Ohio State Football Program on One-Week Pause as CoVID Cases Rise Again

The pandemic made the 2020 season extremely difficult on Ohio State's national championship run and it appears those issues are extending into 2021.

Author:
Brendan Gulick
Mar 9, 2021 10:53 AM EST

Ohio State's battle with CoVID-19 during critical parts of the 2020 season weakened the team as they played championship-caliber football. Unfortunately, their battle against the pandemic isn't over yet.

With winter workouts still rolling along and spring practice scheduled to begin on March 19, the Buckeyes have once again had to pause all team-activities because of an increase in positive cases within the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

Ohio State confirmed the announcement on Tuesday morning. The Buckeyes will not hold team activities for at least one week. The decision was made jointly by director of athletics Gene Smith and head team physician Dr. Jim Borchers, citing an abundance of caution and with the health, safety and well-being of the student-athletes, coaches and football and facility support staff as the highest priority.

“Our decisions on the welfare of our student-athletes, staff members and those coming to our campus, and our determination as to when we will reopen and resume activities, will continue to be guided by our medical staff,” Smith said in the school's press release.

“We have been successful in safely hosting nearly 100 athletic events on campus this year with limited disruptions, but this pandemic is not over. We will continue to stress the safety measures of wearing masks, consistent and thorough hand washing and physical distancing and we will remain vigilant in those areas.”

The football program is scheduled to start its spring drills Friday, March 19 and host its spring football game on Saturday, April 17. But it will be critical for them to maintain the same flexibility this spring as they did during the past football season, during which they had three regular season games cancelled and were missing key players the second half of the season, but still made a run at a national championship.

This is a developing story and will be updated when more information is available.

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