Young on reasons Kansas State shut down workouts after positive results

Kansas State’s two-week break on voluntary workouts is simply a brief pause.

“It sounds like the return date will be July 5,” KStateOnline.com’s Derek Young said Monday afternoon with Derek Ruscin and Zach Arns (Ruscin & Zach(Ruscin & Zach) on ESPN Arkansas.

And, of course, it opens up an entirely new problem that was probably the real reason coaches wanted the players in for voluntary workouts in the first place.

“There was some players going home in this time period,” Young said. “When they return they may be asked to undergo another quarantine-type period.”

That last part was a big reason why schools wanted the players back on campus so they can monitor and have some control. Players have gone to parties, ignored social distancing in some cases and carried on.

It’s a good bet the folks in charge anticipated that, too. The voluntary workouts allowed enough time for the inevitable positive cases to come up, quarantine and go forward.

As we’ve said and numerous administrators have been criticized for being optimistic about, it’s a good bet college football will start on time and play a complete season.

Of course, the numbers at every school may be as high (or higher than Kansas State).

“Not every school is going to be as transparent or giving with this kind of information simply because they don’t have to,” Young said. “Especially when it calls into the condition of student-athletes which is more of nobody’s business.”

All of that leads to wild speculation on social media from people with their sources that may or may not be correct. The guess is, considering testing numbers everywhere show rising numbers in people under the age of 30.

The good news is the under-25 age demographic shows a mortality rate of, well, less than 1%, according to the Center for Disease Control. An overwhelming large percentage of those never show symptoms. Now there are questions if asymptomatic people are, as first reported, actually transmitting the disease.

In Arkansas, 98.7% of those that test positive have lived. Over 93% of people tested are negative.

As always, follow whatever rules are in place and other than that do what you feel is best, but be considerate of others.

And don’t worry. Kansas State reportedly had 14 players test positive and took a two-week break. Others are continuing with quarantine measures.

The number doing the latter of those two steps are probably the minority, by the way.