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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas has mostly avoided COVID-19 issues through the first eight weeks of the season, but now appears to be facing its biggest challenge of 2020.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported earlier this week that one player and two off-field staff members tested positive for the virus in Sunday’s round of testing, which led to contact tracing that forced an unspecified number of players into quarantine.
Although he didn’t go into detail, head coach Sam Pittman confirmed during Wednesday’s weekly SEC coaches teleconference that there were multiple positive tests, but they were still on track to play Saturday’s game against LSU.
“We’ve had some positives this week that certainly will affect our football team,” Pittman said. “But per numbers mandated by the SEC, we’re still within that number ratio, so we’re looking forward to playing.”
Before the season, the SEC established a minimum threshold of at least 53 available scholarship players to play a football game. That number must include at least seven offensive linemen (with at least one center), four defensive linemen and one quarterback.
Through opt outs, injuries and transfers, Arkansas has just 73 of 85 scholarship players available the rest of the season. That means only 20 players could go into quarantine without dipping below the 53-man mark, and that doesn’t factor in the positional thresholds.
When asked a follow-up question on the teleconference about having enough depth to play the Tigers, Pittman - who missed last week’s game at Florida because he tested positive - said after a long pause, “We’ve got an adequate number of people to play.”
If the game has to be postponed, it’s unclear when it would be played.
Although Arkansas’ season hasn’t been altered by the pandemic, LSU has already had two games postponed. It is tentatively scheduled to play Florida on Dec. 12 - the SEC’s universal open date - and also needs to reschedule its game against Alabama.
The conference recently approved Dec. 19 as a possible makeup date, but obviously not for the two division champions because that is also the date of the SEC Championship Game. The SEC could also shuffle games around like it did last month when Florida and Vanderbilt had COVID-19 issues.
However, LSU head coach Ed Orgeron still sounded confident that Saturday’s game in Fayetteville would kick off at 11 a.m. CT, as scheduled.
“I feel good, I feel good,” Orgeron said. “I haven’t heard anything yet, so we’re planning on playing. I feel like they are going to want to play, unless their numbers get so low…
“Our numbers got so low last week that it wasn’t in the best health of our football team. We couldn’t play. So I understand if their numbers get low but I haven’t heard anything.”
