BC, Wake shift on Thursday’s kickoff
With Hurricane Florence bearing down on the North Carolina coast, Boston College’s game at Wake Forest tomorrow night has been moved to an earlier start at 5:30 p.m.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
The ACC opener for both teams, originally scheduled for 7:30, will be broadcast on ESPN and played at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, N.C.
BC and Wake Forest will continue to monitor the approaching storm and make any necessary accommodations. BC will fly to North Carolina after practice today.
“We want to play the game,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said yesterday. “It’s just the decision — is it safe, is it prudent? We’ve been studying the weather all week. It looks like we can do it in a safe way for our players, BC’s players, and our fans.”
Wake Forest said Monday the game was less than 1,000 tickets away from being a sellout.
“Whether there’s bad weather or not, we want to see a big crowd,” said Demon Deacons receiver Jack Freudenthal.
Top 25 games moved
The hurricane forced the cancellation of several Top 25 games this weekend, including No. 13 Virginia Tech’s home game against East Carolina, No. 14 West Virginia’s trip to North Carolina State and No.18 UCF’s game at North Carolina.
The Category 4 storm’s approach led to a series of schedule adjustments yesterday for teams in the Carolinas and Virginia. The University of Virginia’s scheduled home game Saturday against Ohio was relocated to Nashville, Tenn. The decisions were made as Florence appears set to come ashore along the Carolinas’ coastline late Thursday or early Friday with strong winds and heavy rain.
Several of the schools appeared to be publicly in agreement on the need for schedule changes due to Florence, though East Carolina’s decision not to travel to Blacksburg nixed Saturday’s game. ECU, which has already called off the rest of the week’s classes, cited “significant imminent safety concerns” that included “the high probability of a catastrophic impact on the region and perilous travel conditions before, during and after the storm.”
East Carolina’s announcement also noted the Greenville campus’ history with serious flooding issues from Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
“It is ECU’s hope the game can be rescheduled at a later date this season,” the school said.
In its own release, Virginia Tech officials had planned to wait until today to determine the status of the game based on updated storm projections.
Love out for Stanford
In a potential blow to his Heisman Trophy chances, Stanford running back Bryce Love will miss Saturday’s game against UC Davis because of an undisclosed injury. Coach David Shaw said that Love and left tackle Walker Little will miss the Aggies game but should be back Sept. 29 against Oregon.
Judge sends WR to trial
A judge ordered Wisconsin receiver Quintez Cephus to stand trial on charges that he sexually assaulted two drunken women this spring in Madison, Wis., rejecting a motion from his attorneys to dismiss one of the counts alleging that the women weren’t as impaired as investigators say.
Prosecutors charged Cephus in August with second- and third-degree sexual assault, both of which are felonies. The second-degree charge carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. According to a criminal complaint, Cephus sexually assaulted two drunken women at once in the bedroom of his apartment in April.
Cepus, a 6-foot-1 junior from Macon, Georgia, has said the sex was consensual and denied any wrongdoing. He attended the hearing but did not testify. Afterward, he told reporters he was innocent and doing “great.”