The Houston Cougars are again without a season-opening football game after North Texas had to cancel Saturday’s scheduled game because of several positive COVID-19 tests.
It is the third different expected opponent in the last two weeks unable to play the Cougars.
North Texas said there were four positive tests this week, which combined with contact tracing left the Mean Green unable to field a team. The school didn’t specify any particular position group or how many additional people needed to self-isolate because of contact tracing.
Houston was scheduled to play last Friday at Memphis, but the American Athletic Conference put off that game a week in advance because of a virus outbreak among the Tigers. That game was replaced by a hastily arranged reunion with former Southwest Conference rival Baylor last Saturday, but the Bears had to cancel that game only a day before kickoff because of multiple positive tests.
The Cougars were originally supposed to open the season Sept. 3 against Rice, but that game was postponed in August. That was after a Sept. 12 game at Washington State was canceled when the Pac-12 decided not to play this fall.
North Texas (1-1) was coming of a 65-35 home loss to SMU last Saturday. The Mean Green’s next scheduled game is their Conference USA opener at home Oct. 3 against Southern Miss.
BOSTON COLLEGE: Receiver Kobay White will miss the entire season after having surgery on his ACL. White was the team’s leading receiver last season with 29 catches and five touchdowns. He did not play in the Eagles’ season-opener against Duke on Saturday.
“We’ll miss him,” BC Coach Jeff Hafley said Wednesday. “Not only a great player, a great leader. But he’ll be back.”
BC (1-0) plays Texas State (1-2) on Saturday.
NOTRE DAME-WAKE FOREST: The postponed football game between No. 7 Notre Dame and Wake Forest will be moved to Dec. 12, while the Demon Deacons also are moving their nonconference game against Campbell a week earlier to Oct. 2.
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced the revisions Wednesday. That came one day after Saturday’s game between the Demon Deacons and Fighting Irish had to be postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests within the Notre Dame program, which put 13 players in isolation and 10 more in quarantine.
Wake Forest announced the home game with Campbell in late August, originally setting that matchup with the Big South Conference program for Oct. 9.
The ACC’s revamped scheduling model allows for 11 games to be played over 13 weeks through Dec. 5, as well as the possibility of playing Dec. 12. Another postponed game, Virginia-Virginia Tech, had previously been moved to that date as well.
The positive tests at Notre Dame also caused South Florida to pause on-field football activities Wednesday. USF said its team was tested twice last Friday, the day before a loss to the Fighting Irish in South Bend, Indiana, and again on Monday. USF says all those tests were negative, but it decided Wednesday “out of an abundance of caution” to do more tests and put practices on hold. More test were scheduled for Wednesday.
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