Hurricane Florence will likely strike Thursday morning in the Carolinas as a Category 4, leading to the cancellation of weekend football games in the mid-Atlantic, such as UCF and UNC Saturday afternoon.
Athletics Director Danny White will look to fill the schedule should a hurricane interrupt the season. A closer look at who’s open reveals that none other than Nebraska is one who has the same bye week as the Knights at the end of October.
While the Huskers play Troy Saturday in Lincoln at noon – if Hurricane Florence doesn’t ground Troy’s cross-country flight – it would be a long shot for Frost to sacrifice their one week off to play an extra game against UCF while an agreement with Akron sits in limbo. The Huskers were forced to postpone their home opener against Akron due to severe weather; an agreement between the two programs allows for them to face one another on Championship Saturday if neither competes for a championship.
But, stranger things have happened.
If Saturday’s UNC game gets canceled and Danny White wants to fill the schedule, Nebraska and UCF have the same bye week #UCFvsGBR
— UCF Knight News (@UCFKnightNews) September 10, 2018
White might be willing to consider Nebraska over an FCS filler, but would the 0-1 Red and head coach put their reputation on the line against a top-20 team on a hot streak? Not to mention the elephant in the room: they hail from the team they brought out of the gutter and onto the national stage.
A loss at the hands of UCF would be perhaps the most devastating blow Frost and the Huskers could withstand. It would transcend seasons unless Nebraska rallied a national championship run shortly after. Especially considering the rest of the coaching staff, whose bio’s tout success at UCF, was moved from Orlando to Lincoln. A win against the Knights would, of course, knock them down, but an unsightly loss finds itself tacked onto both schedules, and neither team goes the distance in 2018.
The decision will not fall on Frost, but with Huskers Athletic Director Bill Moos and his relationship with a well-connected Danny White.
Stay tuned with Knight News for more UCF Football and Hurricane Florence coverage.
Photo: University of Nebraska