AUBURN | Somehow amid all the chaos, with the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests raging throughout the country, Auburn is still trying to build a football team with 25 days until the season opener against Kentucky.
After missing two practices and a scrimmage last week, the Tigers will have to do it this week without 16 of their players.
“We’re learning as we go here,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “Every day and every week is a different challenge, and we talk about the teams that can be adaptable, but this is a learning process for everyone. I think for us we’re testing probably as much as anyone. So it’s giving us really good information.
“The challenge with having students back the last two weeks obviously, we hadn’t responded as well as we did before. We’re going to have to adjust. We’re going to have to adapt. We’re just taking it day by day and week by week.”
Malzahn said two position groups had been hit especially hard by positive COVID-19 tests, although he declined to name which ones.
“I mean, obviously last week we practiced one time. So no matter how many we’ve got out, we’re going to continue to practice this week,” he said. “We’ll just have to adjust as it goes. 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.
“But we will practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. And with who we’ve got out there, we’ll make the best of it.”
Auburn had nine total positive tests last week after going two consecutive weeks without a positive. The team practiced Tuesday without 16-18 players. Wednesday and Thursday’s practices were cancelled as was Friday’s make-up and Saturday’s scrimmage due to the virus and players being upset with the latest shooting in Milwaukee.
Malzahn said the return of AU’s students and the start of classes has caused new issues for his players, something he believes they’ll adjust to moving forward.
“Some of our guys were off campus with a roommate, roommate's girlfriend,” Malzahn explained. “So it's really what was in the dorm. It's really just learning how to operate using COVID etiquette. Before our students came back, I thought we were in a super spot. Our guys did a great job. I really feel strongly that our guys will adapt and adjust, and I feel strongly that we'll be better next week than we were this past week.”
With 122 players on the current roster, Malzahn and his staff will still have more than 100 players, a group that includes walk-ons, to work with starting Tuesday afternoon. They held team meetings and went through another round of testing Sunday.
