Nine positive COVID-19 cases among Auburn players prompted the team to miss three practices during its second week of preseason camp, head coach Gus Malzahn told reporters Sunday night.

“We had a pretty challenging week,” Malzahn said.

Last Wednesday and Thursday's practices were canceled, then Malzahn nixed Saturday's scrimmage inside Jordan-Hare Stadium after meeting with players and deciding to "just get ready for the next week."

A total of 16 players will be unavailable next week while they go through Auburn's quarantine protocol. Players with positive results and those found to be in close contact with them must follow the team quarantine procedures.

Auburn's protocol calls for COVID-19 positive players to go at least 17 days before returning to the team — 10 days of quarantine, followed by another week to make sure they're completely cleared to return. Players who were in "close contact" with a positive case have to quarantine for two weeks.

Malzahn said Auburn plans to return to practice Tuesday.

Two Auburn position groups were hit hard by the uptick in positive results, Malzahn said, which played a big part in the practice cancellations Wednesday, as coaches weren't comfortable going through drills with the slimmed-down roster.

"We’ll just have to adjust as it goes," Malzahn said. "If we have a small number of a position group, we’ll just have to adjust. So that’s really going to be the name of the game moving forward. ... And with who we’ve got out there, we’ll make the best of it."

At the start of fall camp Aug. 17, Malzahn revealed his team had administered 863 tests to players (around seven tests per player) since June 4, with 33 positive results. Each coach was tested five-plus times during the summer with one positive result.

Auburn reported zero new positive tests among players and staff during the week prior to preseason camp and during the first week of camp.

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