knows why his teammates are returning, giving Pitt 20 seniors who have been with the program for either four or five years.

“We have a team full of guys who really love football,” he said. “Right now, playing the season is our top priority. Playing football is what we want most.”

He added everyone is “extremely comfortable” with the protocols put in place by Pitt officials to keep players safe.

Bates answered quickly when asked if he considered losing anyone with eligibilty.

“Never,” he said. “It would be very shocking for me, especially going out there (Friday) and watching them play.

“They’re so excited to be out there with each other. It’s a fun thing to watch.”

Coach Pat Narduzzi, who welcomed 113 players Friday, said he understands why some players might decide to opt out. He also knows there are five weeks of practices before the first game, and the virus isn’t disappearing in that time.

“We’ll see how this thing goes, too. Today is Day 1,” he said. “It’s a day-by-day. If kids start to get scared, you understand what’s going on. Some guys that have declared, they’re bonafide first-round guys, maybe it’s a good idea. I don’t know.”

But the drive Narduzzi has held since his days as a linebacker at Ursuline High School in Youngstown, Ohio, makes it difficult for him to understand why anyone would willingly step away from a football season.

“I could opt out coaching, too,” he said. But he quickly added, “I’d go crazy. I want to coach the game. Our players are so excited to get out there and go. There’s a love there.

“I talked to them about it. I said, ‘Guys, you have a scholarship. If that’s what you want to do, that’s what you have to do.’

“I want guys who are all in. The guys who are worried about it won’t play very well, so it’s probably better off that they step away and wait for next year. Or, wait until the weather clears, I guess.”

Notes: Narduzzi said junior wide receiver Dontavius Butler-Jenkins suffered a knee injury and won’t play this season. He remains on scholarship. … Fullback Rashad Wheeler (Central Catholic) also has left the team after graduating, Narduzzi said.

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