Mullen, Stricklin reviewing travel protocols after outbreak at A&M
With Florida’s road trip to Texas A&M causing a COVID-19 outbreak and program shutdown, UF athletics director Scott Stricklin said the travel situation will get a “really close review” for future games this season.
Stricklin suspected the 25 new cases last week stemmed from the flight to and from College Station after learning two players had symptoms that Friday before they left for Texas.
“I think it definitely happened with the trip,” Gators coach Dan Mullen said Wednesday. “I don't think it was one specific aspect of the trip. Obviously it started on the plane ride there, and then other aspects.
“I think you’ve got kind of the origins of, ‘Hey, we think one or two guys might’ve had it getting on the plane. Because they had just tested negative the day before. But it kind of started with a little bit of a spread there.”
Florida traveled for the season opener without any issues, but none of the players had COVID-19 at Ole Miss. The first round of testing after returning from A&M revealed five cases, which grew to 19 the following day and 21 by Wednesday, when Stricklin postponed the LSU game.
“The one guy had a roommate on the road, so that spread to that roommate,” said Mullen, who also tested positive. “And then you had a pregame meal where these people sat at a table where that spread. And then you had a plane ride home where that spread. Someone’s locker was next to somebody. When you go on the road, the locker rooms are much smaller.
“It’s not like the NFL where they’re equal. You’re crammed into this little tiny space on the road. So obviously that’s something we might have to look at, is how we utilize the road locker room moving forward. There’s a lot of different things that happen on a road game that obviously put you at a higher risk than you would be playing a home game.”
The Gators have two road trips left on their 2020 schedule, traveling to the state of Tennessee twice to play Vanderbilt (Nov. 21) and Tennessee (Dec. 5). They will also make the short drive to Jacksonville for the Florida-Georgia game.
Mullen revealed another player tested positive Wednesday, bringing his team’s case count to 32 for October. He said the majority of his players have minor symptoms and expects enough to be available for the Missouri game on Halloween.
“It’s interesting now to see where the tracing comes,” Mullen said. “Obviously one of the things you worry about with certain individuals is now that we’re kind of away. Even though we’ve isolated and taken ourselves out of our own bubble, the structure we had before is not in place.
“So we’re trying to see now if any new case is kind of consistent with where we were and our original spread on the team or if these are individuals kind of not following the quarantine procedures on their own because there’s no football going on right now.”