Purdue coach Jeff Brohm tests positive for COVID-19, will miss season-opener vs. Iowa

Purdue Boilermakers head coach Jeff Brohm confirmed on Monday that he tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss Saturday's season opener against the Iowa Hawkeyes while he isolates for a minimum of 10 days. 

As ESPN's Heather Dinich explained, the Big Ten does not allow coaches to potentially post three consecutive negative test results and then return to football activities without completing the isolation period. Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban tested positive last week but was cleared to work in-person for Saturday's game against the Georgia Bulldogs after he returned three negative tests.

"Unfortunately it got me," Brohm said. "Now I have to recuperate as fast as I can."

Brohm added that somebody else in his family tested positive for the virus and that he first experienced symptoms on Saturday. 

"For a few days before the positive test, I was abnormally tired and exhausted, and I just thought that I was tired from work," he said. "I didn't really know for sure what was happening, but it really wasn't until Saturday that it started to kick in, and the cold chills, body aches, a little bit of sweating, the chest tightness — really all of the symptoms you hear about — took place, and I knew I was not in good shape quite then and probably would have a positive test the next day and did."

Brohm could be eligible to coach the Oct. 31 game versus the Illinois Fighting Illini as long as he is free of symptoms and returns negative test results. 

Offensive coordinator Brian Brohm will serve as interim head coach until Jeff Brohm recovers. 

Brohm joins Saban, Kansas' Les Miles, Arizona's Kevin Sumlin, Florida State's Mike Norvell, Arkansas State's Blake Anderson and Toldeo's Jason Candle among noteworthy college coaches who have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.