The University of Utah football team still plans to play UCLA this week, just on a different day.
After its season-opener vs. Arizona was cancelled due to multiple positive COVID-19 tests and ensuing contact tracing, the athletic department on Sunday evening reported no positive tests on Saturday or Sunday. As a result, the Utes expect to resume practice on Monday, while their game at UCLA has been moved to Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.
Utah-UCLA was originally scheduled for Friday night on Fox Sports 1. The Saturday kickoff time remains 8:30 p.m. MST, but the game will now air on FOX as part of a tripleheader that includes USC-Arizona (1:30 p.m.) and Oregon-Washington State (5 p.m.).
“After two consecutive days of no positive COVID-19 test results, we are encouraged that we can resume practice on Monday in preparation for this week’s game at UCLA,” Utes athletic director Mark Harlan said in a statement. “We continue to rigorously reinforce all health and safety protocols related to the virus throughout our department.”
Sunday’s news comes less than 24 hours after Harlan took to Twitter to provide an update, saying the football program had “good testing results” on Saturday, with more testing planned for Sunday.
At Utah’s request, the Pac-12 on Friday afternoon canceled the Utes' season-opening game vs. Arizona, which had been scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Utah reported multiple positive tests Friday morning. Between the positives and the ensuing contact tracing, the football program could not meet the 53-player minimum threshold set by the Pac-12 to play the game.
Within the 53, a team must have one quarterback, four defensive linemen and seven offensive linemen. It remains unclear how many Utah players tested positive, and how many were involved with the contact tracing.
Utah-Arizona was joined by Cal-Washington as Pac-12 games called off due to COVID-19. On Wednesday, the Golden Bears announced that one player had tested positive, while a host of others fell under contact-tracing protocols. By Thursday afternoon, their season-opening matchup with Washington on Saturday night was cancelled.
The remaining four Pac-12 openers on Saturday went off with few, if any hitches, headlined by USC’s 28-27 come-from-behind win over Arizona State in a critical South Division matchup.
The Tribune will update this story.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://www.sltrib.com/sports/utah-utes/2020/11/08/utah-football-reports/
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