With first opponent sidelined by COVID-19, Kentucky keeps focus on itself
While the University of Kentucky football team has barely had its fall camp impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, its first opponent hasn’t been so fortunate.
Auburn, scheduled to host the Wildcats on Sept. 26, held only one of four scheduled practices last week after an unspecified number of players tested positive for the coronavirus. Like UK, it was set to hold an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday, but the Tigers were unable to do so, per reports.
UK head coach Mark Stoops shared Aug. 22 that his team currently had three players in quarantine because of the virus. During a Zoom teleconference with reporters on Saturday he said he hasn’t dedicated time to monitoring virus-related developments at Auburn or at colleges elsewhere in the U.S.
“That’s not to say that you don’t read any media coverage at all or anything,” Stoops said. “Certainly you see things or hear things within the office, but it’s not my concern because I can’t control that. Certainly, I hope that we all are staying as safe as possible and keeping things under control because you always worry about that. You feel like if it gets out of control at any other place, it can affect you. It can affect us and our players. Our focus is on keeping ourselves as safe as possible and doing the things that we can do to control our environment.”
The state of Kentucky’s COVID-19 case total was reported to be at 46,757 as of Friday, with its rate of people testing positive at 4.5 percent. New cases at universities are trending upward and most of those are originating from UK, which accounted for 333 of 481 known active infections as of Friday.
Kentucky has three full weeks of practice, plus a game week’s worth of preparation exercises, before it’s scheduled to open the season.
Impressive freshmen
Members of Kentucky’s vaunted 2020 recruiting class have plenty of work to do, Stoops said, but they’ve impressed early.
Stoops and other members of the coaching staff throughout fall camp have suggested that the 2019 season — in which Kentucky was able to redshirt its entire freshman signing class by keeping them at or below the four-game minimum — will be something of an outlier, and that that would have been the case even if the grind of a 10-game Southeastern Conference schedule wasn’t placed before them.
(It’s worth noting, too, that any concerns about leaving newcomers on the bench were alleviated by the NCAA giving every fall-sport athlete a free year of eligibility.)
Beau Allen, a quarterback out of Lexington Catholic who enrolled in January, is among those making a mark. Allen won’t get the starting nod — that will be Terry Wilson’s as long as he’s upright and has a throwing arm — but he appears to be making a case to be high on the depth chart this fall. With transfer Joey Gatewood’s availability still uncertain, Allen’s rapid development could prove crucial.
“Beau was getting hit right in the chin and delivered a 40- or 50-yard bomb that Earnest (Sanders) went up and made a great catch, a contested catch for a touchdown,” Stoops said of Saturday’s scrimmage. “That was impressive to see.”
Vito Tisdale has been mentioned as much as, if not more than, any freshman who joined the program in the offseason. Tisdale, a safety from Bowling Green, wasn’t a mid-year enrollee but has shown up like a guy who has been on campus a while.
“(He) makes plays all over the field,” said Yusuf Corker, a junior defensive back. “Interceptions, pass break-ups. We had a scrimmage today and he hit somebody pretty hard, knocked ‘em down.”
Corker lauded fellow freshmen Rickey Hyatt and Joel Williams, too.
“They just have that certain ‘wow factor’ when you’re watching film,” Corker said. “You’ll be watching them on the field and be like, ‘Who’s that guy running?’”
Mental health
Stoops during an appearance on Kentucky Sports Radio on Friday discussed his team’s decision not to practice Thursday as part of an effort to raise awareness of and combat social injustices.
He and other coaches have been outspoken about Black Lives Matter and other current events going back to the summer. Stoops was asked Saturday about the mental weight of everything going on in the world and how his staff tries to work with players as far as mental health goes.
It’s 24/7 work, Stoops said.
“That doesn’t mean we know everything that’s going on in a young man’s head or in their life, but I can promise you, we talk to them often,” Stoops said. “… We spend a lot of time talking with our players about things other than football, so, with that being said, hopefully during those conversations and us investing in them outside of football, we’ll have a good feel and know whether there are problems going on.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
