What’s Bruin, 11/20: Covid, Covid and more Covid talk

The UCLA Bruins are taking on the Oregon Ducks this Saturday, November 21, a day later than anticipated. The originally scheduled game was for Friday, November 20, but due to the cancellation of the game versus the Utah Utes, and the subsequent scheduling of the game against the California Golden Bears for this past Sunday, the Pac-12 moved the UCLA-Oregon game from Friday to Saturday.

All this said, it’s apparently a great thing that this was done as UCLA QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson is among ‘players’ whose status is in doubt for their game on Saturday.

According to multiple reports, DTR is among ‘multiple players’ who are waiting to find out whether they can play against Oregon after at least ‘one positive test’ has placed teammates in quarantine through contact tracing.

LA Times’ Ben Bloch reported the news and cited two individuals close to the program who spoke under anonymity.

The uncertainty facing the Bruins was confirmed Thursday evening by two people close to the team who spoke on condition of anonymity because of privacy concerns. A UCLA spokesperson would not comment on player availability, citing school policy.

It’s important to note that under the Pac-12 protocols, after a positive test, two follow-up confirmation tests are needed with more sophisticated and sensitive testing done. It is unclear as to when those would be made available for DTR and the rest of the players in question. Stanford lost starting quarterback Davis Mills against Oregon due to a similar situation after he tested positive, underwent the more thorough testing and it came to the conclusion that the original test that kept him out of the game against Oregon was a false positive result.

Mills was alerted just hours before their season-opening game against Oregon as opposed to DTR’s two days prior.

It remains to be seen when we’ll hear more about the test results and the other players listed with Thompson-Robinson but we’ll be tracking the situation leading up to kick. If DTR was to miss the game, that would be the second opponent out of three games that the Ducks got to face a backup quarterback.

In the rest of the news for your Bruins:

UCLA players’ status in doubt, including QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson | OregonLive

UCLA players’ status in doubt for Oregon game because of COVID-19 concerns | LA Times

Oregon Ducks release special ‘Ohana’ uniforms ahead of UCLA game | 247Sports

For UCLA’s Qwuantrezz Knight, football was an immediate hit | LA Times

UCLA will face a lot of similarities taking on Oregon’s high-power offense | Pasadena Star