Owls hope to fly home soon
Wisconsin opens its facilities when team is stranded by hurricane
MADISON, Wis. — Camp Randall Stadium on a Monday afternoon is typically a quiet place. Instead of the nearly 80,000 fans that populate the facility on Saturdays, empty red chairbacks dot the Wisconsin stadium. The whir of passing cars replaces the raucous crowd on gamedays.
But this Monday, Camp Randall welcomed tenant — Florida Atlantic’s football team.
The Owls, who lost to No. 9 Wisconsin 31-14 on Saturday, are still in Madison as they wait to return to Boca Raton after Hurricane Irma went through South Florida. They practiced Monday afternoon at Camp Randall and will until they can leave and play their scheduled game Saturday against Bethune-Cookman.
Wisconsin has opened its facilities and training tables for the Owls in addition to helping offset hotel new costs. FAU coach Lane Kiffin said his team would “try to make the most of it.”
“Obviously, it’s very different,” Kiffin said. “Wisconsin has been awesome to us, letting us practice over there and they fed us over there. That’s obviously helped. But it’s obviously strange. It’s been a strange, four days.”
FAU had Sunday off, as usual, and has been holding film sessions and meetings at the team hotel since Friday night. Kiffin said he wasn’t sure when the Owls would leave Madison, and would simply adhere to what the FAU administration tells him.
The school announced Monday that classes would not resume until Sept. 18. Resident students can return to campus Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. Faculty and staff can return Thursday. The Bethune-Cookman game is scheduled for Saturday at 6:30 p.m.