Coach Ken Niumatalolo said so himself during a Zoom press conference with various media members on Wednesday.
Niumatalolo addressed the idea while discussing practice protocols he’s implemented to significantly limit interaction among players. To that end, the 13th-year mentor has decided not to conduct live scrimmage situations among front-line players.
“Our medical personnel are telling us any face-to-face interaction could constitute contact tracing,” Niumatalolo explained. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
That means the starting offensive line will never go head-to-head with the starting defensive line. Same is true for the second and third units consisting of players that would likely get into games.