Virginia Football makes its return to Grounds

The Hoos are back in town. As announced on the Friday, June 26 episode of the ACC Network’s Packer and Durham, the Virginia Football team has returned to Charlottesville for the 2020 season.

“Our players will be returning July 5th, and on our team I’ve made it just simply optional. For all those that want to participate, I’m going to coach the team and do the very best I can keeping them safe and keeping them well and keeping them growing and progressing through these unique and challenging times,” Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall said on the show. “For our players that aren’t returning, there’s no penalty. They’ll have their scholarships.”

This marks the start of the voluntary workouts, with required team activities getting underway July 15.

The Virginia Football season is scheduled to kick off in just 64 days in Atlanta at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium against the University of Georgia on September 7. Georgia’s coronavirus numbers keep making records, and not in the good way.

Data reported by NBC affiliate 11 Alive on July 4th shows that Georgia’s number of new cases has increased over the past month, and that the daily numbers of new cases have broken previous records in five of the past 10 days.

Georgia’s football players returned to Athens the first week of June and were tested as part of their physicals upon returning to campus, but the school is not going to release results. A significant number of programs across the country have seen positive coronavirus test results as players return to school for workouts.

Clemson has reportedly had 37 players test positive for COVID-19 since early June, Kansas has suspended voluntary workouts after 12 positive tests, and Oklahoma has seen 14 players come down with the virus.

We’ll keep you up to date on preseason workouts and any pertinent information for the (hopefully) upcoming season!