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As has been the case in the state of Florida plenty as of late, the Florida Gators have a massive Covid-19 outbreak, and it would seem to be jeopardizing their game against the LSU Tigers set for Saturday in Gainesville.
The Independent Alligator and The Athletic have both confirmed there are 19 positive Covid-19 tests amongst players on the team. The school announced five positive tests yesterday, but reporting says that number doesn’t reflect the reality.
From The Athletic:
After announcing five verified positive cases of COVID-19 Tuesday afternoon, the program revealed it was pausing football activities. A team source with knowledge of the matter told The Athletic on the condition of anonymity that Florida is dealing with 19 positives, and another 10 players face mandatory quarantines based upon potentially being exposed to infection. Most of those 29 players currently sidelined are on scholarship, which leaves in question whether the Gators can meet the minimum of 53 scholarship players needed to play a game under SEC guidelines.
The Gators paused team activities yesterday. Whether by needs of a positional group being unmet so that the game would be deemed “unsafe,” as was the case with the Vanderbilt vs. Missouri game that was the first SEC contest rescheduled, or the roster minimum not being met, it would see that UF is in danger of not being able to play this weekend.
After a few positive cases surfaced Sunday, the Gators ramped up to daily testing (instead of the normal three times per week). Latest round of testing began today at 7 a.m.
— G. Allan Taylor (@GAllanTaylor) October 14, 2020
Covid hasn’t been much on the mind of head coach Dan Mullen, who was publicly advocating for as many as 90,000 fans to attend Ben Hill Griffin Stadium this weekend and cheer on their team.
The #10 Gators are 2-1 after falling 45-41 to Texas A&M last weekend. There are no reports of Covid issues with the Aggies as of now.