‘With COVID, it is different.’ Will we know who’s available for Kentucky at Auburn?
Georgia Southern released an “inactive” list of 33 players a few hours before its game against Campbell on Saturday. No specifics were tied to individuals, but it was inclusive of every possible reason a player could sit out, including a positive COVID-19 result or being quarantined due to contact-tracing procedures.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who typically issues a weekly injury report, is forgoing that this year for a similar approach to what Georgia Southern is doing. Oklahoma Coach Lincoln Riley last week suggested the Sooners would go about it much differently and cease disclosing any information about the team’s COVID-19 situation to the public on the basis of it being a potential competitive advantage.
Fans and media will, to some degree, have to guess all season about why a player might or might not be available — athletes’ health matters deserve to be kept as private as they’d like — but it would be easy to surmise that, if a guy played and was completely healthy one week, then absent for two weeks before returning to play fully healthy again, he was probably subject to quarantine. Handling it the way Clemson and Georgia Southern intend to at least gives those watching a better understanding of how things might look when the game kicks off, and help them measure expectations in the weeks to follow.
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops is usually forthcoming with media about players who are “banged up” or sidelined for other reasons, but he can’t exactly come out and say that a player has tested positive for the virus or that he’s in quarantine because of contact tracing. Those hurdles probably will affect how injuries and suspensions are reported this season.
“I’m probably more open than a lot of coaches because I feel like that information’s getting out there anyway,” Stoops said Saturday, after UK’s final preseason scrimmage. “If you have somebody that’s got a twisted ankle or something and is walking around campus in a boot, you all are gonna get that info anyway so I don’t get too bent out of shape about the competitive advantage when it comes to certain injuries. There’s been times when I’ve had to keep it tight to the vest and there’s times when it’s truly uncertain, so there’s no reason for me to comment on it. ...
“With COVID, it is different. And to be totally honest, I’ve gotta think through that a little bit more. The concentration has been on the players that we’ve had, keeping ‘em safe and continuing to get better each and every day.”
Stoops has two weeks to come up with a plan as far as reporting available or unavailable players. That’s also two weeks for players to heal up and/or get out of quarantine; the final scrimmage was manageable, but a couple of position groups were thin, so some procedures were adjusted to accommodate for that.
“Overall, I’m very pleased with getting it in and getting some live action, getting some more looks,” Stoops said.
Future players
Stoops and UK’s coaches can’t comment on specific recruits until they’re signed on the dotted line, but during his news conference Saturday he seemed to allude to a major high school football game played in Lexington on Friday. As he talked about mitigating anxiety prior to Kentucky’s Sept. 26 season opener at Auburn, Stoops said:
“You can’t win until you quit beating yourself,” Stoops said. “Pre-snap penalties, turnovers. I watched a great high school football game last night online and turnovers were an issue. I think that the three scrimmages that we’ve had, we’re putting the ball in hands and making full tackles as clean as we can. ... We’re getting as much live tackling, or simulated live tackling as much as possible to work on that. Those are things that pop up early.”
That description was a fitting one for the Frederick Douglass-North Hardin game, which was broadcast live by PrepSpin. It was a turnover-rich affair that featured four UK commits — Jager Burton, Dekel Crowdus, Jordan Lovett and La’Vell Wright — and ended on a game-winning field goal.
Fan week
The UK football program by this time in the fall would have held its annual Fan Day. In its place this year is a virtual “Fan Week,” kicking off Monday and lasting through Sept. 17.
Tom Leach and other UK Sports Network personalities will host multiple current players during nightly video conferences, for which fans are encouraged to submit questions through a form available at UKathletics.com/fanday.
By submitting a form, fans also will be entered into prize pools for UK-themed prizes, such as signed 2020 schedule posters.
The last word
Redshirt freshman DeMarcus Harris on the Wildcats’ secondary:
“I think all the DBs are good. There’s not one duck on the defense.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 3:28 PM.
