Florence
by Jim Buzzerd
I’ve put off writing this until the last minute hoping to get some definitive word on the status of this Saturday’s scheduled football game between West Virginia University and North Carolina State in Raleigh. Hurricane Florence was category 4 status Tuesday morning and its predicted path has it making landfall somewhere in the Carolinas late Thursday or early Friday. In virtually every scenario Raleigh, while inland, would be directly in the way of the system which is projected to dump as much as 30 inches of rain in some areas after landfall.
The latest official word is that the teams are continuing to prepare as if the game is going to go on as scheduled which is at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Rumors have been swirling with several other scenarios ranging from playing the game in Morgantown to playing on Sunday to working a deal with Iowa State to reschedule its game with WVU so the game could be played in October.
I pause right here because at 6:51 a.m. WOWK TV is reporting Saturday’s game will be cancelled. Sources say NC State is refusing to come to Morgantown to play the game even if there was a 50/50 split at Mylan Puskar Stadium or even if NC State took all the profits. Sources say WVU is trying to preserve Will Greir’s Heisman status and WVU wants the opportunity for an additional win.
If they do agree to reschedule, it will look like this: the NC State game would possibly be played on October 13. Then WVU’s game with Iowa State would be pushed back to a Thursday night game on October 18.
This is all up in the air for now, but according to sources, all parties involved, on various levels have been told to stop their regular game week duties. Keep following this for confirmation.
Since following this hurricane news has taken longer than anticipated, there is little time left to get into West Virginia’s 52-17 win over Youngstown State last Saturday. I’ll leave by mentioning that the defense, especially the linebacker position looks vulnerable. Wide receiver Gary Jennings caught two touchdown passes bringing his season total to three, two more than his entire season total from a season ago. True freshman running back Leddie Brown is living up to his Four-star thus far as he carried 15 times for 115 yards.