North Texas has no active cases of COVID-19 in its athletics department after its latest round of testing conducted last week.
There are 23 members of the department who have recovered from an infection. UNT has conducted 2,087 tests since its athletes and staff members began returning to campus in June.
The school conducted its latest round of tests in the days leading up to its football team’s 57-31 win over Houston Baptist in its season opener on Saturday at Apogee Stadium.
UNT has not released its testing numbers publicly. A UNT athletics department source provided them to the Denton Record-Chronicle on Tuesday morning.
Conference USA announced last week that it has adopted a plan to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced UNT to shut down its campus in March. The plan’s standards include testing football players three times per week.
C-USA moved its fall sports other than football, including soccer and volleyball, to the spring.
“Our administration has done a good job with our testing,” UNT coach Seth Littrell said last week. “As we move forward, testing will get tighter and more stringent. We want to put their safety and the safety of our staff first. We will make sure we do everything we can. I like where we are at.”
UNT played its first game in which its players were required to wear masks Saturday against HBU.
“Wearing the masks was probably the biggest difference,” UNT quarterback Jason Bean said following the game, its first since a series of protocols were put in place due to the pandemic.
UNT established a series of standards over the summer to ensure the safety of its athletes based on testing and social distancing.
The school began testing its athletes when they returned to campus in June. UNT also spread out its athletes in locker rooms to minimize contact and prevent infections from spreading.
A host of other colleges have been forced to postpone games in the last few days due to COVID-19 infections. The Oklahoma State-Tulsa game was pushed back a week from Saturday to Sept. 19. The SMU-TCU game that was slated for Friday has also been postponed and has yet to be rescheduled.
Rice has pushed back the start of football practice to late September. The Owls previously postponed or canceled each of their nonconference games.
Bean on Manning award list
UNT quarterback Jason Bean was one of eight players named to the Manning Award Star of the Week list for his performance in UNT’s 57-31 win over HBU.
Bean threw for 217 yards and three touchdowns and also scored on a 37-yard run.
UNT rolled up a program record 721 yards against the Huskies. Bean led the Mean Green to touchdowns on each of their first three possessions.
UAB quarterback Tyler Johnson III, UTEP quarterback Gavin Hardison and Marshall quarterback Grant Wells were also nominated, giving Conference USA four nominees.
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