Brohm to miss Purdue opener against Iowa
Purdue coach Jeff Brohm will miss Saturday’s season opener against Iowa after a second test confirmed he has COVID-19.
The Boilermakers have been undergoing daily rapid testing since Sept. 30, and it was Brohm’s test Sunday morning that initially came back positive. A second test conducted immediately afterward also came back positive Sunday night.
Big Ten protocol requires players who test positive to sit out 21 days, but staff members are required to isolate 10 days. Athletic director Mike Bobinski said there is no chance Brohm will be on the sideline, as Alabama coach Nick Saban was last week, even if he tests negative.
Bobinski said the school is looking into whether it would be permissible for Brohm to do any virtual coaching this weekend against the visiting Hawkeyes. Offensive coordinator Brian Brohm will replace his brother on the sideline and will continue to call plays.
Jeff Brohm said he also will continue to watch practices, take notes and confer with players and his assistant coaches through Zoom calls this week.
UMass gets another game: No. 22 Marshall has scheduled a Nov. 7 home game against UMass, athletic director Mike Hamrick said.
Marshall (4- 0, 2- 0 Conference USA) had three other games called off this season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“With so much uncertainty this season, we’re just trying to give our fan base as many opportunities as possible to see the Thundering Herd,” Hamrick said.
UMass, an FBS independent, lost its season opener 41-0 Saturday at Georgia
Southern.
The Mi n u t e me n announced the cancellation of their 2020 football season on Aug. 11 due to concerns surrounding the pandemic but later reversed course. OnSept. 21, the school said it would play a limited number of games to be announced as they are scheduled.
Pac-12 sets procedures: The Pac-12 has established cancellation and tiebreaker policies for its virus-truncated season. The conference announced that a minimum threshold of 53 scholarship players — with various position minimums — must be available for any team to participate in a game.
If a school does not elect to play the game shorthanded, the game will be rescheduled or declared a no contest.
The Pac-12’s seven-game, conference-only season is scheduled to begin Nov. 7, and theconferenceistakingpotential cancellations into account in its tiebreaker policies.
To be eligible for the Pac-12 Championship Game, teams must play at the most one game fewer than the average played among all Pac-12 teams.
Division winners will be determined by best winning percentage for all games, and head-to-head results will take precedent in the event of a tie in the loss column if there is an unbalanced schedule.
If two teams that played the same number of games tie, the representative for the conference title game will be determined by head-to-head results, record in division games and record against the next highest-placed team in the division.
Multiple team ties with an unbalanced schedule will be broken by head-to-head results, followed by record in common conference games, then College Football Playoff ranking.
MartinezremainsNebraska’s QB: Adrian Martinez has turned back a challenge from Luke McCaffrey to win the starting quarterback’s job for Nebraska’s opener at No. 5 Ohio State.
McCaffrey made a serious bid to unseat the Cornhuskers’ two-year starter, who struggled with injuries last year and seemed to regress from his fantastic freshman season in 2018.
“Adrian is going to be our quarterback,” coach Scott Frost said Monday. “I feel like I’ve got two guys playing at a really high level. I’ve seen a lot of improvement out of Adrian this year. I’ve seen a lot of improvement out of Luke. Both those guys are capable of moving our offense and doing a great job. ”
McCaffrey, brother of NFL star Christian McCaffrey and son of former pro receiver Ed McCaffrey, played quarterback and receiver as a freshman last season and quickly became a fan favorite. As third-string QB last year, he played fiveplus series in a loss to Indiana and completed 5 of 6 passes for 71 yards and a touchdown and ran 12 times for 76 yards. He also threw a 39-yard touchdown pass in a loss to Iowa.
Frost limited McCaffrey to four games so he could retain a year of eligibility.
Martinez was the most productive freshman quarterback in the nation in 2018, averaging 371 yards of total offense against Big Ten West opponents and a school-record 295 per game overall. Heledanoffensethatranked second in the Big Ten and scored 30 points per game.
But Martinez injured his left knee last season and missed games against Minnesota and Indiana. His passing accuracy slipped from 65% to 59%, and his nine interceptions were tied for second most in the Big Ten.