Tag: LSU 2020 football season

LSU AD Scott Woodward: ‘I believe our student-athletes want to play’

LSU issued a statement from Woodward on Monday.

It’s only Monday, but it’s already been a long week for those involved in college football and the future of the 2020 season.

LSU released a statement from athletic director Scott Woodward that came shortly after it was announced there would be no Mountain West football this fall.

Woodward said that the recent reports surrounding college athletics does not change the approach LSU is making, that he believed LSU’s student athletes wanted to play and that the university owes it to them to make every effort to return to sports safely.

Here’s a look at the complete statement:

“We remain steadfast in our approach in the Southeastern Conference, taking all the available time to gather as much information as possible in order to make informed decisions. We are united in our process and our focus on the safety and well-being of our student-athletes. The recent flood of reports surrounding college athletics does not alter that approach. As we have said since the beginning, we are patiently working through each and every variable following the direction of our Return to Safety and Medical Guidance Task Force. I believe our student-athletes want to play. We owe it to them to make every effort to do so safely.”

LSU football is currently set to begin the season against the Ole Miss Rebels in Tiger Stadium on Sept. 26.

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Ed Orgeron: LSU has COVID-19 under control, still preparing for college football season

Orgeron gave a strong answer when asked about the situation in Baton Rouge.

The Ivy League has cancelled all fall sports and Ohio State has suspended voluntary workouts until further notice after multiple positive COVID-19 tests.

It goes without saying the outlook for a normal college football season — of having one at all — continues to darken by the day for programs across the country, including LSU.

In a recent radio appearance on the WWL 105.3 FM radio show “SportsTalk with Bobby Hebert & Kristian Garic,” Orgeron tackled a question on the issue of this football season.

He hardly hesitated, and gave a strong answer as to where the team’s mindset is right now.

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“We are planning to play,” he said. “The other stuff is out of our control.We have the full staff in here. We’re planning football/school, we’ve made our practice schedules for August, we put them in all of our scripts, we’re doing all about gourds. We’re going on as usual. We’re playing.”

Orgeron noted that LSU did see a spike, but seems confident in the way the staff handled it.

“We had a little spike, [the trainers and medical staff] handled it well, our numbers are way down,” Orgeron explained. “That number 30 was not correct, it was inaccurate, I don’t know who said that, it wasn’t that high but we did have a little spike. Now it’s going down, I think it’s under control. I think that so it’s a fairly low number right now that we’re very pleased with and it looks like everything is going smooth for us.”

LSU’s total number of cases centered around a group of five or six players, according to a report from The Advocate. Each case showed only mild symptoms and no players were hospitalized.

Obviously, the situation and restrictions surrounding COVID-19 seem to change by the day, so it will be interesting to see how the projected future of a college football season in Baton Rouge continues to evolve as the Sept. 5 start date nears.

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