After Harvey scrapped opener, Houston to start at Arizona
Hurricane Harvey delayed Major Applewhite’s head coaching debut for his first full season at the University of Houston.
Now, while the massive cleanup continues at home, the Cougars open their season Saturday night at Arizona.
The Cougars canceled their season opener at UTSA last weekend as the city of Houston and surrounding areas faced catastrophic flooding.
“I felt like if we’re going to play this game, we’re not doing what’s right,” Applewhite said at the time. “We tell these kids all the time that we’re a family. You don’t do what’s right and the kids say, ‘Coach, what about your family or my family?’”
This week, Applewhite quickly emphasized to his players, many of whom had to deal with damage to their families’ homes, that it was time to get back to football.
“You don’t move on, but you have to compartmentalize,” he said. “That’s one thing we kept talking about last week. We have to compartmentalize what is and what we have to do. That’s a great lesson for us to learn.”
As of Friday, Applewhite hadn’t announced whether Kyle Postma or Kyle Allen would start at quarterback. Postma was the backup to Greg Ward and played considerably in the Cougars’ past two successful seasons. Allen is a former Texas A&M starter and big-time high school recruit who sat out last season as a redshirt.
Irma triggers game cancellations
Florida State and Florida canceled their Saturday home football games Thursday because of Hurricane Irma.
No. 10 Florida State was set to play Louisiana-Monroe, and No. 22 Florida was scheduled to face Northern Colorado.
No. 21 South Florida and UConn called off their game in Connecticut because of travel concerns. Central Florida also announced its scheduled Friday night home game with Memphis had been called off. The Memphis-UCF game had been moved from Saturday to Friday because of the threat.
The cancellations came after Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered all state colleges and universities closed through Monday to support shelter and emergency relief efforts.
Florida State has more than a dozen players on its roster who are from South Florida, which is expected to receive the greatest brunt of the hurricane. Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher added that some of the players’ families have come up to the area and that the school is making sure they have somewhere to go. Fisher also said the NCAA has been helpful with granting waivers so that the university can provide assistance.
“It’s a very tough thing to juggle,” Fisher said. “You just communicate with them and communicate with their families. This is a football game. That’s life and death and very critical. It can be disturbing, but I think our guys have handled it well.”
Sumlin receives threatening letter
Texas A&M and law enforcement officials are investigating after football coach and former OU offensive coordinator Kevin Sumlin received a racist and threatening letter at his home Thursday.
His wife, Charlene Sumlin, posted a picture of the letter, which had a return address in Houston, on Twitter on Thursday night. The handwritten letter read: “You suck as a coach! You’re a (racial epithet) and can’t win! Please get lost! Or else.”
On the post Charlene added in part: “how is any part of this OK?”
Later on Thursday night Texas A&M President Michael Young and athletic director Scott Woodward issued a joint statement condemning the letter and adding that they are: “working with law enforcement authorities to bring the sender of this letter to justice.”
The statement also said: “There is no excuse for hatred and, as a community. We will not allow the ignorance of some to intimidate any member of our community.”
On Saturday night in Los Angeles, Texas A&M squandered a 34-point third-quarter lead in a season-opening loss to UCLA. The Aggies will host Nicholls State on Saturday night.
The 53-year-old Sumlin has three years and $15 million left on his contract that runs through the 2019 season.