Impact suspension of Kansas State workouts has on Texas football

A recent spike in cases of the novel coronavirus with various programs has reached both Kansas State and the Texas football program.

The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to spread to various college football programs around the country, with one of the latest to be hit hard being the Kansas State Wildcats. According to a report released from the schools (and confirmed by ESPN), the Kansas State football program suspended all football activities for 14 days after 14 athletes out of 130 tested came back positive for COVID-19. And this is something that is going to have an impact stemming throughout the Big 12, especially for the Texas football program.

Recently the Longhorns had 13 players test positive for COVID-19 (either currently with it or showing antibodies), which is one of the higher numbers of any program known at least by this weekend. Kansas State did have a similar number of athletes overall to test positive for COVID-19 compared to the number of football players for the Longhorns.

Texas ramped up for summer workouts around the same time that Kansas State did. Earlier this months, teams were trying to get going for the NCAA’s approved six-week preseason plan. This six-week plan was to get teams ready for the looming 2020 season, that should bring a lot of twists and turns heading into the fall.

Numerous Big 12 programs are already running a large number of issues involved with the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas has a large number of COVID-19 cases to get out of the way first, and then they can move on with how they will deal with them heading into the fall.

Kansas State announced they were shutting down football activities in the midst of the early days of summer workouts, but the Longhorns appear to be chugging along. The rest of the Big 12 programs appear to be doing the same.

It will take coaching staffs getting very creative in figuring out how to co-exist during the pandemic while also doing their best to keep players safe. Kansas State elected to take the measure to just shut everything down when the first set of positive COVID-19 tests for their athletes came in.

This is one of the multiple ways that teams are going to try and deal with COVID-19. Texas put their players in a two-week quarantine, which is the same that most other programs are doing. But if the problem gets worse, then the reaction might become more severe.

A big-time non-conference opponent, the LSU Tigers, have also reportedly (Sports Illustrated) had at least 30 players test positive for COVID-19. And all of those associated with the positive COVID-19 tests are currently in quarantine.

To say that the Longhorns were hit hard compared to that of the defending National Champion LSU is hard to believe. Most programs are going to have a large level of interruption. Texas is going to be involved in this ongoing storyline too.

Texas is supposed to open up the 2020 season on Sep. 5 at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium against the South Florida Bulls. But the season is going to come with its own challenges and changes along the way in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.