GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk about the Florida Gators vs. LSU game being postponed this week due to a COVID-19 breakout.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre discuss everything that’s going on around the program, plus we are joined by former Gators safety Jeawon Taylor on the podcast.
Andrew and Nick ask Taylor about what he sees from the Gators defense and what he thinks can help the defense improved.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man Andrew Spivey here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, we’re back. Man, we knew that this season was going to be wild, but Wednesday was a wild, wild day, my friend. We started off Tuesday knowing that Florida had shut down, or paused the program I guess is the better word to say. Then Wednesday afternoon the game’s postponed. We’ll see about the Missouri game. I would say that it looks bleak at the moment, but we’ll see.
Nick:​Yeah. You’re going to have to have a lot of stuff. We’re going to have to see what happens and if more players test positive, but the date that it’s currently scheduled on I would say probably unlikely.
Andrew:​You and I have heard that there’s a possibility of playing a midweek game. You asked Scott Strickland about it, and Scott Strickland said, it’s 2020, never say never. So, I’ve heard that’s a possibility with December 12th being the makeup game for Florida and LSU. Also something that I was looking at today, I think Yahoo had it out that there’s a possibility that maybe Florida-Georgia gets moved up to the last week of October. From everything I’ve heard, Nick, that’s not even possible, for the Florida-Georgia game to be moved up.
Nick:​I don’t know, because they’re not going to allow tailgating, so there’s less logistics to figure out this year than in other years.
Andrew:​Right. Yeah.
Nick:​But this is why you moved to an all SEC schedule. You moved to an all SEC schedule because you can do stuff like that. If we need to push Florida and Missouri back a couple days, we can do that, because we don’t have to worry about anything. It’s just us. It’s just our conference. We have total control over our conference.
Andrew:​It turns into a mess. Like you said, nothing’s been decided on the Florida-Missouri game, but we know from what we’ve been told that the building is shut down until at least Monday. Scott Strickland said until it’s under control. The thing is we know over 20 people have tested positive, and then the contact tracing, and those guys have to have a 10-day quarantine period. So, you’re looking at probably Tuesday or Wednesday before everyone’s able to hit the field again. Are you realistically asking your guys to be prepared in three days, be back in football shape? Then it becomes a risk of injury on top of that. That’s the kind of reason that I’ve been told that the Missouri game is in doubt.
Nick:​Yeah. Let me pull this up. The SEC quarantine protocol is 10 days in quarantine for a positive test from the onset of symptoms. So, we were told by Scott Strickland some players started feeling symptoms Thursday/Friday. Call it Friday.
Andrew:​Right.
Nick:​And didn’t report it. To me, Scott kind of said we think, we’re suspicious that this is where it came from, but they haven’t pinned it down 100% yet. A couple players felt flu-like symptoms, thought maybe it was allergies, headache or congestion, stuff like that. Felt it on Friday. Didn’t say anything, then got on a plane. Well, you’re on a plane with recycled air, so you’re breathing out, and you’re infected. You have the virus. You’re breathing it out, and now it’s going everywhere.
Andrew:​Right.
Nick:​And everyone else on the plane is getting it. Sorry. I’m getting sidetracked. 10 days of quarantine for them. 14 days in quarantine for somebody that is in contact with them but didn’t test positive. So, you’re talking 10 days from that Friday is October 19th.