The Timeline Of Florida Gators Football Being Shutdown & What Comes Next
Scott Stricklin couldn’t help but laugh, albeit with a touch of self-awareness, sporting three days worth of an uncharacteristic beard.
“Do I look that bad? That’s two straight questions.”
In fairness, it had been a long week for the Florida Gators Athletic Director and to quote Jack Donaghy, it was only Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Athletic Director of the Year made the decision to shut down all football operations, pending further COVID test results on Wednesday. On Wednesday, that decision was extended. It comes on the heels of a COVID outbreak with the No. 10 Gators.
“I’ve had numerous conversations with [Dr. Michael Lauzardo].* He’s repeatedly said going back to the spring that we’re going to have a period of spikes here and there and we’re also going to have times when things are seemingly settled we’re going to have many waves. It’s really important. What’s happened here the past few days highlights it. It’s really important that everyone remains diligent. You can’t take your foot off the gas, so to speak, as far as doing all the things that we’re being asked to do, from social distancing, to masking and good hygiene. All those kind of things.
“It can sneak up on you on a hurry, as I said. The key thing is you’ve got to have the ability to push the brake when things start to occur like we’re seeing right now. That’s another thing Dr. Lazardo said. You’ve just got to be willing to hit pause occasionally. And again, I go back to the SEC schedule was set up with something with an event like this in mind. As much as we want to give our kids the opportunity to compete, we understand this isn’t a normal year and we’re going to have to have the ability to adapt to unusual circumstances such as this.”
With the week feeling eerily similar to that fateful week in March when the country shut down, things have happened at a lightening pace this week for Florida and the football program. Each hour, each minute, there are updates that cause ripples across the remainder of the season. To help provide some clarity, here is a timeline of all that has happened in the last week.
July 28-October 8
Florida administers testing three days a week. Over that span, 15 returned positive results [by our count at GatorBait based on numbers provided by UF. There is a slight margin for error since there are no names given. Some of the numbers could be overlapping, i.e., someone who tested positive at the end of September could also show up as one of the positives in October. Those numbers are presented separately but don’t account for the same person still testing positive.]
That low number while other programs experiences spikes, compared to now is what Stricklin admits is frustrating.
“Protocols have not changed since the calendar rolled over into October but obviously we’re in a different situation. There’s a sense of frustration but we understand this virus can sneak up on you and you can have it spread in an eyelash, really, the bat of an eyelash. That’s what we’re seeing right now
Friday October 9
A “couple” of players, by Stricklin’s count, begin to experience runny nose and a headache. They are supposed to report these symptoms. Given the uptick in allergy season currently going on in Gainesville, these players passed it off as just that. As Stricklin explained, “I don’t know that this was a situation where someone goes, ‘I don’t feel well, but I’m going to power through it.’ I think this is a situation where someone felt like, ‘I’ve got a sniffle. I need a Kleenex, and I’m ready to play a game.’”
Florida loads up on the airplane and flies to College Station, Texas to face the Texas A&M Aggies.
Saturday October 10
The Gators play Texas A&M at 12 Eastern, 11 Central. Florida loses 41-38 and is leaving College Station by early evening.
Sunday October 11
The football health staff administers the normal round of Sunday test’s and await results. That evening and into the night, head trainer Paul Silvestri began to get phone calls from players reporting symptoms; “headache, fatigue, scratchy throat, that kind of thing.”
Monday Morning, October 12
Silvestri calls Stricklin early morning to let him know about the calls he got overnight, telling him, “I haven’t gotten tests back, but I am a little concerned that we may have something going on here.” The staff decides to call off the 8am team meeting. Players were told to standby in case there was an afternoon meeting.
Test results began to return and five were positive.
Monday morning, Stricklin orders another round of testing. From this point forward, Florida moves to everyday testing.
Monday Afternoon, October 12
As early as noon, Florida begins to put those who have tested positive and been in close contact with those five into quarantine.
The Gators hold practice for those that were not in quarantine. Asked if there were any regrets about that decision, Stricklin pointed to research provided by professional leagues about outdoor transmission.
“At the time, our medical staff was making a decision based on what they knew, and they had quarantined a tremendous amount of individuals. The other thing I’ll say is we’re – I don’t know if there’s very many, if any, examples of transmission in an outdoor athletic setting. I had somebody in the pro leagues, a medical professional tell me recently that they don’t know that there’s a single instance or a single example of that occurring. Now, there may be, but it’s incredibly rare.
“So, we’re not using our locker room. We’re not using our team meeting rooms. We’re not putting our players in an indoor space. Really, the only indoor space we’ve been in is when we’ve had our two road trips. So again, that goes back to what I said earlier, that’s where the suspicion goes to because we’ve done a really good job of limiting spread even when we’ve had a few positives here and there in our current environment, which we’re blessed to be in Florida where we get to do a lot of things outside.”
