Southern Miss football game at UTEP called off after surge of COVID-19 cases at USM
For the second consecutive week, the Southern Miss football team has had a game postponed due to COVID-19.
This time, it’s USM that’s battling the coronavirus.
The University of Southern Mississippi announced Friday that Saturday’s game at UTEP has been postponed because of an increase in COVID-19 cases on the Southern Miss roster.
Conference USA and the two schools are working to reschedule the contest.
“The health and safety of everyone involved continues to be our guiding force which made this decision to postpone the game the appropriate one,” USM athletic director Jeremy McClain said in a statement.
“We are disappointed for our student-athletes who will not get a chance to participate for a second-straight weekend, however, we will work with UTEP, in conjunction with Conference USA, to reschedule this game for later this season.”
USM (1-3, 1-1 in C-USA) also had its Oct. 10 home game against Florida Atlantic called off after FAU experienced a surge in cases.
FAU coach Willie Taggart said earlier this week that he had 18 players test positive for COVID-19.
Southern Miss had already been managing several COVID-19 cases on the roster in recent weeks. USM interim head coach Scottie Walden said on Oct. 5 that he had “numerous” players held out of the team’s 41-31 win at North Texas on Oct. 3 because of COVID-19 protocols.
Only 53 scholarship players were available for the UNT game.
On Monday, Walden said his team still faced some challenges in that area.
“It’s still too early to tell,” Walden said. “I anticipate having more than (53 players). I’m very optimistic and hopefully we’ll get some guys back.”
USM is scheduled to play again at noon Oct. 24 at Liberty in Lynchburg, Virginia.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 11:41 AM.
