As Utah continues to prepare for its season opener Saturday at UCLA, the school canceled its regularly scheduled media availability Tuesday morning, but athletic director Mark Harlan issued a statement later that morning about the status of the contest while the program is dealing with COVID-19 cases and related issues. 

“We have had more good results in our daily COVID testing with football. We continue to push ahead and prepare for our game vs. UCLA this Saturday, with hopes for more negative test results throughout the week,” he said. “The focus, as always, is to follow the leadership of our medical professionals.”

The Utah-UCLA game was originally scheduled for Friday, but after last Saturday’s Utah-Arizona contest was canceled due to positive coronavirus cases within Utah’s program, the game was moved to Saturday. The Utes and Bruins are scheduled to meet at 8:30 p.m., MST at the Rose Bowl on Fox.   

Coach Kyle Whittingham said Monday that there were positive cases scattered throughout the program last weekend, including players and staff members. He added that two position groups were “decimated.”

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When asked Monday about his confidence level of Saturday’s game being played, Whittingham said, “We’re trying. We hope to. Every day is different. If we get a few more positives this week, that could knock us out for the game this weekend. It’s a day-to-day thing. We are doing our best to be able to play the game. But if we lose many more guys this week, it could another situation where we’re not able to. We’re taking it day by day and seeing what happens.”

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