James Franklin reveals one player missed season opener vs Indiana due to false-positive COVID test
A false-positive COVID-19 test left one Penn State player unable to participate in the Nittany Lions’ season-opening loss to Indiana, Penn State head coach James Franklin said on Tuesday.
The player, who has not yet been identified, tested positive on gameday in its daily test. When the player was tested with a more accurate test, the results came back negative. Unfortunately for that player and the Nittany Lions, the player had to sit out the first game of the season while waiting for the more accurate test.
Under the conference’s COVID-19 protocol, all “student-athletes, coaches, trainers, and other individuals that are on the field for all practices and games must receive a daily antigen test.”
These tests, called point of contact (POC) antigen, are useful because they can be turned around quickly but are not always accurate. This was the test that gave the Penn State player a positive result.
Once a player takes a POC test and it comes back positive, they are given a nasal swab polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. These are considered to be more accurate than the POC test but do not come back as quickly.
In the case of this Penn State player, his PCR test came back negative. However, the test did not come back quickly enough to rule him eligible to play in that game.
This result left the player and his family frustrated. Franklin spoke with the players’ father, who was upset with the situation.
“His dad called and was very upset, and more upset about his son,” Franklin said. “You know, just hurting for his son. And we talked it all through and he understood it. It was probably more venting than it was being upset with what the Big Ten had really decided.
“It was more just his son’s hurting, and, ‘I want you to hear it, coach.'”
Looking at this situation from afar, everyone is justified. The Big Ten is justified in its testing situation. The goal is to keep everyone safe while using the best and most current testing protocol. As of now, there isn’t a perfect way to do that.
At the same time, the player and his father can certainly be frustrated. This has been a tough year and football season for all involved. There are a lot of emotional highs and lows. For this Penn State player, it was one of those emotional lows.
Hopefully, he continues to stay COVID free and gets a chance to play in the Nittany Lions’ primetime showdown with Ohio State on Saturday.