Coach Kyle Whittingham Says Utah 'Barely' Has a Full Team for Game vs. UCLA

Three days after Utah canceled its season opener, head coach Kyle Whittingham said the program "barely" has a full team amid its COVID-19 outbreak.

When asked if the team has enough players to face UCLA this weekend, he said they're cutting it close.

"Barely, we're right on the borderline and the difference this week is we do have extra time to try to prepare some guys that really have been getting zero reps because of their status on the depth chart. Whereas when it happened last Friday, we were under the threshold as well. But we also didn't have time, there's no practice left to try to get some of the walk-ons up to speed. It was just an impossible situation," Whittingham told reporters on Monday, per KSL Sports. 

"At least we have time to try to get some guys trained up as best as we can."

The Utes were forced to cancel last weekend's matchup against Arizona because they did not have the minimum number of scholarship players available for the game due to positive COVID-19 cases and additional players isolated under contact tracing protocols. The Pac-12 declared the game a no contest.

Whittingham added that two position groups were "decimated" last week, which contributed to Utah's cancelation.

He did not specify how many COVID-19 cases the Utes have and couldn't pinpoint how the team's outbreak began. Whittingham said one player was recently hospitalized due to the COVID-19, and the athletic department later released a statement to provide more information on the hospitalization.

"One student athlete who has not been participating with the football program since August recently tested positive for COVID-19 and was hospitalized. He has since been released from the hospital, is at home and is doing much better. Throughout this time he has been receiving full care from the medical team," the statement read.

On Sunday, the Pac-12 moved Utah's game against UCLA from Friday night to Saturday night. Following the announcement, Utah said the football team had two consecutive days of no positive COVID-19 test results.

Despite starting preparations for Saturday's game, Whittingham acknowledged there's a chance they could lose more players and be forced to miss another game.

"Well, we're trying and we hope to. Every day is different," he said. "If we get a few more positives this week, that could knock us out of the game this weekend. ...We are doing our best to be able to play the game. But if we lose many more guys this week, maybe another situation, we're not able to. [We'll] take it day by day and see what happens."

The Utah-UCLA game is set to kick off at the Rose Bowl at 10:30 p.m. ET.