Alabama Football Has One Positive COVID-19 Test, Aims To Stay in Rhythm During Second Bye Week

Nick Saban revealed that one Crimson Tide player tested positive for the novel coronavirus following the team's first scheduled bye week

With the Southeastern Conference going through a myriad of COVID-19 issues, including positive tests and contact tracing protocols, University of Alabama coach Nick Saban revealed that his program had one new case coming back from the bye week.

“We’ve been good,” Saban said during Wednesday's coaches teleconference. “I think we had maybe one positive this week. That’s it."

Saban further explained his rigid guidelines for his players when most of them went back to their respective homes.

“Everybody trusts their family and I trust my family," Saban said. "But nobody knows where Uncle Tommy has been, either. So, you still have to be careful. That’s why we try to do the best possible educational program. I mean, the options were to not let the players go any place, which is really kind of a punishment.

“Most of the guys wanted to go see their family. I can’t verify we didn’t have somebody go someplace they weren’t supposed to go but if they did we’ll certainly confront them with why they didn’t do what we asked them to do. Because if a player did that, he actually doesn’t just put himself at risk, he’s putting his teammates at risk when he comes back. And that’s the one thing our players have been pretty good about so far this year."

This Saturday's contest with LSU has been postponed due to the Tigers not being able to field a minimum of 53 scholarship players by kickoff so Alabama gets an unexpected bye week that Saban and his coaching staff will use to help keep his guys in rhythm. 

There will be a practice of some sorts for the Crimson Tide instead on Saturday so players won't be able to go back home like last weekend. 

“We were certainly looking forward to playing a game, but I think that we kind of expect disruptions during this season,” Saban said. “How we handle them is probably the most important thing right now. What we’d like to try to do is try to keep our team in some kind of rhythm relative to how we practice and we continue to try to improve to finish this season.

“We’re trying to stay in the same rhythm that we would. We usually have a light practice on Monday, practice Tuesday and Wednesday, a little bit of a light practice on Thursday, no practice on Friday and play a game on Saturday. So, we’ll probably do the same thing. Obviously, we don’t have a game, but to keep the rhythm, probably have some kind of practice Saturday.”

As a whole, Saban applauded the work the SEC has done throughout the season, making sure everyone is safe, but notes that contact tracing has become harder to manage as the year goes a long.

“I think they’ve done a really, really good job," Saban said. "I think we knew when we took this on that the testing protocols that we have, I think, are in the best interest of the players and certainly have the players’ safety in mind, and I think that’s of utmost importance. I think we knew that the social-tracing part of this would be probably a bigger issue than the testing because the testing is, you know exactly what you’re getting. 

"The social-tracing part, it’s a safety issue that we have to go through, but it’s also, really, you’re quarantining people you don’t even know if they’re sick or not. That’s the part that’s a little bit more difficult to manage. But it is what it is, and you’ve gotta trust that everybody’s doing exactly what they’re supposed to do to keep the players safe.”