FAU’s Willie Taggart: ‘Around 25' players would’ve sat out against Ga. Southern; focus shifts to USF

The FAU Owls enter this week once again looking to kick off their season and the Willie Taggart era. And they’re hoping there won’t be any more setbacks.

The team has turned its attention to its home opener against USF on Saturday after its previously scheduled season opener against Georgia Southern was postponed due to the Owls’ COVID-19 outbreak.

The Owls' game against the Bulls will be played more than three weeks after FAU was originally supposed to start the season.

FAU’s original season opener at Minnesota, scheduled for Sept. 3, and original home opener versus Stony Brook on Sept. 12 were canceled by COVID-19 schedule changes at the other schools.

“It’s been frustrating, I’ll say that,” Taggart said during a video conference with reporters Monday afternoon. “The guys have been practicing for a long time now and really ready to just get out and play a game. It was disappointing last week that we weren’t able to play and frustrating, but we all knew there were going to be bumps along the way. It’s just one of those things we have to deal with.”

Taggart added “around 25” players weren’t going to be available against Georgia Southern due to COVID-19 infections and other players having to quarantine after contact tracing.

The team conducted another round of testing Sunday and were still receiving results as Taggart was speaking with reporters. However, Taggart said all of the Owls' results so far were negative and that there weren’t concerns about playing against USF.

“As of now, we’re planning to play,” he said. “We’ll get a couple of guys back. Last week, we had some guys who were already quarantined so it added to the list of guys who joined them, so we have some guys coming back and as of now, we plan on planning that game.”

Taggart has been telling his team for months that they have to “embrace the suck”, but he admitted he’s tired of “the suck.”

“It’s one of those things a lot of people are dealing with and are going to have to deal with," Taggart said. "It’s not fun and it’s nerve-wracking. We want to play ball. A lot of these things are out of our control and it’s just different times. We’ve been testing those guys who tested positive every day since then. It’s crazy. One day they positive and three consecutive days they’re negative. It’s like, what do you do?”

Taggart said the uncertainty of who’ll be available hasn’t forced him to change his gameplan for Saturday’s game, saying it’s “kind of like any other week.”

“We’ll prepare the guys we have and plan to get ready for South Florida,” he said. “With COVID, there are no certainties. Each and every week, you have to prepare with the guys you have. As you prepare, there’s no guarantee they’ll still be there Saturday. It’s just one of those things you try to deal with the best ways you can.”

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