COVID-19 Still Very Much the Threat to the College Football Season
STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State has all of their players in Stillwater and the Cowboys have been holding voluntary workouts since Wednesday of last week. Now, that isn't with all player participating. There are eight players that Pokes Report has confirmed as having tested positive for COVID-19 with starting linebackers Amen Ogbongbemiga and Malcolm Rodriguez included. Walk-on receiver Gabe Simpson joined the two defensive starters on Twitter as identifying that he tested positive since getting back to Stillwater. Ogbongbemiga was in the first wave of players reporting on June 1 and Rodriguez and Simpson were in the second wave on June 8. We still don't have a total number and have not learned anything about the third and final wave of Cowboys that reported last week.
One Oklahoma State athletic administrator said they had not released any numbers since the third wave and there was some follow-up testing going on today in the West End Zone.
Oklahoma State looks mild compared to Houston, which shut down their facility again. Clemson had a reported 23 positive tests. Texas had a reported 13 positive tests for the coronavirus. LSU has shut down their workouts and Kansas State shut down their complex and all activities after 14 positive tests as of last Friday.
I had Kansas State sidelines reporter Matt Walters on my radio show today and he said it was almost like a science fiction movie the way the disease started to spread through the Wildcats team.
Matt Walters has been covering the Kansas State Wildcats for over two decades.
"It kept stair stepping up, and first there were two student-athletes, and then there were four, and it kept climbing up there," Walters described of late last week in Manhattan, Kansas where the statistics show Riley County jumped in positive tests. "To be honest, Robert, I think we're going to see it in more places. Last night Kansas State got mentioned on NBC Nightly News regarding college athletics and COVID. It's unfortunate, but again, there is a game plan for this but it is still a very fluid situation. What we are talking about today is how will this be different two weeks, three weeks down the road. It is very odd."
Kansas State's athletic director Gene Taylor tried to get ahead of it and Taylor and head coach Chris Klieman did a Zoom meeting with player's parents.
"The health and well-being of our student-athletes will always be our top priority," Taylor said, per Tim Fitzgerald of Go Powercat's website. "Following the most recent test results, we felt like temporarily pausing all football workouts and access to our facilities was the best decision for everyone. We continue to take this situation very seriously and want to do everything we can to get back to workouts soon."
Kansas State is learning what I felt I learned immediately when Oklahoma State first reported and there were three positive tests. That is with an empty campus and no students. All of these campuses are supposedly going to have student back and in-person classes this fall. Then what? College students and college football players are naturally social and if there is social interaction then kiss football season good-bye. Student-athletes are going to have to be very disciplined in their lives if there is going to be a season. They will have to give up a lot.
"Giving up life, Robert," agreed Walters. "If we have one (football season) it is going to be disjointed. It is not going to be 12 games. If there is a 12-game season as scheduled with 50 percent capacity in stadiums around the Big 12, I'm going to be floored. That's just me. I don't have anybody telling me that. That is by watching and reading and thinking, I just don't we're going to have a remotely normal football season."
I can tell you in my mind right now, it is very precarious, very.
