Tennessee football cancels practice due to positive COVID-19 tests

Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt said the team had “a few more positives.” 

With the college school year underway in many states and the college football season just around the corner, many programs are struggling to balance practice and preparation for the season with player safety.

On Friday, Tennessee Volunteers Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt decided to call of practice after the team had “a few more positives” in COVID-19 testing. Pruitt did not specify how many players had been infected.

“We retested everyone this morning to see where we’re at,” Pruitt said this morning via a Zoom call. “Our No. 1 priority is to be able to test everybody associated with our program.”

Pruitt also mentioned that the current training timeline gives the Volunteers 42 days to complete 25 practices, so they have the luxury of being able to stop and figure out what’s going on with COVID-19 without too much impact on the team.

“We weren’t at zero or one this week,” Pruitt said. “We want to make sure we figure out why.”

Coronavirus infections: How are other colleges doing?

Coronavirus infections are a major concern for teams as they prepare for the 2020 season.

Already, Texas Tech has announced that there are 21 positive cases on their team, Oklahoma had an entire position group (except for one player) stop practicing due to positive tests, and North Carolina State recently shut down their athletics after three clusters of positive cases, including one in the athletic department.

Outside of football programs, schools like the University of North Carolina attempted in-person classes for the fall semester, only to cancel classes less than two weeks into the year and make everything virtual. The University of Alabama, who many think could win the National Championship this season, has already announced 500 cases on their campus.

While the PAC-12 and the Big 10 decided to opt-out of fall sports, most football programs will continue to plow ahead and attempt to keep players safe under very difficult circumstances.