Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
As if this team needed any more indignities, winless Central Florida will close its long, agonizing season on a school night - two days before Thanksgiving.
First-year coach George O'Leary is none too happy about facing Kent State tonight in the Florida Citrus Bowl, but at this point, all the veteran coach can do is throw up his hands in disgust and try to go with it.
He's happy to play on a Thursday, something he did routinely at Georgia Tech. But on a Tuesday?
"You can't get people to the game, driving-wise, and it's not accommodating to your fans," O'Leary said. There had been hopes the game might be on ESPN or ESPN2, "but that disappeared soon after the schedule was printed."
It seemed like a good idea at the time. The Golden Knights couldn't play at home Saturday because the stadium was being used for the Florida Classic. They didn't want to play the Friday after Thanksgiving, because their game against No.15 Miami (Ohio) on that day last year drew just 12,902.
If UCF had been in the running for the MAC title game, scheduled for a week from today, the team would need enough time to prepare. And Wednesday was supposed to be a day off for the public schools.
But since then, just about everything has gone wrong. Television interest never materialized. Closures during hurricane season forced the schools to use Wednesday as a makeup day. And the Golden Knights have been at the bottom of the MAC since Day 1.
Now they're more like the worst team in the nation. UCF (0-10, 0-7), the only winless program in Division I-A, is ranked 116th of 117 teams in total offense and 114th in scoring.
It faces a Kent State team that had a horrible start under a new coach but has won three straight, outscoring its opponents 144-40 during that time. The Golden Flashes (4-6, 3-4) beat Eastern Michigan 69-17 on Nov.13.
They were led in that game by senior quarterback Josh Cribbs , who threw for three touchdowns and 306 yards on 28-of-33 passing and rushed for 104 yards and another touchdown. He also caught a 19-yard pass for a score.
WYATT OKAY: Bethune-Cookman coach Alvin Wyatt , who was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center with dehydration and exhaustion after his team's 58-52 overtime victory over Florida A&M on Saturday, was released Sunday and is doing well.
Wyatt had to be wheeled off on a stretcher shortly after the nearly five-hour Florida Classic ended with Rodney Johnson 's 15-yard touchdown run. The Wildcats (6-4) had trailed the entire game before scoring 21 in a row in the final 18 minutes to tie it at 52.
"I know a lot of people thought it was over when it was 52-31," Wyatt told the Daytona Beach News-Journal on Sunday. "We hung in there and held them off."
The Rattlers (3-7) end their season Saturday at Florida International. With Saturday's 35-14 loss to Western Kentucky, the Golden Panthers (2-6) have lost five in a row.
NUMBERS GAME: Attendance has been so poor at Florida Atlantic's home games that the Owls (7-3) might not be allowed to move up to Division I-A and the Sun Belt League, even if they are playing well enough to deserve it.
FAU drew 8,296 to Saturday's 28-0 victory over Illinois State. The NCAA requires teams entering I-A to average 15,000 fans; over three games this season FAU is averaging 10,827. Though that is an 85 percent increase over last season's attendance, the NCAA still may require the team to wait another year to move up.
FIU is in the same boat with 7,366 a game, but it lacks a celebrity coach like Howard Schnellenberger to wheel and deal with the NCAA on its behalf. The Golden Panthers should be helped by Saturday's Orange Blossom Classic against FAMU at the Orange Bowl. The crowd probably will be dominated by Rattlers fans but will count as a home crowd for FIU.
Both teams' I-A status likely will hinge on how many people they can lure to their Dec.4 matchup at Pro Player Stadium.