Where do we go from here?

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#PMARSHONAU: Where does Auburn football go from here?

Friday was yet another strange day at the end of a strange week in one of the strange periods in my 50-plus years covering sports. And like it has been so many times since the scourge of COVID-19 started to kill so many all over the world in early 2020, we are left with more questions than answers.

The rumors began flying Friday morning that first-year Auburn football coach Bryan Harsin, who has refused to say whether he has been vaccinated and has declined to be part of any campaign supporting vaccinations, had tested positive for COVID-19. There had been talk earlier in the week about issues on the Auburn football team.

As Auburn’s football team began its second scrimmage of the preseason, an announcement made it official. Harsin had tested positive and was isolating at home. Later, we learned that defensive coordinator Derek Mason also had tested positive and that players missed the scrimmage because of positive tests or contact tracing. We reported Thursday that the Auburn football team’s vaccination rate was around 50 percent.

As almost ever event does these days, news of Harsin’s positive test sparked social media arguments about the vaccine. I haven’t joined the debate and won’t, but in the interest of full disclosure, I have had three doses of the Pfizer vaccine. I have already had a booster shot because I take medication for psoriasis that can knock down the immune system. I have had no side effects beyond a slight headache after the second dose and soreness in my arm.

For several years, I ignored the flu vaccine because I’d never had the flu. That changed in January of 2020.  I spent four days at East Alabama Medical Center on supplemental oxygen. I went home with oxygen tanks and was terrified I was going to need them for the rest of my life.

I eventually was able to abandon the oxygen tanks and got well, but I will not ignore the flu vaccine again. Same goes for the pneumonia vaccine, the shingles vaccine and now the COVID-19 vaccine. Just about everyone in my generation took polio and smallpox vaccines that essentially wiped out those diseases. Vaccines don’t scare me or concern me in the least.

That’s me. I understand lots of people view it differently. That’s OK. But it should come as no surprise, under the circumstances, that Auburn had positive tests. Our focus here is what it could all mean to Auburn athletics

The SEC protocol is such that, if a team reaches 80 percent vaccinated, the need for testing and contact tracing is greatly reduced if not eliminated. Auburn’s basketball team, I am told, is beyond the 80 percent threshold, but that’s another story for another time.

It’s football season, and there is reason for concern about what could happen if Auburn does not reach that 80 percent threshold.

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Games could be forfeited. Maybe even worse, games could be played short-handed, resulting in blowout losses. Maybe Auburn players will see what has happened, get vaccinated and reach 80 percent. Or maybe those affected will get through it and Auburn will go on through the rest of the season unscathed.

As has been said so many times since the day that college athletics came to an abrupt and unprecedented halt in March of 2020, we just don’t know.

247Sports

AD says football team vaccination rate 'continues to change'

Owen Pappoe Speaks About Auburn's Football Performance Center

AUBURN, Alabama–With Auburn’s head football coach in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, the university’s athletic director, Allen Greene, would not give a number on what percentage of the players have been vaccinated with the Tigers preparing to play their first game in two weeks. However, he said there has been movement on that front.

“It continues to change,” Greene said on Saturday when asked about football player vaccination percentages. He made the comment following a groundbreaking ceremony at the new football performance center complex.

“We continue to have student-athletes talk that they want to get vaccinated," he said. "They want to play. They have been preparing for eight months. Our staff has been with them for eight months.

“They understand that if you don’t have enough players there is forfeiture involved,” he said. “That is not something that is on our minds right now. Our minds are on playing football, playing an uninterrupted season and being healthy and competitive.”

Asked if he is concerned that having players miss practice and games due to pandemic protocols, the athletic director said, “What we have done is mitigation so mask wearing, six feet apart and not for 15 minutes (in-person contact), just making sure we all keep our student-athletes safe.”

The soccer team, which has started its season, announced that it is 100 percent vaccinated. “We have several teams that are close (to 100 percent),” Greene said. “Now that our student-athletes are back on campus it is becoming more of a reality with the Delta variant spreading the way it is. We talked to all of our teams about the importance of this and we will continue to do that.”

The athletic director said that all systems are still go for fans to attend games at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Last season capacity was capped at approximately 20 percent.

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“So far so good,” Greene said for fan attendance. “Our plan is still to move forward with 100 percent capacity. This is the time where people need to be vigilant and take care of themselves and listen to their doctors and hopefully we can improve vaccination rates.”

Asked if the university might consider a requirement of proof of vaccination for fans attending Auburn sporting events, Greene said, “We have not had that conversation on our campus yet. We hope our community continues to do what it needs to do to make it safe for everybody.”

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