Mizzou football receives hopeful COVID-19 news after frustrating test results last week
The Missouri Tigers had to grapple with the realities of COVID-19 a week ago. They had 12 players in quarantine because of either a positive test or contact tracing, and those dozen athletes will miss Saturday’s season opener.
While Mizzou still has players unavailable, the Tigers took a hopeful step forward ahead of playing No. 2 Alabama Saturday.
The Tigers are now down to seven players in quarantine because of COVID-19, MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. That’s down from the 12 players out last week because there was a problem with the testing, the coach said.
“One of the test results came back inconclusive, which deemed that to be a positive,” Drinkwitz said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. “Therefore, we contract traced several players. Once that inconclusive test was re-taken multiple times with PCR swabs and concluded to be a negative test, we were able to be allowed to come back out of the contact tracing.”
Drinkwitz said his team still needs to be cautious. MU players will undergo two more rounds of testing, Wednesday and Friday, which could result in more positive results. Drinkwitz said Sunday’s round of testing led to zero positive results, which lends some reassurance.
Those seven players also didn’t all test positive for COVID-19, Drinkwitz said. The first-year MU coach said a couple of players tested positive, but the rest were in quarantine because of contact tracing.
The SEC announced last week its game-cancellation thresholds, requiring at least a 53-man roster comprised of scholarship players in order for teams to take the field. Drinkwtiz said they like to “live dangerously” when it came to those minimums.
“We got 69 scholarship players, so we’re dangerously close to every threshold,” Drinkwitz said. “It is what it is. We’re not any closer today than we were in the past.”
While MU shied away from releasing COVID-19 numbers earlier this summer and during preseason camp, the program has been one of the most transparent in the country when it comes to those results. The SEC mandates three tests per week for football programs — Sunday, Wednesday and Friday — and Drinkwitz has shared those numbers after each round of testing.
Other programs have gone the opposite direction, citing gamesmanship and the potential competitive advantage at stake. Drinkwitz pushed back on that notion, saying he believes “the pandemic overrides competitive advantage.”
“This is not an injury that we’re trying to keep (under wraps),” Drinkwitz said. “This is a public health issue and people should know what’s going on within our football team as it relates to a pandemic. I would say that’s more important than whatever competitive advantage we feel like it might be to win or lose a football game.”
Roster update
With kickoff just four days away, Mizzou is piecing together the final details of its opening roster — though it can change at any moment.
Drinkwitz said tight end Brendan Scales is medically retiring and is set to graduate in December. Offensive lineman Hyrin White — who was slated to compete for a starting spot — is out because of season-ending shoulder injury.
Defensive lineman Sci Martin will also be unavailable for Saturday’s game because of a knee injury, though Drinkwitz said he anticipates getting him back in time for the Tigers’ second game.
Mizzou has its third opt-out of the season: offensive lineman Thalen Robinson. He joins wide receiver Maurice Massey and defensive lineman Chris Daniels as Tigers who will not play in 2020.
The Tigers also added back defensive lineman Trajan Jeffcoat. He was dismissed from the team by then-coach Barry Odom for undisclosed reasons last fall ahead of the Troy game. Drinkwitz said Jeffcoat has been re-admitted to the university and should provide depth on a thin defensive line.