Saturday’s Utah-UCLA Football Game at Rose Bowl Canceled, Due to COVID-19

The University of Utah Sports Department has done everything in their power to get a football game played this week, but it still isn’t enough.

On Friday afternoon, the Pac-12 announced that Utah’s second season opener, this one at UCLA on Saturday night, had been called off. In a statement from Utah, it was revealed that the Utes could not meet the minimum of 53 players mandated by the Pac-12 to play the game due to continuing positive COVID-19 tests.

Utah athlete Mark Harlan later revealed on a Zoom call with reporters on Friday that the football program had no positive tests on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but a positive test on a member of the travel team had helped shake things up.

According to Harlan, the football program currently has 17 positive cases and 11 more in quarantine due to contact tracing protocols.

“Our next step is to continue working with our doctors and physicians,” Harlan said. “We will continue to test the program all weekend and we will make a decision on Sunday on the next step to enter game week (against USC).”

Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham said in a statement he hopes for the best this week – but he’s also preparing for the worst.

“We entered this week knowing it was an everyday situation,” Whittingham said in a statement. “We did everything we could under the circumstances to prepare for the game and follow all guidelines and protocols. As always, the health and safety of our student-athletes comes first.

Added Utah athletic director Mark Harlan:

“Our community is particularly hard hit right now by this virus, and our team and department have done everything possible to follow protocols and prevent the spread of the virus,” he said in a statement. “We were doing really well, day in and day out, and it’s extremely difficult for our student-athletes and coaches not to be able to compete this week.

This story will be updated.