A week after Louisville thought it had isolated a COVID-19 outbreak and played a game while missing nine exposed players, Louisville acknowledged Wednesday those numbers have grown, and the Atlantic Coast Conference announced that the Cardinals’ game Saturday at Virginia has been rescheduled for Nov. 14.
Louisville has halted all football-related activities, as athletic director Vince Tyra said the program has 22 coronavirus-related issues, with 15 positive cases (10 players, five support staff members), and seven others in quarantine, including five players.
“We are taking a precautionary measure to pause due to the number of student-athletes and staff that have been impacted by the virus,” Tyra said in a statement, adding that the added week between games “avails us a chance to gauge any further spread of the virus. Test results from both Friday and Sunday will dictate when we return to team activities. We appreciate the ACC and Virginia working with us at this time.”
Louisville (2-5, 1-5 ACC) was without nine players Saturday due to COVID-19-related issues, including eight on defense, in its 42-35 home loss to Virginia Tech.
Since Nov. 14 was an open date the schedule for both Virginia and Louisville, rescheduling the game was simple.
The postponed game was the fifth one on the ACC schedule so far this season. All five of them have been rescheduled. It is the second time Virginia (2-4, 2-4) has rescheduled a game. The Cavaliers’ season opener against Virginia Tech was moved to Dec. 12 after a COVID-19 outbreak within the Hokies’ program.