Tulsa game off as virus hits again

The University of Houston football program will be sidelined for a second straight weekend because of coronavirus issues.

The American Athletic Conference said Tuesday that positive COVID-19 cases within the UH program and ensuing contact tracing had forced it to postpone Saturday’s game between the Cougars and No. 24 Tulsa at TDECU Stadium.

The decision comes a week afterUHstopped all full-teamactivities because players tested positive for the virus.

This marks the fifth game this season to be canceled or postponed because of COVID-19 issues. UH had season openers against Baylor and North Texas canceled and games against SMU (rescheduled for Dec. 5), Mem

phis (Dec. 12) and Tulsa postponed. Two other non- conference games — against Rice and Washington State — were canceled before the start of the season.

Now, UH will go at least 21 days between the Nov. 14 final home game against South Florida and next game Dec. 5 at SMU, and potentially end the season with only eight games.

In a statement, the AAC said the game may be rescheduled for Dec. 19, if neither team is a participant in the league championship game.

Cincinnati (6-0) and Tulsa (4-0) currently lead the conference standings over SMU(4-2). At 3-2 in league play, the Cougars are still in contention for one of the two spots in the championship game.

“We’re still in this thing. We’re not eliminated by any means,” coach Dana Holgorsen said during his weekly video conference callMonday. “We’re still motivated and have good morale.”

Holgorsen said the Cougars began to experience COVID-19 issues, most notably within the linebacker unit, prior to the USF game. An outbreak was confirmed two days later when at least six players and one staff member tested positive for the virus, forcing a pause of full-team workouts Nov. 17.

Additionally, an unknown number of playerswere placed in quarantine due to contact tracing, leaving the Cougars — already decimated by injuries — without enough available players for practice.

Before last week, the Cougars had bucked the nationwide trend and avoided any virus outbreaks, reporting only four positive cases during a three-month window fromJuly 30 to Oct. 22, according to the most recent data provided by the university through an open-records request.

“We had been pretty fortunate up until last week, and then last week caught up to us a little bit,” Holgorsen said.

This is the seventh time this season a Tulsa game has been affected due to COVId-19.

“Again, I’m disappointed for our student-athletes who have worked extremely hard in their preparations this fall, whether the gamewas played or not,” Tulsa athletic director Rick Dickson said in a statement. “Our young men have continued to answer the bell to physically put themselves in the right spot to play eachweek. We wish the studentathletes and coaches at UH a speedy recovery.”

UH officials were not available for comment.