USF football team reports first coronavirus case, ending 40-day streak of negative tests

TAMPA, Fla. - USF head football coach Jeff Scott made an inevitable announcement Wednesday. The Bulls had their first positive coronavirus test this week, ending a 40-day streak of nothing but negative tests.

"We're hoping we won't have another positive [test] but we will," Scott said to reporters. "That's just kind of part of the process."

The Bulls open the 2020 college football season Sept. 12th at home against The Citidel. If one player tests positive at any point during the week of a game, not only will he sit out the game, but so will anyone with whom he was in close contact. 

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Coach Scott said he is preparing for everything by getting players ready to play different positions.

"We may trade a [wide receiver] both inside and out, or an offensive lineman. We may trade a guy left tackle, right guard, and center," Scott said. "[It's the] same thing in the secondary. Corners and safeties [will trade]."

Coach Scott also said he showed a video of the late actor Chadwick Boseman giving a commencement speech at his alma mater Howard University. In the video, Boseman, who passed away last week after a long and secret battle with colon cancer, told the graduates that some of the most successful and happiest moments of his life were during the hardest times of his life. 

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The message Coach Scott wanted to covey with the video: take joy during hard times. 

"Don't hold your breath and think 'I'm going to make it through it, and everything is going to be good,'" Scott said. "That's what I've told our guys. Let's not grin and bear it through this season."

"We're going to look back five years from now, ten years from now," he added, "and we're going to appreciate the things that we learned going through this."