UCLA’s home opener vs. Utah pushed back to Saturday

UCLA’s imperiled home opener against Utah appeared back on track Sunday after the game was pushed back one day and the Utes received encouraging results in their latest round of testing for COVID-19.

The game at the Rose Bowl was moved from Friday to Saturday, providing the Utes with additional time after they were forced to cancel their season opener against Arizona because of a depleted roster resulting from positive tests for the novel coronavirus and additional players placed into quarantine.

Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said in a statement that the team could resume practicing Monday after two consecutive days of zero positive COVID-19 tests. The game between the Utes (0-0) and Bruins (0-1) is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. and be televised by Fox.

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“We greatly appreciate the understanding and flexibility of UCLA, the Pac-12 and our conference television rights holders to consider the challenges we have been working through over the past several days with regard to our recent increases in positive COVID-19 cases within our football program,” Harlan said in the statement. “While we are encouraged by all indicators [Sunday] that our football program may proceed with preparations for this week’s game, we also recognize the challenges presented by the virus and that our status could change as we continue our daily testing program.”

UCLA was also dealing with fallout from the virus after one player tested positive over the previous week.