It’s been quite a week of ups and downs for Texas football.
Other than two major commitments from four-star cornerback Ishmael Ibraheem and four-star safety J.D. Coffey on Monday, it’s unfortunately been a flood of discouraging news.
The Longhorns are currently going through a very detailed on-boarding process with their student-athletes. Once the player has returned to campus, they are required to be tested for COVID-19.
Along with being tested, Texas is taking additional measures of safety precautions such as very strict guidelines on entering and exiting the campus, how they are allowed to carpool to the facilities, the use of masks, etc.
Unfortunately, Texas now has the most reported COVID-19 cases in college football. It’s unclear where the athletes could have contracted the virus prior to arriving on campus, but the overall number is significant.
Allen Hardin, Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director for Sports Medicine and Performance, recently announced that 13 players have confirmed positive COVID-19 PCR test results and/or are presumed positive. While all 13 are self-isolating, an additional 10 athletes are in self-quarantine after potentially being in close contact with those whom tested positive.
Texas announces 13 players tested positive for COVID-19: pic.twitter.com/MbS2fxVagJ
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) June 18, 2020
On top of that, four other Texas players tested positive for the COVID-19 antibody, meaning they contracted the virus at some point in the past.
While each program has their own on-boarding process, Texas has much higher numbers than others such as the University of Tennessee who has had zero football players test positive to the virus when they arrived to campus.
In terms of the Big 12 conference, Oklahoma State recently reported five positive cases, while Kansas State is now up to six players that have contracted COVID-19.