Alabama football’s Nick Saban has been diagnosed with the Coronavirus.
Terrible news came out of the Alabama football program recently. After just three games of college football, Nick Saban has been diagnosed with COVID-19. Alabama’s athletic director Greg Byrne was also diagnosed with the Coronavirus, according to Cecil Hurt.
This came just five days after Alabama’s road game against the Ole Miss Rebels. In the aftermath of that game, Ole Miss is dealing with its own outbreak of the virus.
As of right now, Nick Saban has no symptoms, and he is self-isolating. Coach Saban is coaching practices virtually, but Steve Sarkisian is in charge until Nick Saban can safely return to the sidelines.
This news is heartbreaking for all Alabama football fans, and everyone hopes that Nick Saban and Greg Byrne will be alright. Until more information is available, all fans can do is wish them well during this time.
If Nick Saban’s COVID test is confirmed with another positive, he will obviously be unable to coach this Saturday’s game against the Georgia Bulldogs. We will have to see how this impacts the game, but Steve Sarkisian has experience as a head coach.
Nick Saban has been an advocate for wearing masks and being safe all summer. He did a PSA earlier in 2020 and asked fans to follow CDC guidelines. He also did a deep search on which mask to wear on the sidelines. Cases have decreased on UA’s campus since the first spike when students came back, but they have stayed stagnant in the state of Alabama as a whole.
We’ll have to see how this developing story unfolds. The obvious hope is that Nick Saban will remain symptomless and safe in self-isolation. It is still unknown if any current Alabama football players contracted COVID-19 during the game vs. Ole Miss. It is not even known if that game is where Coach Saban caught the disease. It is too early to speculate, so we will just have to wait for information to flow in.