COVID-19 still isn't going away nor is its impact on the University of Northern Colorado football team.

UNC coach Ed McCaffrey said Wednesday during his weekly press conference that players and coaches are regularly missing due to COVID safety protocols.

At one point, roughly 25 to 30% of the personnel was in quarantine due to positive tests or contact tracing. Sometimes the staff doesn't know until the day before a game whether someone will be available, which makes it hard to ensure everyone is prepared.

Defensive coordinator Scott Darnell has led his group with little assistance the last several weeks.

"Availability of players and coaches is huge, just having them available," McCaffrey said. "We don't have a lot of rules within our program and show up, work hard and have fun. And we struggled to follow rule No. 1, which is just to show up."

McCaffrey alluded to Washington State's firing of football coach Nick Rolovich and assistants for not following state vaccination mandates. He thinks it's because the university understood "the threat that COVID poses to people that aren't vaccinated," additionally, teams can't perform up to their capabilities.

About 80% of the team has been vaccinated, the university told the Greeley Tribune last month.

The university requires vaccination against COVID-19, among other required vaccinations, for students and staff. It offered exemptions but required unvaccinated individuals to undergo regular testing and additional safety regulations.

McCaffrey encouraged all of the eligible players, staff and coaches to receive their vaccination in the offseason. Additionally, McCaffrey said the program welcomed Athletic Director Darren Dunn and medical professionals to speak with the team about the importance of vaccination.

At the end of the day, he allowed them to make their own choices and experience any consequences that may occur.

"We went through this thoroughly before the season," McCaffrey said. "I just decided — and maybe it's my fault, you know, maybe other coaches forced their coaches and players to get vaccinated — I decided that it's each individual's choice, but I encouraged them to."

UNC follows quarantine guidelines from the local and state health departments, and it follows specific protocols from the Big Sky and NCAA.

McCaffrey said unvaccinated players must quarantine for roughly two weeks if they test positive for COVID-19 or come in contact with someone who tested positive.

Anyone who tests positive, regardless of vaccination status, needs to quarantine for at least 10 days.

Vaccinated players who come in contact with a positive case don't have to quarantine if they test negative within three to five days.

The Bears have missed chunks of players due to positive tests, contact tracing and false positives.

Unfortunately, a handful of vaccinated players and coaches have experienced breakthrough illness.

A couple of cases have been "really scary." McCaffrey said most of his personnel is on the mend, but some are still dealing with tough situations.

"I felt for liability reasons and other reasons, I'm not going to (force them)," McCaffrey said. "I'm going to let everybody know how important (the vaccine) is; let them know that's the biggest challenge to our season, how it could bring us down if we're missing too many players and coaches.

"Everyone made their choices," he continued. "Unfortunately, for us, we have a high percentage of unvaccinated players and coaches, and certainly the worst case scenario happened."

Even with COVID, which McCaffrey doesn't want to downplay, he said it's been a good opportunity for young players to get experience they might have otherwise missed on the sidelines.

Hopefully, though, the team can figure out a rotation that will work, no matter the situation, to end the season on a high note. Other teams will come to play and don't care about the Bears' struggles.

"It's been very difficult," McCaffrey said, noting unvaccinated individuals are still welcomed and encouraged to get vaccinated. "I hope that it's not something that is going to significantly impact the rest of our season or our offseason or next season. We have to figure out what to do."

UNC (2-5, 1-3 Big Sky) plays Southern Utah (1-6, 0-4 Big Sky) at 6 p.m. Saturday in Cedar City. The game will be televised on ESPN+.