WACO, Texas — Baylor held a football practice Sunday evening. It might seem mundane any other year, but due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the BU locker room, it was the Bears' first practice since October 7. The Bears are now scheduled to return to action at Texas on Saturday.
"We had our tests yesterday and everyone is negative," Coach Dave Aranda said Monday. "Coaches, players, everybody. So, we've been in the right direction for the last couple of those and I feel like by the middle of the week, we'll have almost everybody back. So, we're so far, so good, and headed in the right direction."
After Baylor's October 17 game against Oklahoma State was postponed to December 12, there was speculation across the Big 12 about whether this week's BU game at Texas would be played. As of Monday, it's all systems go.
From a strictly-football perspective, Aranda said the practices during Baylor's scheduled bye week entering the shutdown were among the best his Bears have had during the 2020 season.
"Tuesday and Wednesday of the bye week were two of our better, if not our best practices," Aranda said. "I felt like the energy, the physicality, the attention to detail on both of those days was really strong. Really good things there, and things that really addressed the things that needed addressed and we were expecting a good Thursday and then we were shut down, and rightfully so."
When Baylor takes the field in Austin, it'll be doing so for the first time in three weeks. In addition to kicking off the game, it'll need to kick off the rust from the shutdown with seven games left in the 2020 season.
Kick is set for 2:30 p.m. at Darryl K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
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