Purdue will be without its head coach and best player for Saturday's opener against Iowa.
The Boilermakers confirmed on Friday that star receiver Rondale Moore, who opted back in for this season with an announcement on ESPN's College Football Live on Sept. 24, won't play against the Hawkeyes. Purdue officials didn't give a specific reason for why Moore won't play.
A source said Moore is likely to return next week when Purdue visits Wisconsin.
Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm confirmed on Monday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and wouldn't coach against Iowa. Brohm said he would follow CDC and Big Ten guidelines and self-isolate at home for 10 days.
Co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm, the head coach's younger brother, will serve as interim coach and will call offensive plays for the first time against Iowa.
Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski said the school had petitioned the NCAA Football Rules Committee to allow Jeff Brohm to communicate with his coaching staff during the game. That request was denied, according to a source, which was first reported by The Athletic. Jeff Brohm will have to end communication with the team 90 minutes before kickoff.
Bobinski said earlier this week that the Boilermakers started daily antigen testing on Sept. 30, per the Big Ten's protocols, and no student-athletes had tested positive during that span. He also said there were zero false positives, and any positive test had been confirmed with a PCR test.
On Thursday, Jeff Brohm told reporters that his team would probably have five or six players out against Iowa, but he didn't name them or give reasons for their absences.
Running back King Doerue on Friday night announced on Snapchat story that he would not play against Iowa due to a hamstring injury, according to The Exponent.
Moore initially opted out of the season on Aug. 6 to begin preparations for the 2021 NFL draft, citing "unprecedented circumstances" surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
"For me, I think the whole decision behind me opting out was the uncertainty and to secure my safety and my mother's safety," Moore said on ESPN in September. "It was important to me to dig deeper and find out some more information, and hopefully the Big Ten would come to terms and find a way to get things done and we would have a season.
"When I decided to leave, I couldn't get a lot of answers to the questions I was asking. Everyone was unsure. I'm a lot more comfortable than I was before I left."
As a freshman in 2018, Moore had 114 catches for 1,258 yards with 12 touchdowns, becoming only the third Big Ten player to surpass 100 receptions in a season. He also had 662 kick return yards and set team records for single-season all-purpose yards (2,215) and single-game all-purpose yards (313). He won the Paul Hornung Award as the nation's most versatile player.
Moore had 29 receptions for 387 yards and two touchdowns in four games in 2019 before a hamstring injury sidelined him for the rest of the season.
ESPN's Adam Rittenberg contributed to this report.