By Lauren Kirschman | McClatchy News Service
SEATTLE — Washington has paused all team-related football activities due to an increase in positive COVID-19 tests within the program, the university announced.
The status of Saturday’s game at Oregon remains unclear. The Huskies did not practice Wednesday, and additional PCR testing was performed.
After UW’s loss to Stanford last week, redshirt junior wide receiver Ty Jones admitted to COVID-19 issues in the program, saying, “It’s tough when we got guys coming out due to coronavirus.”
Several players missed last week’s game and weren’t visible on the sideline, including wide receivers Puka Nacua, quarterback Ethan Garbers and outside linebackers Ryan Bowman and Cooper McDonald.
Huskies head coach Jimmy Lake has consistently refused to comment on player injuries or illness. He was still asked after the game if the team had been impacted by COVID-19.
“Just like the whole country, we’re all dealing with issues — whether it’s injuries or the pandemic,” Lake said. “We’ll continue to deal with that for the rest of the season.”
The Pac-12 requires each program to have 53 scholarship players available for a game to be played, including one quarterback, seven offensive linemen and four defensive linemen.
The Huskies, who had two games canceled this season due to COVID-19 issues in other programs, are scheduled to play their first road game at Oregon on Saturday at 1 p.m. The winner would win the Pac-12 North and advance to the conference championship game Dec. 18.
