Mizzou football COVID-19 update: How positive tests are affecting the Tigers’ practices
Before the weekend, the Missouri Tigers were well on their way to being a model team when it came to COVID-19. While they’d had some positive coronavirus cases, like any other program in the country, for the most part, there was no rapid outbreak of cases among those in the program.
But as is the case with everything else during the pandemic, promising conditions can change quickly. And did. MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz said 14 players missed practice Tuesday because of COVID-19, with four student-athletes testing positive and the rest in isolation because of contact tracing or pending test results.
Drinkwitz said the 14 absent players is the most the team has had for a practice. There was a similar case following Fourth of July weekend, when about 20 players were quarantined following four positive cases.
“That’s not ideal,” Drinkwitz said on a video call Tuesday. “We anticipated this would be the case with students back on campus and kind of the way this thing is operating. I think our guys are still trying to do a really good job of practicing safe social distancing and trying to do the best they can, not to catch it or spread it.”
The Tigers were trending toward zero COVID cases last week, when a previous round of testing showed no new positives. But as Drinkwitz has warned in the past, those numbers can change quickly.
The Tigers still practiced Tuesday, the first time they’d taken the field since a scrimmage on Saturday. Drinkwitz said the recent positive test results weren’t traced back to team facilities
“We haven’t had any cases of local transmission within our building that we can trace it back to,” Drinkwitz said. “I don’t know that you’re ever going to be 100% on where somebody catches this thing, just because of the nature of it. But we’re not concerned about (Saturday’s scrimmage being a factor).”
When the SEC pushed back its opening weekend to Sept. 26, it was largely to contain potential outbreaks among teams as students returned to campus. With the season still weeks away, the Tigers don’t have to worry about who is and isn’t available with a game looming Saturday.
The Big 12 starts its football season with non-conference games this weekend — and it has already seen some disruptions. TCU had to postpone its game against SMU to a later date after positive tests. Oklahoma State vs. Tulsa was pushed back a week because the Golden Hurricane had COVID-19 issues. Kansas and K-State are still set to play Saturday .
The SEC hasn’t established game cancellation thresholds, which the Big 12 announced last week. The Big 12 set certain thresholds teams would need to meet in order to field a team, such as one healthy quarterback, eight offensive linemen and four interior defensive linemen. If those minimums aren’t meant, a game might be ruled a no-contest if it can’t be moved to a later date.
Drinkwitz said last week the SEC was still discussing that possibility.
“When you find a positive, they contact trace back 48 hours,” Drinkwitz said. “They do contact tracing through the local county health department. We feel good but do have some guys who were quarantined from it.”
Drinkwitz pointed out how, per Centers for Disease Control guidelines, any player who tested positive before is believed to a 90-day immunity to the virus. While that could be viewed as a plus for some players, Drinkwitz said that would still leave about 100 players susceptible to quarantine.
The Tigers aren’t the only SEC team to be affected by COVID disruptions of practices. Nearly the entire LSU offensive line wiped out, leaving just four Tigers linemen available for practice. Auburn had to cancel practice two weeks ago after multiple positive cases.
Mizzou has needed to adjust behind the scenes even before the most recent test results. Drinkwitz said injuries and COVID cases have caused disruption along MU’s offensive line, which has led to some concerns about chemistry. While the players adopt a “next man up” mentality, losing valuable practice time would hurt.
“We’ve all gotta do our part,” Drinkwitz said. “Good news for us is our hospital has plenty of space and people are recovering. We’ve got to prevent the transmission.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 7:06 PM.