Wesley Kirchharr
Staff Writer
Troy football’s originally scheduled home opener against the Warhawks of Louisiana-Monroe has been postponed after a COVID outbreak among the ULM players.
The Sept. 5 Sun Belt matchup has been moved to Dec. 5.
Troy Director of Athletics Brent Jones and Troy Head Football Coach Chip Lindsey have been in contact with ULM’s Director of Athletics Scott McDonald and Head Coach Matt Viator to carefully asses the situation.
“I received the unfortunate news that ULM will be unable to take the field on Sept. 5 due to an outbreak of coronavirus within their team,” Jones said.
“We greatly appreciate their efforts to make the original date work; however, the reports today showed that would not be possible for ULM
“Our thoughts are with ULM, the Monroe community and the entire state of Louisiana due to the impact of Hurricane Laura. We look forward to beginning our season at Middle Tennessee on Sept. 19 and continuing forward with our schedule along with the rescheduled date for the ULM game.”
Troy is still expecting to complete its 12-game schedule. However, the season opener is now a road matchup against Middle Tennessee on Sept. 19 at 3 p.m. on ESPNU.
In order to accommodate the extension of the regular season for both Troy and ULM, the Sun Belt title game has been moved back one week, as well. The championship game will be played on Dec.12.
On Tuesday, Troy Athletics also added new information about the team’s upcoming matchups with BYU and Texas State.
After traveling to Middle Tennessee State, Troy will hit the road to Provo, Utah, to square off against BYU. Kick off has been set for 9:15 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN.
Troy’s new home opener against Texas State has also been moved from Thursday, Oct. 8, to Saturday, Oct. 10, so that the game can be aired on one of the ESPN networks.
Game time has not yet been announced but it will be aired on ESPN or ESPN2.
