Jim Harbaugh said Monday that Michigan’s football team doesn’t have any current positive COVID-19 cases, but it’s unclear if the same can be said for its Week 1 opponent.
Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck was asked Monday if any of his players would be out Saturday against the Wolverines (7:30 p.m., ABC) but was coy in his response.
“I mean I don’t have an estimate as I know that number, but I’m just not going to tell you the number,” Fleck said in a video news conference. “There’s a lot of reasons why, but this is how the whole year is going to be, and there are no excuses. We’ve got to be able to find a way. Our team has known that from day one back in March. We said the same thing before anybody was out. Whether by the opt-out, injury or COVID, we said the same thing. Whoever finds a way to do this better for longer. We’re going to need the entire football team.”
Staff and players are tested daily in the Big Ten and need to test negative the day before and the day of a game. Any player who tests positive must sit out competition for a minimum of 21 days, per Big Ten protocols.
“Is it a little bit nerve-wracking at times knowing who’s going to play, who’s not, who you give the reps to, and then all of a sudden you find out on Thursday or Friday that they can’t play for two or three week? Yeah, that can be a little bit nerve-wracking, but you respond,” Fleck said. "You put your oar back in the water and you respond you do everything proactively to prepare and educate your team, the best way you possibly can, that it’s not, if it comes, it’s when it comes, I have to be ready. And if everybody buys into that you’re going to have a chance to be really successful.
“Now again, I don’t want you all to think we have 65 players ‘out’ right now. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying, as a whole, what could happen now, what could happen then, what could happen in six weeks from now.”
If at 100 percent, the 21st-ranked Golden Gophers should be one of the top teams in the Big Ten once again in 2020.
They return all-Big Ten quarterback Tanner Morgan, receiver Rashod Bateman, a projected first-round pick in 2021, and all five starting offensive linemen from last year’s squad that finished 11-2.
However, the offense could have a different look this season with a new offensive coordinator in Mike Sanford, who came over from Utah State this season.
“Our offense isn’t exactly the same as it was last year,” Fleck said. “We’re constantly evolving and constantly finding ways to make it better. Mike Sanford’s been really good for Tanner, as Mike played quarterback at a very high level (Boise State 2000-04). And when you play the position, you can coach the position. The fundamentals, the techniques, the small integral parts of playing the quarterback position and I think it really taken Tanner to the next level.”
Defensively, Minnesota lost seven of its top eight tackles from 2019 but does return 2019 all-Big Ten honorable mention cornerback Benjamin St. Juste, a former Wolverine.
While Michigan has struggled on the road against ranked opponents under Harbaugh, it has won the past 16 meetings against the Gophers in Minnesota.
The Wolverines have won eight of the past nine meetings, including the last one in 2017 – Fleck’s first season at Minnesota.
“It’s an enormous challenge for our football team and game one played against the defense like Don Brown’s and obviously a blueblood like the University of Michigan, but that’s what makes it really fun and exciting as well,” Fleck said.
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