USF-Navy game postponed due to coronavirus

TAMPA — The USF-Navy football game scheduled for Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium has been postponed due to positive coronavirus tests at USF, the American Athletic Conference announced Wednesday.

“We are disappointed that we will be unable to play Navy this week,” USF athletic director Michael Kelly said in a news release. “Our student athletes are continuing to work hard with energy and enthusiasm and look forward to the opportunity to compete and get better each week.

“However, all our decisions start with the health and safety of our student athletes as our first priority, and we reached a point this week where the decision was clear that it was in their best interest to postpone this week’s game.”

USF (1-7, 0-6 AAC) will work with Navy (3-4, 3-2) and the conference on a potential date to reschedule the game.

The Bulls have one game remaining on their schedule — Nov. 27 at home against UCF.

Navy hasn’t played since Oct. 31, its games against Tulsa and Memphis the past two weeks postponed because of an outbreak on the Naval Academy grounds.

The Midshipmen have one more game scheduled — Dec. 12 against Army in West Point, N.Y., where the annual event was moved after local safety guidelines prompted a venue change from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

That means USF and Navy have the first weekend of December open as a possible landing spot for a rescheduled game. Navy, however, is also trying to make up its other two postponed games.

The conference also announced that Saturday’s game involving Houston at SMU has been postponed due to positive tests for Houston.

It’s the second postponement for USF this season. The first was against Florida Atlantic for a game scheduled for Sept. 26.

Like many colleges throughout the country, USF has struggled with COVID-19 issues, injuries and players opting out this season because of the virus. Before Wednesday’s announcement, the Bulls were down to 64 players on the roster and had a couple of graduate assistants dressing out to help fill out the practice squad.

Information from the Washington Post was used in this report.