Go ahead and add Kansas to the growing list of football programs hitting the workout pause button.
The Big 12 announced back in May that student-athletes could begin returning to campus June 15 for voluntary workouts. Kansas was one of those football programs in the conference to take advantage of the edict. Nearly three weeks later, however, KU has announced that it’s suspending those workouts. The reason? A dozen Jayhawk football players tested positive for COVID-19. Less than a week ago, just three were positives.
“Due to the positives within our own program and the increased cases in our region including our student-athletes’ home communities, we believe all football student-athletes and staff should self-quarantine for 14-days,” the school stated in a release. After the 14 days, all players and staff will be tested again.
Below are statements from the Kansas athletic director and its head football coach.
Jeff Long
“After the increase in positive COVID-19 tests within our football program, our medical team at Kansas Team Health has recommended discontinuing voluntary workouts immediately. Our priority remains to keep our student-athletes safe and healthy, especially during this pandemic, and will follow the recommendations of our medical professionals.
“We will only resume our preparations after the 14-day quarantine is complete and our student-athletes and staff have been tested for the virus prior to participating in football activities. In the meantime, we continue to educate our student-athletes, as well as coaches and staff, on the importance of following the policies and procedures and recommendations from our Kansas Team Health physicians and the CDC.”
Les Miles
“When we welcomed our young men back to campus a couple of weeks ago for voluntary workouts, even with the policies and procedures in place to try and protect them from becoming infected with the virus, events outside of our control has made the decision to pause these workouts necessary. Our trainers and doctors will remain in daily contact with each of the student-athletes that tested positive to support them and what we hope will involve only minor symptoms if any. We will follow medical recommendations on returning to activities.”
Kansas football is the latest but certainly not the first impacted by the pandemic. Or the last, more than likely
Early this past week, Arizona announced that it was pausing its phased return of student-athletes to campus. Prior to that, eight individuals connected to the Boise State football program tested positive, forcing the school to temporarily scuttle workouts. June 20, K-State announced that it is pausing all voluntary workouts as well. The reason? “[A] total of 14 student-athletes have tested positive for active COVID-19 following PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing of more than 130 student-athletes.” The weekend before that, Houston decided to put a halt to voluntary on-campus workouts after six symptomatic UH student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19.
Other programs have seen a high number of players test positive but continue workouts. Among those are Clemson (37 players tested positive), LSU (30 players quarantined), Texas (13 confirmed positives for football players) and Texas Tech (23 positives for players/staffers).