College football notes: As Kentucky waits, Tennessee denied waiver for SEC transfer
You might think with only a handful of conferences still planning on playing football this fall, there wouldn’t be much happening. You’d be wrong. Here’s a roundup of college football notes:
▪ Tennessee says it will appeal the NCAA decision to reject a eligibility waiver for offensive lineman Cade Mays, who transferred from Georgia. Meanwhile, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said Tuesday he is still waiting to hear about UK’s request for a waiver for quarterback Joey Gatewood, who transferred from Auburn.
▪ The Youngstown State-Eastern Kentucky football game canceled after Youngstown State says it will not play non-conference games. EKU is down to two games. The OVC had announced its football teams would play four games in the fall and seven conference games in the spring.
▪ Auburn reportedly has had 34 COVID-19 positives in its football program. Auburn has conducted 863 COVID-19 tests among players since June (about 7 each) with 33 coming back positive. Four players will begin fall camp in quarantine. But the Tigers had no positive tests last week. Kentucky opens the season Sept. 26 at Auburn.
▪ Ole Miss starting center Eli Johnson is opting out of 2020 season. UK plays host to Ole Miss on Oct. 3.
▪ SEC Network host Paul Finebaum says he thinks the odds are “very small” that the other Power Five conferences cancel their seasons.
▪ Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan on the Big Ten: “I commend them for being the conference that actually put player health and safety first, like they said all along.” Morgan played his high school football at Ryle in Northern Kentucky.
▪ Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields has started a petition to have the Big Ten play football this season. It now has over 35,000 signatures.
▪ Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde on the Big Ten: “This explanation deserves more than just a vote total, by the way. Tell us the individual vote by institution. If the people running these huge and prestigious universities are too timorous to put their name behind their vote, they should be ashamed. If they went with the old bureaucratic semantic dodge of not taking a formal vote while very much counting ‘informal’ votes, they should also be ashamed.”
▪ NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline on “The Dan Patrick Show”: “A month from now when (ACC/SEC/B12) are contemplating starting their schedule, we’ll see where they are. They have to follow the mandates in place. That would setup a confrontation if the mandates aren’t being followed.”
▪ Alabama Coach Nick Saban: “When I go see my mother, who is 88 years old, we sit 10 feet apart on a park bench and talk for 45 minutes or an hour,” Saban said, “I say ‘Mom, I’m not giving you a hug today because I love you.’”
▪ Alabama has flipped highly rated quarterback prospect Jalen Milroe, who had committed to Texas.
▪ Notre Dame had 22 positive COVID-19 results out of nearly 12,000 tests given when students returned to campus. After one week, Notre Dame is now reporting 29 new cases out of 348 tests for positive rate above 8 percent.
▪ North Carolina had 135 new COVID-19 cases last week among students on campus, compared to 11 the week before. The school announced that is going to online classes only. Still, the school’s athletics department put out a statement saying it was still planning to play this fall.
▪ UNC’s student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel summed it up with a NSFW headline.
▪ Florida Coach Dan Mullen: “When we were away and having voluntary-only workouts and our guys were kind of off and about, we had quite a few positive tests. Then we got back together and started having the mandatory workouts with full team activities and those numbers greatly decreased.”
▪ Tulsa pauses football practice after eight players test positive for COVID-19.
▪ Southern Miss defensive players Jacques Turner and Racheem Boothe are both opting out of 2020 season.
▪ Tennessee Coach Jeremy Pruitt says the program has had 23 guys test positive.
▪ Tennessee reinstates running back Jeremy Banks, who was dismissed.
▪ Missouri planning on allowing 25 percent of capacity fans at Faurot Field.
▪ Oklahoma running back Kennedy Brooks will reportedly opt out of the upcoming season. Brooks has rushed for 2,067 yards and 18 touchdowns the last two seasons.
▪ Georgia quarterback JT Daniels not yet cleared from torn ACL. Daniels transferred to Georgia from USC and received an NCAA eligibility waiver.
▪ Colorado State wide receiver Warren Jackson opting out of 2020 season.
▪ Vanderbilt senior linebacker and leading tackler Dimitri Moore is opting out of 2020.
▪ Florida International wide receiver coach Aubrey Hill has died at age 48 of cancer. “He changed my life,” said former FIU wide receiver Austin Maloney, who graduated this past December. “He believed in me. He saw something in me.”
▪ After meeting with head coach Mike Norvell, Florida State wide receiver Warren Thompson has apologized for his comments criticizing the coaching staff for how it was treating the COVID-19 protocols.
SEC 2020 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Sept. 26
- Alabama at Missouri
- Florida at Ole Miss
- Georgia at Arkansas
- Kentucky at Auburn
- Miss State at LSU
- Tennessee at South Carolina
- Vanderbilt at Texas A&M
Oct. 3
- Texas A&M at Alabama
- Arkansas at Miss State
- Auburn at Georgia
- South Carolina at Florida
- Ole Miss at Kentucky
- LSU at Vanderbilt
Oct. 10
- Alabama at Ole Miss
- Arkansas at Auburn
- Florida at Texas A&M
- Tennessee at Georgia
- Miss State at Kentucky
- Missouri at LSU
- South Carolina at Vanderbilt
Oct. 17
- Georgia at Alabama
- Ole Miss at Arkansas
- Auburn at South Carolina
- LSU at Florida
- Kentucky at Tennessee
- Texas A&M at Miss State
- Vanderbilt at Missouri
Oct. 24
- Alabama at Tennessee
- Auburn at Ole Miss
- Missouri at Florida
- Georgia at Kentucky
- South Carolina at LSU
Oct. 31
- Miss State at Alabama
- Arkansas at Texas A&M
- LSU at Auburn
- Kentucky at Missouri
- Ole Miss at Vanderbilt
Nov. 7
- Tennessee at Arkansas
- Florida vs Georgia
- Vanderbilt at Miss State
- Texas A&M at South Carolina
Nov. 14
- Alabama at LSU
- Arkansas at Florida
- Auburn at Miss State
- Georgia at Missouri
- Vanderbilt at Kentucky
- South Carolina at Ole Miss
- Texas A&M at Tennessee
Nov. 21
- Kentucky at Alabama
- LSU at Arkansas
- Tennessee at Auburn
- Florida at Vanderbilt
- Miss State at Georgia
- Ole Miss at Texas A&M
- Missouri at South Carolina
Nov. 28
- Auburn at Alabama
- Arkansas at Missouri
- Kentucky at Florida
- Georgia at South Carolina
- LSU at Texas A&M
- Miss State at Ole Miss
- Tennessee at Vanderbilt
Dec. 5
- Alabama at Arkansas
- Texas A&M at Auburn
- Florida at Tennessee
- Vanderbilt at Georgia
- South Carolina at Kentucky
- Ole Miss at LSU
- Missouri at Miss State
Dec. 12 or Dec. 19
- SEC Championship Game
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 9:33 AM.
