Injury updates on KU’s Williams, MacVittie: After week off, Jayhawks return Saturday
Kansas’ football team is “pretty healthy” amid the continuing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, second-year coach Les Miles said Monday.
“We think our numbers are coming back,’ Miles, whose Jayhawks had a bye last week after a loss to Coastal Carolina and now are preparing for Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. game at Baylor, said on the Big 12 coaches’ teleconference.
“We had a couple guys that had COVID issues and they are back and would have played (had KU had a game last Saturday),” Miles said. “A couple really just got their feet back on the ground to play in the last game.”
KU has not revealed names of any players or staff members who may have tested positive for coronavirus last week or any time before that.
Baylor, meanwhile, has had games called off in successive weeks. First, Louisiana Tech had too many COVID cases to field a team and the Sept. 12 game against BU was canceled. Last week, reports from Sports Illustrated indicated Baylor’s positive tests and contact tracing led to the Bears not having enough offensive linemen (seven at minimum) available to play versus Houston.
So that game was called off.
“Am I confident it’s going to happen? I can’t tell you. I don’t know the parameters,” Miles said of the KU-Baylor game kicking off as scheduled. “I would like to tell you I did know. They’ll do the right thing. They’ll look at both sides because this is a conference game. This is not a preseason game. Their call will be made for the best of all interests.”
Speaking a couple hours after the Big 12 call on his own weekly Zoom news conference, Miles said: “I do not know the percentages of whether we’ll play this weekend or not. I do recognize the difficulty a team can have in trying to put a healthy group out on the field. We will spend our time preparing to play that group. We are not going to spend our time looking to the perimeter. We will focus on the team we are about to play.”
Miles said his KU players and coaches would “all take a test on Thursday. Sometimes Friday or sometimes Thursday night we’ll have the test results. I am sure they will as well. As long as they communicate effectively … this is a partner. This is one of our conference schools. We want to make sure that everything happens positively as we can for both Baylor and this Kansas team.”
Baylor coach Dave Aranda on the Big 12 teleconference said the Bears “are fully anticipating we are going to play this Saturday. We are doing well. We had a great practice yesterday and we are due to get more guys back with the team as the week progresses. We took a test yesterday. We will get the results today. We’ll have two more tests coming up here Wednesday and Friday. We’ve got high expectations for those things. We hope that goes well. It is set for us to get more guys back with us throughout the week so we are confident to get a more complete team that way.”
MacVittie, hurt in opener, figures to play
Miles said QB Thomas MacVittie, who was injured in the second half of KU’s season-opening loss to Coastal Carolina on Sept. 12, figures to play Saturday.
“The guys that took the field by and large will be the same guys that took the field for us last week,” Miles said of his quarterbacks on the Big 12 call. “Hopefully MacVittie’s progress will continue because we expect him to play. Miles Kendrick came in and performed well as did Jalon Daniels. We’ll have to see. I feel confident the guys I just named will understand the offense and have been through it several times.”
Speaking at his weekly news conference, Miles again addressed the QB spot: “Thomas MacVittie (who started Coastal Carolina game) is looking better. I think he’ll have an opportunity to certainly take the field. Miles Kendrick also certainly is capable and Jalon Daniels played extremely hard in that game, so we’ll go into practice week and see who is the best or who gives us the best opportunity at victory.”
Miles said he would like to eventually go with one QB.
“We’d like to move in the direction of one, but we want to make sure that one is the best one,” Miles said. “I don’t think that is necessarily an easy decision. So we’ll take it a step at a time and play the best players.”
Pooka Williams expected to play, too
KU running back Pooka Williams, who was injured in the second half of the Coastal Carolina game, should be able to play Saturday at Baylor, Miles indicated.
“I am not predicting the future. I can tell you he had a smile on his face and is moving quickly. I take that to mean he’ll be ready,” Miles said.
KU-OSU set for 2:30 p.m. kickoff
KU’s upcoming home game against Oklahoma State game will kick off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday Oct. 3, at Booth Memorial Stadium, KU announced Monday. That game will be aired on either ABC or ESPN. Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. game against Baylor will be on ESPNU.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Injury updates on KU’s Williams, MacVittie: After week off, Jayhawks return Saturday."
