Tennessee AD isolating for COVID
Tennessee athletic director and former Volunteers football coach Phillip Fulmer said Friday he is in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19.
Fulmer, 70, posted on Twitter that he is “feeling fine” and was deemed not to have been in close contact with any Tennessee athletes or “sport-specific staff members.” Tennessee plays at No. 23 Auburn on Saturday. Fulmer is a College Football Hall of Famer who coached the Vols for 17 years and won a national championship 1998. He has been Tennessee’s AD since 2017.
This came as University of Miami football coach Manny Diaz became the latest active coach to announce he has contracted the virus. Diaz made a similar social media post earlier to announce he tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating. Miami is not scheduled to play again until Dec. 5 at Wake Forest. The Hurricanes this week were forced to postpone games scheduled for Saturday and Nov. 28 because of coronavirus issues.
Diaz was the second coach from a Power Five school to publicly acknowledge testing positive this week, along with Maryland’s Mike Locksley. Locksley’s team, like Diaz’s, had its Saturday game called off because of COVID-19 issues within the program. As of Friday afternoon, 16 of the 62 games across major college football had been postponed or canceled. That’s the most disrupted games in any week of this season, one more than last week.
Among the other active coaches to have said they tested positive for COVID-19 are: Florida’s Dan Mullen, Florida State’s Mike Norvell, Purdue’s Jeff Brohm, Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin, Kansas’ Les Miles, and Troy’s Chip Lindsey, who will not be with his team when the Trojans play Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
Alabama coach Nick Saban also tested positive, but did not miss a game after that result was later deemed false.
Washington State athletic director Pat Chun says the school has nine football players in COVID-19 protocols and four players had to be put into the protocol Friday morning leading to the cancellation of the Cougars’ game at Stanford. Chun said as of last weekend, the Cougars had zero players in their COVID protocols and the first positive test came early in the week. The four positives Friday kept the Cougars from reaching the Pac-12 mandate of 53 scholarship players available.
College basketball: The Bellarmine men’s basketball program has paused team activities amid the pandemic, delaying the school’s Division I debut until Dec. 4 at No. 9 Duke. The Knights were scheduled to open Wednesday at Chattanooga and make their home debut against Transylvania on Nov. 28 at Freedom Hall, the former longtime home of the crosstown Louisville Cardinals. Chattanooga will visit on Dec. 9 in a reshuffled schedule that delays Bellarmine’s Dec. 1 meeting with Dayton.
Golf: Robert Streb birdied his last two holes on the Plantation course at Seal Island and matched his career low with a 9-under 63, giving him a two-shot lead over Camilo Villegas on Friday in the RSM Classic.
NFL: Three Bengals assistant coaches will not be available for Sunday’s game at Washington due to COVID-19 protocols. The Bengals said wide receivers coach Bob Bicknell, secondary/cornerbacks coach Steve Jackson and secondary/safeties coach Robert Livingston will be unable to attend the game. ... The Saints placed quarterback Drew Brees on injured reserve, meaning he’ll miss at least three games with rib injuries. Brees was unable to finish Sunday’s game after a heavy hit on a sack attempt by 287-pound 49ers defensive tackle Kentavius Street, who was penalized for roughing on the play. Street landed on the right side of Brees’ torso and Brees was diagnosed Monday with rib fractures and a collapsed lung.