Iowa prepares for two opponents ahead of bowl week — Kentucky and COVID-19

IOWA CITY — The Citrus Bowl matchup against Kentucky isn’t the only battle Iowa has to prepare for.

“We kind of have two opponents right now,” cornerback Riley Moss recalls head coach Kirk Ferentz saying to the team. “You have Kentucky and then the virus.”

So far, Iowa is winning that battle against COVID-19 and has been throughout 2021.

“Knock on wood, we've had very little activity,” Ferentz said.

But Ferentz is well aware of how quickly that can change.

“It's a crazy world out there right now,” Ferentz said. “Hopefully we can stay above the fray.”

Texas A&M learned about that craziness the hard way. The Aggies had to pull out of the Gator Bowl because of a COVID-19 outbreak that didn’t leave enough scholarship players available to field a team.

That caught Iowa safety Kaevon Merriweather’s attention.

“It was definitely surprising to see that,” Merriweather said. “We still have to be a little vigilant on what life choices that we’re making outside of this building.”

Texas A&M is the only college football program to have to ax its bowl trip because of COVID-19 so far. The virus has hit other sports — at the college level and pro level — hard, though.

Several college basketball programs also have experienced COVID-19 shutdowns. CBS Sports reported Wednesday that number surpassed 55. More than 40 of those were active. Since then, Wisconsin men’s basketball announced the cancellation of Thursday night’s game because of COVID-19 cases in the program.

The stoppages have been enough of a problem that the Big Ten put out a statement this week saying it is in the “process of evaluating” its forfeiture policy for conference games where one team cannot play because of COVID-19.

Other conferences, including the Big 12 and Big East, have already changed their forfeiture policies in light of the recent spread of COVID-19.

The renewed wave of cancellations comes as the highly-transmissable omicron variant becomes the dominant in the United States. The omicron variant spreads more easily than the original COVID-19 virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ferentz said in his radio show on Nov. 17 that the entire football staff is vaccinated and only six players are not vaccinated.

Breakthrough cases where vaccinated individuals test positive “are likely to occur” with the omicron variant, according to the CDC, although vaccines remain “highly effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations and death.”

Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum emphasized the continued need to “be smart about who you're hanging around with.”

That concept, unlike omicron, is nothing new for the Hawkeyes.

“That’s been important for us throughout the season,” Linderbaum said.

The staff isn’t doing much differently from earlier in the pandemic to prevent an outbreak.

“We just have to ask our guys to continue to be vigilant and try to use good hygiene and be smart, stay out of crowds, all those types of things,” Ferentz said.

Ferentz said it’s difficult to do more than that.

“It's a tough one, because what do you allow guys to do, and what don't you allow them to do?” Ferentz said. “I can't see us going down there and sitting in our hotel rooms all the time.”

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