UW Head Coach Jimmy Lake Speaks, "We Have Zero Offensive Lineman Available To Play This Week"

"Our whole team is in isolation as we speak" said Head Coach of the Washington Huskies Jimmy Lake on a zoom press conference on Monday.

The news that the Washington Huskies would have to withdraw from the Pac-12 Championship was devastating for not only Lake and his staff but the players.

"They were completely crushed that we could not play last week and they are devastated now that we can't play this Friday." said Lake on Monday.

This Washington football team is one who fought all season long for a (3-1) overall record and a shot to represent the North for a Pac-12 title. But this decision was "necessary" due to the Huskies program having serious COVID-19 contamination control issues this week.

[Breaking: Washington OUT For Pac-12 Championship]

Lake told the media, "this virus is wicked and extremely infectious" and "through contact tracing we have zero offensive lineman available to play this week." (Lake)

Last week Washington canceled their game against the Oregon Ducks, after several players tested positive for COVID-19. The Pac-12 released a statement saying,

“After consultation with Washington, the Pac-12 Conference announced the game involving Washington at Oregon scheduled for Saturday, December 12 has been cancelled. This decision was made under the Pac-12’s football game cancellation policy due to Washington not having the minimum number of scholarship student-athletes available for the game due to a number of positive football student-athlete COVID-19 cases and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols. Under Conference policy, the game will be declared a no contest.Not contesting this game is very disappointing to our student-athletes and our fans. While all of us want to see our student-athletes on the field competing, our number one priority must continue to be the health and safety of all those connected to Pac-12 football programs.”

Despite the canceled game, the Huskies were still named Pac-12 North champs, but the odds of them traveling down to Southern California remained low after COVID-19 cases continued to present themselves.

Although, Washington's football program is devastated over this news, Head Coach Jimmy Lake reiterated that, "we've got to be grateful for our health" at the end of the day. Lake confirmed that all of the players who have tested positive have mild symptoms and are recovering well.

Washington athletics did confirm that coaches within the athletic department have been infected, but they did not provide names due to Hipaa Privacy Laws.

UPDATE: Statement on 2020 #Pac12FCG ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/QKg6rheTmj
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) December 14, 2020

USC will now play the Oregon Ducks for the Pac-12 title on Friday December 18th, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

[READ: 10 Things To Know: USC Trojans vs. Washington Huskies]

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