The University of Nevada football team has been forced to practice at Stanford University due to poor air quality in the Reno area linked to smoke from California's Dixie Fire.
Wolf Pack coach Jay Norvell told ESPN that his team will hold three practices and a scrimmage in Palo Alto before returning to campus this weekend.
"It's literally affected every day of our practice for the last week and a half," Norvell said while riding a team bus toward Stanford on Tuesday. "When [the air quality index is] over 150, we have to take 12 players off the field because they have asthma, and when it's 200, we can't do anything outside. We've only had about half of our practices outside, and even those were limited to the number of players who can be there. We just can't function anymore; we've got to make sure we get the remainder of our training camp where everybody participates in these full practices."
Norvell thanked Stanford coach David Shaw for the accommodating his team. Nevada is using Stanford’s turf practice field in the morning, while Stanford takes the field in the afternoon.
"David Shaw has been awesome," Norvell said. "We're basically isolating [the rest of the time]. We're in the hotel, we're just showing up and practicing and then going back to hotel, so not showering or using the locker rooms."
Norvell said air quality has been a concern his entire tenure at Nevada and it’s something he monitors on a regular basis.
The Dixie Fire ignited back in July and is the second-largest recorded fire in California history.