Tuesday October 13
Florida releases their weekly numbers from the COVID testing. These numbers are always from the Sunday testing, the results of which are returned on Monday. On this particular Tuesday, the test results indicated five new positives. The public, at this time, was not aware of the additional testing that had been done Monday.
Another round of the now daily testing is administered.
Results begin to return from the Monday testing. Payton Titus of “The Alligator” reports there are 19 positive’s among the football players. This is called into question initially but was reconfirmed within the hour. In a classy nod in appreciation of student journalism, Stricklin congratulated Titus for her scoop on Wednesday.
"I want to, by the way, congratulate you on your scoop,” Stricklin said to Titus on the Zoom call.
“When you reported your scoop that was the accurate number. It has changed since then, but you had the accurate number, so kudos to you.”
As more results came in Tuesday afternoon, Stricklin pauses all football activities and closes the facility. Mullen held a Zoom call with parents to answer questions and update them on what was being done with their children, both those that were in quarantine and those that were not.
Wednesday October 14
Results from three straight days of test reveal the number of positives to be 21 total players (18 scholarship players and three walk-ons) in addition to a small but unspecified number of assistant coaches.
Florida, in conjunction and agreement from the LSU Tigers football program, officially postpone Saturday’s game. The threshold put into place by the SEC says a team needs 53 athletes to play a game and that number should be relatively balanced across units; seven offensive linemen (which includes one center), one quarterback and four defensive linemen.
A team can choose to play with less but anything below those numbers will allow for a postponement or declared no contest, as opposed to a forfeit.
As Stricklin explains, Florida’s numbers were well below that threshold.
“When you add in those who are quarantined through contact tracing, as a result of those positives, in addition to a handful of players who are on the non-covid injury list, it gives the Gators less than 50 scholarship players available currently.”
Moving Forward
What does this mean for the Missouri game, currently scheduled to be played in Gainesville on October 24?
“Well, it’s hard to speculate right now,” admits Stricklin.
"Obviously we’ll be in communication with the Southeastern Conference and probably get Missouri, obviously as our next opponent, to kind of keep them abreast of what we’re seeing, and we’ll continue as I said our regular testing protocol for those who aren’t in quarantine, and hopefully we don’t have any more positives and we’re able to get on the other side of this and then we can get everyone back in a situation where you can go compete again.”
Part of the issue will be how many players are still in quarantine come game time. Or for that matter, able to leave quarantine in time to practice. Quarantine rules for the SEC state those who test positive must be in quarantine for 10 days from the time symptoms first appear. Those who are placed into quarantine as a result of contact tracing must stay there for 14 days, given the incubation period of the virus. They can not test out with negative results.
Multiple negatives on the heels of a positive however determine that the initial positive was a false result and that player does not have to enter quarantine.
The SEC built an additional bye week into the schedule in anticipation of postponements. As of now, the Florida-LSU game is tentatively rescheduled for that week, December 12. That is the week before the planned SEC Championship on December 19. The Gators also have a bye week on October 31, ideally to be held that way for a break before the Jacksonville show-down with the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs.
"We're gonna do whatever we can obviously to be supportive and be flexible and, you know, we have an open date on October 31st, and now we're putting a game on December 12th and we'll use every available weekend when we're - assuming we get on the other side of this - we're able to be willing to play. I think the league has had pretty good camaraderie as far as understanding this is not going to be normal and everyone is gonna have to be flexible if we want to try to get a season in for everybody.”
Stricklin remains confident that season will get in, even if it requires previously unforeseen circumstances. In one of his other moments of levity, the Florida Gators Athletic Director was asked, could we see a non-Saturday game?
“It’s 2020. You never say never. I don’t think we’re in a position to say something can’t happen right now.”
*Michael Lauzardo, per his UF Health bio: Michael Lauzardo, MD, MSc, is an associate professor within the division of infectious diseases and global medicine. Also serving as the director of the CDC funded Southeastern National Tuberculosis Center (SNTC) at the University of Florida, he has been involved in public health, teaching and patient care within the College of Medicine since 1997. Trained as an internist and pulmonologist, throughout his career he has been involved in the clinical care of patients with tuberculosis. He has also played a key role with the Florida Department of Health, serving as the Deputy TB Controller for the Florida TB Program and is currently the director of the Florida TB Physicians Network. Previously, he was the chief of the division of infectious diseases and global medicine. His clinical practice and research centers around tuberculosis among at-risk populations and he is involved in various international health activities.
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