MU’s game vs. Georgia postponed due to COVID
Missouri’s football game against Georgia scheduled for Saturday has been postponed because of a combination of positive COVID-19 tests and quarantines from contact tracing on the team’s defensive line. The team and the Southeastern Conference announced the postponement Wednesday.
Athletic director Jim Sterk said Wednesday on “The Paul Finebaum Show” that the defensive line went under the conference threshold of four players.
The game was scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday and has yet to be rescheduled. It’s Missouri’s second postponement of the season, along with its game against Vanderbilt, originally scheduled for Oct. 17, which was moved to Dec. 12 after an outbreak at Vanderbilt.
Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz announced one positive test Tuesday and said it “hampered” a position group. An added positive case Wednesday put more players into quarantine from contact tracing and pushed Missouri to postpone, Sterk said. The team had a round of testing Tuesday and will be tested again later this week.
“Just disappointed for obviously our players, our coaches, our fans, our organization,” Drinkwitz said. “You work so hard to have opportunities to participate, but as we’re all dealing with nationally and worldwide, this pandemic has presented problems. The most important thing when we all started this was our players’ safety and the integrity and safety of the game. In that spirit, we made the best decision in coordination with the SEC and Georgia.”
Missouri’s only open date on the schedule currently is Dec. 19, and that date is only open if both teams are out of contention for the SEC championship game that same day. Missouri and Georgia are both behind Florida in the SEC East, so if the Gators clinch the division during the season, that could be a possible makeup date.
Another possible option if Georgia is still in contention for the SEC East title is playing that game Dec. 12 and moving the game against Vanderbilt to Dec. 19.
“The SEC is evaluating when the game will be rescheduled,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “That’s kind of out of our hands.”
An MU Athletic spokesperson said the team will continue to practice this week because “it’s not an outbreak.”
Missouri’s game is the fourth SEC game of seven scheduled for this week to be postponed, with multiple teams pausing activities because of coronavirus outbreaks. Alabama vs. LSU, Texas A&M vs. Tennessee and Auburn vs. Mississippi State were also postponed.
Drinkwitz didn’t specify which position group was impacted when he talked to the media Tuesday. The SEC has a threshold of 53 scholarship players, one quarterback, seven offensive linemen and four defensive linemen. If a team is under any of those thresholds it can have the game rescheduled.
Missouri played with 64 scholarship players in its Oct. 31 game at Florida and with one positive test and three first-half suspensions from a halftime brawl with the Gators, Missouri would have 60 available not including those in quarantine from contact tracing. Drinkwitz did not specify how many players are in quarantine.
Drinkwitz said the team was “thin at every position” on Tuesday. Injuries on the offensive and defensive lines have depleted both of those units. The Tigers played with nine scholarship offensive linemen against Florida with starters Larry Borom and Xavier Delgado injured. Drinkwitz ruled both out for a game this weekend Tuesday and said Borom would be out multiple weeks.
Delgado’s replacement, Dylan Spencer, was one of the players suspended for the first half of the team’s next game. That meant Missouri would have to play its ninth different offensive lineman of the season if it had played against the Bulldogs.
Suspensions for Spencer, Markell Utsey and Chad Bailey will now be served during the first half of the game against South Carolina on Nov. 21.
He is unsure if Missouri will play its next game against South Carolina because of the rapid changes that have occurred this season.
“We will do everything in our power to play and should have guys back in time to play,” Drinkwitz said.