Southern Mississippi postpones game at UTEP due to rise in COVID-19 cases

The Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles confirmed on Friday that Saturday's scheduled game at the UTEP Miners has been postponed due to "an increase in COVID-19 cases" within the Southern Mississippi program. 

In a prepared statement, Southern Miss athletic director Jeremy McClain said: 

"The health and safety of everyone involved continues to be our guiding force which made this decision to postpone the game the appropriate one. We are disappointed for our student-athletes who will not get a chance to participate for a second-straight weekend, however, we will work with UTEP, in conjunction with Conference USA, to reschedule this game for later this season."

It's the second consecutive week Southern Miss football will sit idle because of coronavirus-related issues. The Florida Atlantic Owls had to scrap last Saturday's game versus Southern Miss after experiencing a coronavirus outbreak of their own. To date, FAU has played only one of four planned contests. 

Southern Miss is next scheduled to play at the Liberty Flames on Oct. 24. UTEP, meanwhile, will hit the road to face the Charlotte 49ers that same Saturday. 

Elsewhere around college football, Florida-LSU and Vanderbilt-Missouri became the first Southeastern Conference games postponed because of coronavirus-related concerns. No. 2 Alabama will still face No. 3 Georgia despite Alabama coach Nick Saban and athletic director Greg Byrne testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week. 

Saban could be cleared to take the sideline on Saturday evening if he produces three consecutive negative test results.