Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Transfer talk
The Guaranteed Rate Bowl between OSU and Wisconsin did not finish before time of publishing. Please visit ocolly.com for full coverage of the game.
Why Taylor, Martin opted to stay Cowboys Tanner McCalister and Jarrick Bernard-Converse in 2021 to other schools. And yet, Taylor isn’t bashing those who leave. Or the current system. He says it serves Sam Hutchens a need. Staff Reporter “The transfer portal is good,” TaySCOTTSDALE, lor said. “I think there Ariz. — Losing friends should be a transfer seems to be inevitable portal. A coach can just for college football play- leave. That is who you ers these days. connect to during your Take senior defen- whole recruiting process. sive back Jason Taylor. Your whole time, your Some of the players he family gives you off to has shared the field with this coach in a different the most as an OSU state that you don’t even Cowboy have recently live in. Then he leaves announced their intenand you’re supposed to tions to transfer. Senior stay?” safety Thomas Harper, As the portal traffic junior cornerback Jabbar logjams, players who Muhammad. The list of play out their careers departures goes on. Even at one school become quarterback Spencer rarer. Taylor has been at Sanders, Taylor’s room- OSU four years. Brock mate, hit the portal. Martin, who coach Mike A similar exodus Gundy joked has been at took place last year, OSU for nine years, has and no team or position logged five. group in college football was immune. Taylor lost See Transfer on page 2 fellow defensive backs
Chase Davis OSU wide receiver John Paul Richardson doesn’t lead the team in stats but he led the team as a captain during the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.
Richardson voted as team captain shows maturity, growth in his young career
Gabriel Trevino Sports Editor SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — John Paul Richardson remembers seeing it for the first time. So do
most players. When you enter the OSU locker room and look to the left, a photo of every player to act as a team captain in the program’s recent history is on the wall. It’s a symbol of what a person has achieved in his career as a Cowboy, not as a player. Those who see it aspire to reach the mark. On Tuesday, for the Cowboys appearance in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl vs Wisconsin, sophomore receiver John Paul Richardson will
be a captain. He’s been a captain before — in the team’s week nine loss to Kansas State — but that was the coaches’ decision. For the bowl game, each player on the team votes for who the captains should be. “The team votes for the captains the way they should,” said coach Mike Gundy. “Guys who are dedicated, loyal, trustworthy, tough Mackenzie Janish
See Richardson on page 3
OSU defensive end Brock Martin chose to finish his career the way he started — as a Cowboy.
Masking up by choice Colleges see hope against flu as students continue pandemic practices Adam Smeltz Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
ter what’s ailing them. Administrators at Pittsburgh-area universities think so, too. After influenza season’s worst start in years socked local campuses, they hope habits emBefore the COVID-19 pandemic, braced during the pandemic will help Katie Jordan suspects she never once contain the virus when students return wore a mask. in January for the spring semester. But when another respiratory Students aren’t just masking sickness — not COVID, per her test voluntarily but sidelining themselves results — knocked her down this fall from group activities when they feel semester, she didn’t hesitate. When she unwell — both holdover practices from had to venture out to the grocery store, the pandemic that they said they hope she masked up. will keep their peers unexposed and “I knew (other shoppers) didn’t healthy. want the cold that I had, even if what I “There’s no longer any stigma to had wasn’t COVID,” said Ms. Jordan, a masking,” said Dr. Elizabeth Wettick, doctoral candidate in engineering and interim director in Student Health Serpublic policy at Carnegie Mellon Uni- vices at the University of Pittsburgh. versity. She thinks the pandemic has Where once students with uppernormalized masking for people with a respiratory infections would rally and range of respiratory symptoms, no mat- party, she said, now their peers would
want to know: “What are you doing here?” “People are cognizant that they don’t want to sicken others,” Dr. Wettick said. “That messaging has permeated, which is a real bonus.” Documented flu cases began climbing at Pitt’s Oakland campus in mid-October and outpaced positive COVID tests by more than five to one soon after Halloween, Dr. Wettick said, citing university-collected health data. She estimated Pitt students haven’t faced a flu season this oppressive in more than a decade. At Slippery Rock University in Butler County, flu cases in the fall semester numbered more than double those of the last two fall semesters, spokesman Justin Zackal said. But he cautioned apples-to-apples comparisons with 2020 and 2021 are a challenge.
Pandemic masking standards and related precautions over the past couple years limited not only the coronavirus but also flu transmission, setting up an eventual flu resurgence, according to epidemiologists. Mr. Zackal said Slippery Rock lifted its masking policy March 1, 2022. Even without a mask mandate, covering up has become a norm at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said Melissa Dick, nurse director at IUP Health Service. “I think it’s accepted that if you don’t feel well, put the mask on,” Ms. Dick said. She believes the mindset has made a difference: While IUP is seeing flu, it’s not overrun with the virus, she said. Ms. Dick estimated case numbers there were about typical for flu season. See Masks on page 5