Mizzou football prepared to play Florida as Gators are on other side of COVID outbreak
As long as there are no spikes in COVID-19 cases — no guarantee in 2020 — the Missouri Tigers’ football game against No. 10 Florida should proceed as planned, finally.
Kickoff for the SEC East foes was originally scheduled for Oct. 24 when the 2020 schedule was announced. But that was before there was a COVID-19 outbreak within the Florida program. That forced the SEC to get creative to move around Mizzou’s schedule.
The final result was to flip-flop Mizzou’s games against Florida and Kentucky. The Tigers downed the Wildcats last Saturday while Florida got its COVID-19 cases under control.
Florida was finally able to be back in its facilities Monday, the first day since it shut down football activities Oct. 13. As of now, coach Dan Mullen said he expects the Gators will be able to meet the SEC’s 53-player minimum.
“I thought we’ve looked better,” Mullen said at the weekly SEC teleconference call. “We were better yesterday than we were the day before when you haven’t even practiced in two weeks. We treat it like we’re coming back from a bye within our schedule. But when you haven’t done anything in two weeks, I think it’s a little bit slower start than a regular bye would be.”
More than two dozen players, two coaches and Mullen himself were infected. Mullen was also back in the facilities after quarantine, adding he felt fortunate because his symptoms were minor.
Aside from Mullen, though, Florida hasn’t disclosed any information regarding positive COVID numbers or injuries. Mullen cited privacy and student laws as for why he doesn’t share those numbers.
“I know a lot of people get all worked up about that,” Mullen said. “These students still have the privacy of their students and their medical records and their medical history. I don’t think that’s something that needs to be all smeared over publicly all the time.”
MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz said Tuesday at his weekly news conference that he expects to game plan for the Gators as if their best players will be available, adding he doesn’t worry about that who is or isn’t available.
The SEC doesn’t have a rule about disclosing COVID-19 numbers to the public. So while programs like Mizzou have been relatively transparent about positive cases, others like Florida can opt to keep that information private.
“I don’t get into any of the medical records of our guys,” Mullen said. “There’s a privacy act for students. If you’ve seen that, I’ve done that all year because I don’t let people play the elimination game. Process of elimination of who’s doing what and who’s doing this and who’s doing that.”
Mizzou hasn’t had any trouble with COVID-19 this week, though the Tigers are down to 64 scholarship players because of injuries, NCAA scholarship reductions and other non-COVID reasons. Drinkwitz said he hesitates in giving the most recent COVID-19 information out, though, because the Tigers go through three rounds of testing each week on Sunday, Tuesday then Thursday.
Both the Gators and Tigers will need to make it through Thursday’s testing results to know who will and won’t be available for the 6:30 p.m. Saturday game in Gainesville, Florida.
“You test three times a week,” Drinkwitz said. “Until Thursday or Friday morning, I got a text at 1:26 a.m. that told me the results last time. Until I get that text, I don’t know and I don’t think anyone knows.”