Cal football announces postponement of game vs USC

The USC Trojans were scheduled to face the California Golden Bears in a road matchup Saturday, but the game has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues at Cal, the university confirmed Tuesday night.

The Cal program doesn’t have enough players to field a team due to COVID-19-related quarantines and isolations, which aligns with previous reports that Cal had a COVID-19 outbreak within its program. Cal was without 24 players and five coaches for last Saturday’s game against Arizona, which the Golden Bears lost 10-3.

The USC-Cal matchup is the first game of the 2021 season to be postponed due to COVID-19.

Before the season began, the Pac-12 released a new set of rules outlining what could happen in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, and the conference introduced a forfeiture rule for teams with an insufficient number of players. As a result, Cal might have to forfeit the upcoming game against USC — but the Golden Bears hope it will be rescheduled, according to a press release.

“The Pac-12 has determined that its prior longstanding game forfeiture rule, that was temporarily modified for this past season due to Covid-19, shall once again be applied for this upcoming athletic season,” the Pac-12’s preseason press release read, detailing a potential situation like Cal’s. “If an institution is unable to play a contest through its own fault, it shall forfeit such contest to its opponent.”

The forfeiture policy does provide Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff with “discretion to determine whether an institution is at fault.” Kliavkoff could rule this Cal’s fault, which would move Cal to 3-7 (2-5), while USC would improve to 5-5 (4-4). However, the Cal athletic department hopes that the game can be rescheduled to a later date. It said in a press release that the university has already contacted the Pac-12 about rescheduling the matchup.

“It was a difficult decision to postpone this Saturday’s game against USC,” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton said. “We know how important every one of our games is to our student-athletes, especially our seniors who have been incredible representatives of the program, but it was the right thing to do. Due to additional impact on specific position groups, we have decided to postpone Saturday’s game. We have had multiple COVID-19 positives within our program, and we are taking every step we can to mitigate the spread and protect the greater community.”

“Our heart goes out to all of the people who enjoy our games in so many ways and especially the players who only get so many chances to go out and play them,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox echoed. “Postponing this game was a last resort and not an action any of us wanted to take, however it was not possible for us to field a team on Saturday.”

Previous reports say Cal was down over 20 players

Cal has been facing a COVID-19 outbreak for over a week, which left its team decimated last Saturday. The Golden Bears were without 24 players and five coaches for its last game against Arizona, and it appears matters have gotten worse.

Cal reporter Avinash Kunnath confirmed Monday that if a Golden Bears’ player or coach tests positive for COVID-19, they then have to isolate for 10 days — even if the person is vaccinated or has had subsequent negative tests. Kunnath mentioned that while there were some subsequent negative tests this past week, those players and coaches still weren’t permitted to travel with Cal to its game at Arizona.

Of the 24 players who missed the Arizona game, a 10-3 loss for the Golden Bears that snapped a two-game winning streak, one of them was Cal starting quarterback Chase Garbers, who had thrown for nearly 2,000 yards and 14 touchdowns coming into last weekend. With him sidelined, Cal started backup Ryan Glover and he struggled – completing just 11 of 29 passes for 94 yards while the Golden Bears’ offense tallied only 122 yards.

In another tweet posted by Kunnath, he said that he expects “most Cal players who tested positive to play” against USC this week, but added that “they might not practice most of the week.” The COVID-19 situation at Cal has presumably gotten worse overnight, and those players are now certain to not play on Saturday, as the game against USC has been called off.