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Alabama coach Nick Saban learned Wednesday morning that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He’s showing mild symptoms – “maybe a runny nose” – and won’t be on the field to coach No.1 Crimson Tide on Saturday when they face No.22 Auburn in the Iron Bowl (3:30 p.m. ET on CBS ).
Saban has indicated that offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will play a high role in the match as Saban is unlikely to be allowed to come into contact with anyone on the team sidelines during the match.
This is the second time this season that Saban has tested positive for COVID-19. He had previously tested positive before Alabama’s game against Georgia last month, but was asymptomatic. Saban was eventually cleared to coach the game against the Bulldogs after testing negative three times, indicating that the initial test was a false positive.
This time around, a statement from the Alabama team medics acknowledged that “this test will not be classified as a potential false positive.”
“We hated it to happen, but like I’ve said many times before, you have to be able to deal with the disruption this year, and our players have been pretty ripe about it,” Saban said. . “So we just want to keep doing our best. They have a very good team and they are playing really well right now, so it will be a challenge for us. We just need to have great preparation and put our players in the best position for succeed. “
Saban said he was the “only person in the entire organization” to test positive in the program’s last round of testing, but it is not clear whether contact tracing protocols could result in absences additional players or staff as a result of Saban’s positive test.
“We’re really practicing social tracing, social distancing, whatever we need to do to be safe,” Saban said. “We are all six feet from each other in meetings. We have staff meetings in large rooms. Everyone is required and we all wear masks. Players all wear masks in meetings. . So they will obviously do the contact tracing, but that’s on contact. Tracing to see if they see any issues. So I can’t really say what the decision will be based on. But depending on how we let’s manage things internally in the building, I don’t see any problem with the coaches and the players. But that’s for them to decide. “
Sarkisian will continue to call the games for the Alabama attack while he takes on additional duties, Saban said. The 46-year-old former USC and Washington head coach is the only member of the Alabama field staff with Division I head coaching experience, aside from the offensive line coach Kyle Flood, who led Rutgers 27-24 from 2012 to 2015.
It is not known where Saban may have contracted the coronavirus, but the positive result came from a PCR test, which he said was a different type of test from the apparent false positive he received last month.
“I’m not with anyone,” Saban said. “I come home and go to the office. I’ve no idea. There are people who come in and out of our house occasionally, but I have no idea how it happened. I really do not know.
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