Ed Orgeron is optimistic his team will return to the field next week — somewhere, against someone.

LSU is currently slated to visit Arkansas on Nov. 21, but could see additional schedule adjustments stemming from the postponement of this week's matchup with Alabama.

The SEC is weighing various options following four games coming off Saturday's schedule because of COVID-19 outbreaks and quarantine.

Potential plans include shuffling the schedule for upcoming weeks and pushing some regular-season games to the Dec. 19 date of the league championship.

"Whatever happens, we're gonna be ready to play," Orgeron said. "And I understand (commissioner) Greg Sankey's position. This is a fluid deal. But I tell you what: Those guys have done a tremendous job of getting us to play. I'm happy we're playing. We knew this stuff would happen this season, so we've just gotta be ready to go. Whoever they tell us to play, we'll be ready to play."

Georgia's trip to Missouri became this week's fourth postponement Wednesday morning, joining Auburn vs. Mississippi State, Texas A&M vs. Tennessee and Alabama vs. LSU.

Auburn vs. Mississippi State and Texas A&M vs. Tennessee have been postponed for Dec. 12, a date originally held open between the regular season and SEC Championship Game.

But Missouri and LSU have already seen prior matchups vs. Vanderbilt and Florida moved to that week.

One possible solution under consideration would be LSU hosting Alabama on Nov. 21 and moving the the Tigers' trip to Fayetteville, Ark., to Dec. 19.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Orgeron said of the schedule. "I've heard a lot of things, and I don't know. But whenever they tell us to play, we're gonna be ready to play."

LSU announced Tuesday afternoon the team would not meet the roster requirements to host Alabama this week as a result of positive COVID-19 tests and players quarantined because of contact-tracing, as well as other unrelated injuries such as junior quarterback Myles Brennan.

The SEC is requiring 53 scholarship players available to move forward with a contest, including at last one quarterback, seven offensive linemen and four defensive linemen.

Orgeron shared that senior punter Zach Von Rosenberg took second-team snaps at quarterback Tuesday because of only one of the Tigers' three scholarship passers being available and even threw a touchdown pass.

"Guys have stepped up," the coach said. "We have defensive linemen that have never snapped before who snapped yesterday. So we've kind of stayed with the same plan. Less plays, less time out on the field, but we have to get our work done. So we had guys move around. Guys did some different positions they haven't played. They cross-trained. I think it's just part of what we've gotta do this year."

The majority of the absences are because of contact-tracing, Orgeron said, giving the Tigers optimism that those players will be available next week after completing their 14-day quarantine periods, which began early last week.

"You can not be confident of anything in this fluid situation," he said. "But from what I'm told, our quarantine guys will be back sometime next week and we'll have a lot more players at practice next week than we have this week. So I think Tuesday or Wednesday we should have an answer to that, and right now it looks positive."

In the meantime, the quarantined players continue to work out individually and participate in team meetings virtually via Zoom.

And the available Tigers continue to prepare for Arkansas, but remain ready to pivot that focus back to Alabama or whichever opponent falls next once the dust settles on the SEC schedule.

"I think our team has handled this week well," Orgeron said. "At the beginning of the week, we were moved onto Arkansas. We didn't think the Alabama game would happen. Then we kind of thought maybe it could happen, so we went back to Alabama. Then we found out yesterday for sure that it couldn't happen.

"But I want to commend the SEC on doing the right thing for the safety of our players. We always knew this season was gonna be unlike any other. But the SEC is prepared. We look forward to the rescheduling of the game against Alabama. We want to play Alabama. It's a great rivalry for us. They're a great football team. And we want to accept that challenge."