COLUMBIA, Mo. _ Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz has been the Southeastern Conference's most forthright coach when it comes to his team's COVID-19 testing results, but he's clearly bothered by policies within the conference _ or lack of policy.
On Wednesday's SEC conference call, Drinkwitz expressed some frustration that the not all teams are publicly reporting their COVID cases. Last week, he said he was being transparent on the matter because he said it was "a public health issue." The Tigers had a minimum of seven players unavailable for their opener against Alabama, Drinkwitz confirmed four days before the game.
"It's not a competitive advantage issue," he said last week. "This is not an injury that we're trying to keep (quiet). This is a public health issue. People should know what's going on within our football team as it relates to a pandemic."
On Wednesday, Drinkwitz said, "I really don't know what's going on in the league as far as COVID or COVID-related numbers. There's no uniform system on how we report it or (how) people talk about it. I don't know other than when coaches have said something (about their cases). Each week we have no idea what's going on with other teams. So, it's kind of a free for all as far as that goes."
Asked if he's bothered that the SEC doesn't release a weekly report on updated COVID cases, Drinkwitz said, "That's a decision for people above my head, and I'm not gonna wade into the waters on that one. Good try, though. That was a good try."
Early last Friday morning, Drinkwitz received news that defensive assistant coach Charlie Harbison would have to quarantine for COVID-related reasons, forcing him to miss Saturday's game against Alabama. He'll be out for this Saturday's game at Tennessee. Drinkwitz said Tuesday that after being alerted of "positive cases of a staff member" the rules "changed consistently."
"I think the thing that's the toughest right now to get used to is the consistent testing, and the consistent changing that occurs because of the testing and just the policies that seem to change quite a bit," he said. "It's nobody's fault. It's just the sake of the virus. But it seems like there's always new information and some sort of new nuance that is coming out."
This week, Mizzou had zero positive COVID-19 cases on Sunday and has since undergone another round of tests Tuesday. The team will be tested again Thursday, Drinkwitz said.
"We are in that gray area," he said. "There's a four-day return to play protocol with some of our guys and depending on how these next two to three days and the results of that testing goes will determine who's available. We had zero positive tests on Sunday. We took a test again (Tuesday) morning and I'll get those results (Wednesday). Then we take another test on Thursday and I'll have those results."
