Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Game on despite 11 positive results
Owls still planning for season opener after COVID-19 testing
The FAU football team returned to practice Wednesday morning after “a number of student-athletes” tested positive for COVID-19 and is planning to play its season opener against Georgia Southern on Saturday.
After Tuesday’s practice was canceled, FAU coach Willie Taggart told reporters Wednesday afternoon “like 11” members of the program tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which he found “a little alarming” because “we’ve been tested regularly and it hasn’t been that way before.”
Conference USA requires that football student-athletes get tested for COVID-19 three times a week. The Owls previously paused football practices for a few days in late August after three members of the program tested positive for COVID-19.
“Early on, it was a lot more stressful,” Taggart said. “Now we’ve done it a little bit so it’s not as stressful, but it’s still there. It’s not ideal during a game week when you’re trying to prepare and get certain guys ready. That’s probably the hardest part of it all: trying to get certain guys ready.
“And when you don’t have guys, you have to find someone else to put in there. That’s what’s frustrating. But we’re not the only ones dealing with this stuff.”
Taggart didn’t say whether all the positive tests were by players or members of the staff tested positive too. He added the 11 guys who tested positive are “not around anyone else” and that the program is working with student health services on contact tracing and were waiting on “some” results from Tuesday’s follow-up testing.
Taggart also told reporters two more players opted out of the season, with freshman defensive back Jaylon Worsham and redshirt freshman wide receiver Eyin Cole both deciding not to play, bringing the team’s opt-out total to five.
La’Darius Henry, Cordel Littlejohn and Quran Hafiz are the three other Owls who’ve opted out of the season.
“[It] all depends on if we have enough guys to play at certain positions,” said Taggart when asked if the team will play Saturday’s opener. “As of now, we do and we’re planning on playing.”
Kickoff for the Owls’ season opener against the Southern Eagles is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Saturday in Statesboro, Georgia, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.
Taggart said he’s been telling the team it has to “embrace the suck” as it tries to focus on starting a season that’s had many bumps in the road.
“We’ve been talking about this since being back — these things are going to happen,” Taggart said. “We can’t necessarily sit around and just pout about it. It’s not ideal. It sucks having to go through it, but we have to go through it.
“The guys who can play, we just have to prepare. And the guys who can’t play, we have to do the things we need to and wait until they get back so they can continue to try to help us.”
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 on 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, but he did express concern with the long-term effects the virus could bring.
“Everyone’s concerned with this virus because nobody knows everything about it,” he said. “Every day we’re learning from it.
“I think we have one of the best medical teams here that’ll guide us through the right direction and make sure we’re doing things the right way. We have protocols in place to make sure they’re healthy when they do return so we don’t make any mistakes from that standpoint. We’ve had guys who’ve had it, come back and have been good ever since. It’s just one of those things everyone’s dealing with, not just us. That’s just the reality of it all. That’s just the way it’s going to be right now.”