The USC Trojans (4-5, 3-4) started their week preparing for a new road opponent on Saturday, Cal Berkeley (3-6, 2-4), but the game has been postponed and rescheduled for December 4.
This is the first game this season across college football that has been canceled due to COVID-19 protocols and so many positive test results.
The Pac-12 conference has a forfeiture policy that states a team must forfeit a contest if they are unable to “play a contest through its own fault,” and the forfeited game will be a conference win for the opponent.
Because both schools agreed on a rescheduled game, the conference doesn’t interfere.
Interim head coach Donte Williams spoke to the media after practice Tuesday and said they didn’t want a forfeit win.
“They did things the right way where they have a team that is 99% vaccinated, and for them not to get a chance to play would just be a crime,” he said. “We want to play the game and a forfeit is not the way to go — and that’s not the way you want to qualify for a bowl game. Our whole thing is fighting on and competing — that’s our biggest thing is competing — and I’m pretty sure that they want to compete against us. So we look forward to that opportunity.”
The postponement happened after more Cal football student-athletes began testing positive for COVID-19 and are unable to practice and be ready for Saturday’s game. Cal is coming off giving Arizona their first win in 20 games and were missing more than two dozen players — a handful of them starters — due to positive results that forced the players to quarantine in Berkeley.
According to ESPN, Cal had about 42 scholarship players available for the contest against Arizona last week.
The contest against Cal will be played a day after the Pac-12 championship and a week after USC plays their final game of the season against BYU.
Williams said Tuesday the team will use the extra practice time to prepare for the much anticipated UCLA game on Nov. 20 in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.
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