Tiger trouble: COVID-19 outbreak, Brennan doubtful to return
Scooter Hobbs
Skeptics at Alabama may have a field day.
But as of Monday, LSU’s game with the No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide in Baton Rouge for Saturday was in real jeopardy following an outbreak of Covid 19 among the struggling Tigers.
If the two teams do play, LSU will again be without starting quarterback Myles Brennan.
Brennan may, in fact, miss whatever the remainder of the season turns out to be with the abdominal injury he suffered against Missouri. The Tigers reportedly would be down to one scholarship quarterback if the game against Alabama is played this week.
Orgeron wouldn’t say how many Tigers had tested positive, but that it was a mixture of players who have tested positive and others who have been quarantined due to contact tracing.
“I can’t tell you the numbers. I’m going to let the doctors take care of all of that,” he said. “There’s starters among them.”
It will be up the Southeastern Conference office to decide if the LSU-Alabama game is played. Orgeron said he expected to know by Wednesday.
Orgeron, who said he first learned of the LSU outbreak last Tuesday or Wednesday, said he’d leave that to the SEC and LSU athletic director Scott Woodard.
“Right now we’re just focused on playing Alabama,” he said.
Maybe.
SEC spokesman Herb Vincent said no decision would be made on the LSU-Alabama game Monday as he said the league would continue to monitor the situation.
The league did announce Monday that the Auburn-Mississippi State game this week will be postponed due to an outbreak on the Mississippi State team and Texas A&M momentarily shut down football operations, although the Aggies still hope to play at
Tennessee Saturday.
Meanwhile, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, whose Razorbacks are due to host LSU next week, has come down the virus.
According to SI.com, the LSU coronavirus outbreak stems from a Halloween party some players attended, which would have been the night they returned to Baton Rouge from a 48-11 loss at Auburn.
If the Alabama game is postponed the SEC would have to rearrange some schedules to get it played.
On the Dec. 12 date that the SEC set aside for delayed games, the Tigers are currently scheduled to play at Florida, a makeup of the Oct. 17 game that was postponed by an outbreak among the Gators.
According to the SEC’s pandemic protocols announced in the preseason, a team may opt out of playing as scheduled if it has fewer than 53 scholarship athletes available or a certain number at several positions.
The named positions that require scholarship athletes available are offensive line, where seven is the minimum, along with four defensive linemen and one quarterback.
LSU would barely meet the quarterback requirement.
“We’re very thin there,” Orgeron said, “and if I tell you who we’re going to move there and stuff like that, it would give away a game plan. I can’t do it.”
Orgeron said there were now “discussions” about shutting down Brennan for the season, possibly with the surgery.
“The doctors and them are talking right now see what’s the best for Myles,” Orgeron said. “We’re going to do what’s the best for him, whether it’s getting it fixed, getting it operated now or wait. I think we’re still discussing that.”
The Athletic reported that with freshman Max Johnson one of those in quarantine, freshman quarterback TJ Finley would be the only scholarship quarterback available this week.
Finley started the last two games in place of Brennan, playing well in a rout of South Carolina, but throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble that were the turning points as the debacle at Auburn got away from them.
It would leave the Tigers with only a pair of walkons as backups — Walter Kinney, a freshman from Stillwell, Kan., and A.J. Aycock, a sophomore from Jonesboro, Ark.
Last week, Orgeron said, the Tigers had 30-year-old punter Zach Von Rosenberg, a former minor league pitcher, quarterbacking the scout team.
“It’s going to be challenging, obviously, with the guys that are out and the quarterbacks that we have. We may have to put someone else at quarterback just in case.
“We have a plan in place. I’m not going to say what we’re doing because it would give away our game plan. And we’re going to go ahead.
“When they tell me we’re at a certain number or something like that, we can play or we can’t play.
“But for right now we’re playing Alabama and we’re ready to go.”
l TUBING: LSU will get an early wake-up call next week at Arkansas when they play the surprising Razorbacks in an 11 a.m. kickoff.
The game will be televised by either CBS or ESPN.
Associated Press