Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz said 14 players missed practice on Tuesday after four tested positive for COVID-19 and the rest were in isolation because of contract tracing or pending test results. This is the most held out of team activities since the Tigers had 20 players quarantined after the 4th of July when four players tested positive. This is the reason the SEC is starting their first week of games at the end of September. It was anticipated that with the return of students, there would be the potential for positive cases.
“That’s not ideal,” Drinkwitz said on a Zoom call Tuesday. “We anticipated this would be the case with students back on campus and kind of the way this thing is operating. I think our guys are still trying to do a really good job of practicing safe social distancing and trying to do the best they can, not to catch it or spread it.”
Mizzou’s first game is scheduled for Sept. 26th against Alabama.
The Big 12 starts its football season with non-conference games this weekend, and there are already three delays. TCU postponed its game against SMU to a later date after positive tests on the Horned Frogs team. Oklahoma State vs. Tulsa was pushed back a week because the Golden Hurricane had COVID-19 issues. Tuesday night, Baylor and their game with Louisiana Tech has been postponed after 38 La. Tech players tested positive.