Saban has virus as big game nears
Alabama coach Nick Saban and athletic director Greg Byrne have tested positive for COVID-19, three days before the second-ranked Crimson Tide is set to face No. 3 Georgia in a clash of Southeastern Conference and national powers.
Both said their tests Wednesday morning came back positive, and Saban said in a statement that he “immediately left work and isolated at home.”
Saban, who monitored practice Wednesday from home, said he didn’t have any symptoms as of early evening. But the secondranked Crimson Tide will almost certainly be without their iconic 68-year-old coach on the sideline when they play Georgia.
Saban said he informed the team via a Zoom call at 2 p.m. Wednesday, about an hour after he learned of the test results, and that offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will oversee game preparations within the football building while he works from home.
Saban wasn’t sure how game day will go when it comes to communication with his staff, but is confident he can still lead practices and run meetings from home via Zoom calls. He communicated with a team manager when he saw a mistake in practice and wanted a play repeated.
He plans to go through his usual Thursday routine, and will preside over meetings all from home.
“I didn’t leave the country or anything,” Saban said. “I’m just right down the street. And we have this technology, so it’s really unique.”
Saban said Alabama hasn’t “had any indication” of an outbreak within the team.
Florida outbreak halts LSU game
The Southeastern Conference postponed Saturday’s game between LSU and No. 10 Florida after an outbreak of positive tests among Gators players.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said the number is 21 positives with considerably more in quarantine because of contract tracing.
Those players likely would have been unavailable against the Tigers, leaving Florida with fewer than 50 scholarship athletes and less than the SEC’s threshold (53) for holding games amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The game was tentatively rescheduled for Dec. 12, the league’s built-in open week before its annual championship. It’s the second SEC game bumped this week, following Missouri-Vanderbilt.
Florida hosts Missouri next, on Oct. 24, and that game also could be in jeopardy.
“Hopefully we don’t have any more positives and we’re able to get on the other side of this and then we can get everyone back in a situation where you can go compete again,” Stricklin said.
Florida paused team activities Tuesday after seeing a spike in positives. Coach Dan Mullen said two assistant coaches also tested positive. The Gators have since moved to everyday testing and and halted meetings and practices indefinitely.
Stricklin suggested traveling to Texas A&M last weekend may have been the root of the team’s outbreak, with two players who later tested positive telling team doctors they had symptoms before getting on a plane Friday. One had a runny nose, the other a headache.
Neither told anyone, which Stricklin said would be addressed. He also hinted at potentially looking at tweaking travel protocols.
Odds and ends
At 0-3 in the Big 12, Texas Tech has decided to change starting quarterbacks for its Oct. 24 game against West Virginia. Sophomore Alan Bowman has been benched in favor of junior Henry Colombi, who sparked the Red Raiders by completing 74.1 percent of his passes for 359 yards, with three touchdown passes and one interception in relief appearances in the last two games. … Massimo Biscardi kicked a 40-yard field goal with four seconds remaining to send visiting Coastal Carolina to a 30-27 victory over No. 21 Louisiana-Lafayette in a battle of unbeaten Sun Belt Conference teams.