By Andre Monroe
In their weekly tests, Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics conducted 1,304 COVID-19 tests of students with 13 positive results and three pending.
It is not known who those 16 players are. What is known is that this is an uptick from last week’s results, which had only one positive and one pending. This is of course concerning, but something many preached was inevitable. The key is managing the spread, which is something James Franklin preached in his presser yesterday.
“I wanted to be an example of a team that’s doing it right. Not the mask that’s below the chin the whole game. Or not the mask that you pull down to talk”.
Franklin was asked about the challenges of communicating to coaches and players with a mask on.
“When you’re trying to scream something to a player on the field, is it easier to do [without] the mask on? Yes. But I wanted people to watch Penn State football and say; look at their sideline, look at their coaches, look at how they’re going about it”.
Penn State isn’t the only collegiate team dealing with coronavirus cases. Wisconsin lost QB Graham Mertz after he tested positive for COVID-19. Chase Wolf, his backup, also contracted the virus and tested positive. The University of Alabama also had a recent surge in cases, forcing them to start testing daily.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 are the only conferences in the Power Five to test it’s athletes daily. When the conferences got together to discuss the season, that was inserted in the protocols. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC are each testing three times a week.
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