San Diego State opens its Pac-12 schedule at home against Texas State on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET, The CW), but the Bobcats are not the most vexing opponent the Aztecs are battling at the moment.
San Diego County Public Health Services has confirmed 14 cases of mumps within an Aztecs athletics team, and the San Diego Union-Tribune has identified it as the football team.
if you're like me and only heard of mumps as "something you don't want to get" but have never encountered the illness in the wild, according to the Cleveland Clinic:
Mumps is a viral illness that causes your salivary glands to swell painfully. This can make it hard to eat and talk. You might also have flu-like symptoms. It spreads through sneezing, coughing, talking or close contact with someone who’s infected.
Mumps is uncommon today, thanks to an effective vaccine. But outbreaks still happen sometimes.
Since it's a virus, the illness can only be managed by treating the symptoms, not cured outright. Per the Cleveland Clinic, "it usually gets better on its own in a week to 10 days." Most concerning, though, is the virus can incubate for up to 25 days after initial exposure before its hosts become symptomatic.
Obviously, San Diego State doesn't have a week to 10 days, much less 25. SDSU included a whopping 32 players on its injury report Wednesday night, with nine out, eight doubtful, and another four questionable. The outbreak seems to have hit the tight end room especially hard. All seven of the Aztecs' rostered tight ends are among the 32 players listed: three are questionable, two are doubtful, and the remaining two are out completely. Fortunately, the offensive line is mostly intact: one is out, and only one is doubtful.
"The football gods have not really favored us with the injury luck," San Diego State coach Sean Lewis told reporters Wednesday, via ESPN. "Guys have got to be ready to step into the light when the time comes. ... We've been given a nice storm here. But this too shall pass, and we've got to be able to see our way through it."
There's never a good time to have a mumps outbreak in your locker room, but this seems an especially bad one for Lewis's team. San Diego State enters conference play on a 3-game losing streak, falling to UCLA by 18, to James Madison by 13, and then at Toledo by 25 last week. After hosting Texas State on Saturday, SDSU visits a resurgent Oregon State on Oct. 10, and its off week is not until Nov. 7.