Ohio State Football: Program on pause once again

The Ohio State football program has paused all team activities after an increase in positive COVID-19 cases within the program. This has become an all-too-familiar sentence over the past year for the Buckeyes.

While COVID-19 cases throughout the state of Ohio continue to decrease, and the vaccination rollout continues to ramp up, there are still too many positive cases for complete comfort. The Ohio State football program has paused all team activities due to concerns about the virus.

Arguably no team was more impacted by COVID-19 than the Buckeyes last season. A total of three games, in an already abbreviated season, were canceled due to virus concerns within the OSU or opponent’s program.

2021 will undoubtedly see fewer cancelations and postponements throughout the country, as the health climate of the nation promises to be vastly improved over the coming months. But, we’re not there yet.

Ohio State, for now, is still scheduled to begin spring drills on March 19, and practice as well as test for the virus, three times per week leading into the mid-April Spring Game.

The halt of team activities is not expected to delay any of the already scheduled events, and the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution,” per the team’s news release.

This shows that we are still dealing with the pandemic. This could cause issues with Ohio State’s ability to have effective Spring practices and possibly even the Spring Game. It could be the second year in a row in which the Buckeyes get stuff canceled in the Spring.

We will follow-up with any pertinent details as they develop. Hopefully, this is the only blip on the radar and we can finally start to put this virus behind us as we move into next season.