AD: ‘We’re dealing with COVID issues, as is the rest of the world’
For the past two games, the number of Miami Hurricanes unavailable to play was in double digits. On Monday, the team’s COVID-19 predicament worsened, leading to a two-week postponement of the three remaining UM games and possibly football practices.
“It’s probably no surprise to anyone we’re dealing with COVID issues, as is the rest of the world,” UM athletic director Blake James told 560-AM on Tuesday morning following the Monday evening announcement.
“I think you saw this past weekend that we were short a sizable amount of our team. As it continued to progress, it climbed to a number where it just wouldn’t allow us to play in a game, really, looking out for the safety and well-being for our students. … It’s in the best interest of all involved for us to reschedule those games.”
With three regular-season games left on the schedule, the 12th-ranked Hurricanes won’t be playing their games the next two Saturdays, making Dec. 5 their next game day.
That Saturday, they will face Wake Forest on the road, a game originally scheduled for Nov. 28. That pushes back the Dec. 5 home game against North Carolina to Dec. 12, and the Georgia Tech game that would’ve been this
Saturday will now be held Dec. 19.
With that also being the date of the ACC championship game, the Yellow Jackets will only come to Miami if U Mis not in the conference’s title game or if that result does not directly impact which teams get in.
Football practices, as the team knows them, will be put on hold until further notice. Players and coaches will be in contact using video conferencing, while those who aren’t in quarantine or isolation can still partake in socially distanced conditioning.
“It’s going to be a lot different over the next two weeks,” James said. “For those that their health allows, it’s important for them to have some type of conditioning.
“You don’t want to take a two-week break of everyone sitting on Zoom meetings and, all of a sudden, just start back up and think you’re going to play agame.”
He added that there are steps the team must take, with the guidance of UM health professionals, in preventing the spread of coronavirus so that players can eventually return for team conditioning, then contact practices and games.
It’s not known howmany more players tested positive after Miami had 13 players listed a sun available for the Hurricanes’ win at Virginia Tech on Saturday.
The UM football team is not publicly releasing how many cases it has among players, coaches and staff, but rather it puts out a pregame unavailability report that could include players out due to a positive case, contact tracing, injury, suspension or otherwise.
Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz said after Saturday’ s game that the team was “on the brink” of being unable tomake the trip to Virginia Tech with how depleted itwas at certain position groups, namely the offensive and defensive lines.
“We were real close,” James said Tuesday. “It came down to Friday test results. …
“I had been in communication with the [ACC] during theweek. I had been in communication with the athletic director at Virginia Tech as to where we were at, and obviously we got the results on Friday and we gave them the heads-up.”
James said UM will continue to look to its doctors and medical experts for guidance while emphasizing protocols to players to assure they’re buying into the measures that need to be taken in order to return to competition on Dec. 5.