Hurricane Ian caused Florida football to alter its normal game-week schedule; this weekend’s home game against Eastern Washington was moved from Saturday to Sunday. Despite the situation, head coach Billy Napier is trying to see the advantages of the one-day adjustment.
Ian made landfall as a catastrophic Category 4 storm on Wednesday afternoon, battering the southwest part of the state. The storm was so big that tropical storm force winds could be felt as far north as Tallahassee and as far south as Miami.
The team canceled football activities scheduled for Thursday to allow players, staff and coaches to shelter in place as the storm passed by. Thankfully, the storm did not do much damage to Alachua County, where Gainesville is located.
Napier said the normal schedule will shift by one day. What would normally happen on Thursday would happen on Friday, a pattern that would continue through Sunday’s noon EDT kickoff.
While this may be Napier’s first season with Florida, he is familiar with having to adjust the team’s weekly schedule from his four seasons as coach of Louisiana. The Sun Belt team would sometimes play games during the week, creating unstable routines for the players, coaches and staff.
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