Tennessee football cancels scrimmage as 44 players held out of practice
By John Buhler
Tennessee football did not have a scrimmage with 44 players being held out
Tennessee football was going to scrimmage on Saturday, until the Volunteers weren’t.
According to David Ubben of The Athletic, “Tennessee had 44 players out of practice today and elected not to scrimmage. Said those players haven’t practiced for several days. Only had 30 total offensive players able to participate in practice.”
Ubben later tweeted ,”[Jeremy] Pruitt later added that 31 offensive players did not practice. Again, majority of these are due to required quarantine after contact tracing. Some because of injury. Tennessee has “seven or eight” active COVID-19 cases on its roster.”
How concerned should Tennessee football be about its canceled scrimmage?
Though it is alarming to see 44 players in total held out and 31 offensive players among that 44, again, this was expected when colleges like the University of Tennessee opened back up for the fall semester. There is a reason the SEC will only play 10 conference games this season and won’t play their first games until three weeks from now on Sept. 26. They want to contain the virus.
According to what head coach Jeremy Pruitt conveyed to Ubben, only a handful of players on the Tennessee football roster are COVID-19 cases. Most of these players are quarantining as a part of contact tracing protocol. The Vols’ won’t play their first game of the season until their Week 1 road date vs. their SEC East rival South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia on Saturday, Sept. 26.
A lot can change in the next three weeks. If this issue were to arise three weeks from now, then there would be no way the Vols would make the trek to Williams-Brice Stadium to take on Will Muschamp, Ryan Hilinski and the rest of the Gamecocks. It may seem like things are getting out of control in SEC country, but the Power 5 conference has a plan in place to play its season.
Not having its intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday afternoon was the right call for the Vols.
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