Practice canceled after players test positive for virus

The FAU football team canceled its practice scheduled for Tuesday morning after the program received positive COVID-19 test results for “a number of student-athletes” late on Monday, the school announced Tuesday afternoon.

The Owls are contact tracing and will conduct another round of testing Wednesday.

Florida Atlantic says it expects to provide more information on the situation after its second round of testing.

Conference USA requires that football student-athletes get tested for COVID-19 three times a week.

This is the second time FAU has had to stop practices due to members of the program contracting the novel coronavirus.

The Owls paused football practices for a few days in late-August after three members of the program tested positive for COVID-19.

FAU coach Willie Taggart told reporters Monday that the three individuals who previously tested positive hadn’t rejoined the team yet, adding that one was expected to return Tuesday before the practice was canceled.

Georgia Southern, the team FAU is scheduled to start its season against Saturday, had 33 players — including eight starters — inactive in its season opener against Campbell Sept. 12, with those absences being a mixture of COVID-19 related, coach’s discretion, injuries and suspensions according to the Savannah Morning News.

Taggart told reporters Monday he wasn’t worried about coming into contact with opponents who may have had players previously test positive for the virus.

“Every school has a protocol in place and everyone’s testing,” Taggart said. “When you go on the field, you’re going out there with guys with negative tests. As long as everyone’s going by the protocol, we should be fine from that standpoint.

“I don’t think it’s one of those things where you can just sit around and just worry. We test three times a week to make sure our guys are healthy and you try to do your best to stay healthy through the whole process. I know we have a good protocol in place.”

The Owls season opener against the Southern Eagles, which will be broadcasted on ESPN, is scheduled to kick off at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday in Statesboro, Ga.