Football team reports no new COVID-19 cases in last week

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A recent spike of COVID-19 cases on the Florida football team appears to be over for now. The latest testing results update from the Gators revealed that no football players have tested positive for the coronavirus in the last week, with the number of tests for football student-athletes in that time period totaling 274. Meanwhile, there have been only two more cases in the last week within the athletics department as a whole among student-athletes. In the month of September, Florida has reported 78 total cases for student-athletes, with 10 of those cases on the football team. The numbers indicate that the Florida football team should be closer to full strength in the near future.

Sources confirmed to Swamp247 that at least one of the players who missed Saturday's game against Ole Miss was out due to COVID-19 protective measures. The Gators were without several key players for undisclosed reasons, including defensive end Jeremiah Moon, defensive tackle Kyree Campbell and safety Brad Stewart. Meanwhile, safety Shawn Davis was ejected from the game in the first quarter for a targeting call, leaving the Florida defense without four key starters. The lack of front-line talent was evident as Ole Miss piled up 613 yards of total offense on the afternoon.

"Obviously, you look at the Shawn penalty was big early," coach Dan Mullen said. "Tough call, guy’s running over the middle. I think Shawn tried to throw the shoulder in there. Guys are lower at catching the ball. We talk about it all the time. It’s kind of a bang-bang play. It’s tough that that happened. I don’t think there was intent there at all in any way shape or form. It’s just one of those things that try to coach and try to get out of the game, keep the game as safe as possible." Mullen has already said this week that he believes the defense will take a significant step forward now that it's had a chance to get used to game speed again in a live setting.

Tackling and fitting runs were things that the team simply wasn't able to work on as much this offseason with limited practice opportunities due to COVID-19, and there's no real good way to simulate those things outside of games. And adding additional quality players back into the mix should improve the talent level and the depth on defense. That should happen this week, even if all of the players who missed last week's game were not among the players impacted by COVID-19 itself. For what it's worth, Florida added Campbell back to the depth chart as a backup defensive tackle, while also adding Stewart as a backup nickelback. Mullen has not been willing to discuss specifics on when players will return.