Thank you to the person who was kind enough to pass along a recording of tonight's radio program so I listened and did a proper recap. Thank you to @Kruciff for suggesting "Irmageddon" in place of my original name, "Irma-Gate."
On to the recap:
Scott Frost just got back from an entire day sandbagging.
"I took a shower and got cleaned up," Frost said. "The kids worked hard. It was fun to see."
What has the team been doing to assist?
"We fed the National Guard last night, coaches got up and served them breakfast this morning. We're going to practice for the first time tomorrow morning. We have the majority of our team back, still not all of it. Since we weren't going to practice today, we lifted this morning and got on two buses. One organized food for emergency packages for people. The other group went to fill sandbags. Filled over 2,000 sandbags. The waters are still rising in a lot of areas around here, especially Seminole County. Hopefully we can save at least one house with the sandbags that we filled today."
Marc explained how the flooding threat is very real, even days after the storm.
Frost commented more about the National Guard setting up camp on campus.
"When they call and ask, I wasn't a part of that decision, but when they ask for your facility, that's a hard thing to say no to," Frost said. "As a football team, we're proud the people who are going out and helping the people of this state, our fans, are staying on our campus. Using our campus as a resource to organize and go out and help the people in Florida."
Frost reiterated they don't have a full roster back yet.
"I give credit to our administration and Dr. Hitt. They made the right decisions the whole way. They weren't the decsions we really wanted because we wanted to play football games. The Memphis game, we had our team ready. Nobody at our school made that decision not to play that game. That was made outside of Orlando. We were disappointed we didn't get to play that because we thought we had plenty of time to get ready for the hurricane after a Friday night game. I think they were very forward thinking in moving the game to Friday early. That should have allowed us to play.
"Once we lost that one, we were kind of in a pickle because at that point we had time to get ourselves ready for the hurricane. A lot of parents of our players wanted their kids home. A lot of kids wanted to be home with parents and family to help. We ended up keeping about 60 percent of our roster on campus, a little over half. Gerrod Lambrect, our DFO, I have to give him a lot of credit. We had them in the tower dorms over here. It's the safest place on campus with winds. All the student-athletes on campus stayed there. Gerrod organized food. Three meals on Sunday, three meals on Monday and fed all the student-athletes again Tuesday. At that point, a big part of our team was out of town. We tried to get them back as fast as we can. We still don't have them all back, but we have the majority of them bacl. All those things put together made it hard for us to get ready for a football game."
Frost said when the decision was made to let the kids go, they didn't know where the storm was going or how bad it would be.
"We thought the safety of our kids was paramount and the biggest part of the decision. We have kids scattered. Some in Georgia. A couple out of state, one in California. All over the state of Florida. Trying to help their families. Getting them back isn't that easy."
Marc asked how many days they need to properly prepare for a game.
"Our hard work days of practice are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday we start to shut it down and get ready for the game. Friday is a walk-through. We wouldn't have had our team back Monday. The hurricane was still here. It was unrealistc to think we could have them back for Tuesday. We basically would have had one practice to play a game. That would have been with 75 percent of our roster. There's just a lot of factors involved in this. It's certainly disappointing to me and our team because we want to play. Anybody to suggest anything else is out of their mind. These kids are dying to play football. I give credit to our administration and the leaders on this campus because I think our plan for dealing with the hurricane and the safety of our student-athletes was better than other plans that I've heard. That was the biggest factor in all these decisions. I'm proud of the decisions they made."
Frost experienced Hurricane Charley as he was in Orlando for Tampa Bay Bucs training camp. He said he wasn't really afraid of tornadoes growing up.
On the moving the game aspect, Frost said there are so many logistics. Travel, hotels, etc. He said the biggest issue was more about getting the players back together, and if they traveled they'd have lost another day of potential prepations.
"I think the right decisions were made. We're not happy because we want to play. I think wiser heads prevailed."
Marc didn't phrase it like this, but asked whether they were scared to play GT's triple option, as the one GT player said:
"We're going to play Navy later on in the year and they play a similar offense as Georgia Tech. Football is football. We've been preparing for Georgia Tech all through spring, and every fourth day of fall camp we showed our defense those looks. Hopefully we get to play them down the road."
Football wise, what are Frost's concerns after the long layoff?
"The biggest concern is we're starting over again. We feel like we're starting the season fresh and new. Our guys have been lifting the last two days. We're going to practice tomorrow. There were six days where they didn't do much, as the hurricane hit and we cancelled our game. We've got to shake the rust off. We've got to make sure our guys are back up to speed and their bodies and minds are right. We're going to practice a couple days, take the weekend and recover again, then try to get back into a routine on Monday."
Frost said they'd "break them in easy" because of the time off.
"We'll have a good spirited practice tomorrow, but it won't be as long as a normal game week practice. Friday we'll practice a lot harder. Then hopefully Monday we'll be back on a normal-week schedule."
Frost said their game plan for Memphis is "sitting in a file cabinet" and says he "hopes they'll have to use it again." He could be hinting at a possible rescheduling.
Then discussions shfited to Maryland.
"I think Maryland's program and ours are in similar places. Two new coaches last year. I think we were both trying to get teams up to the point as playing as well as we want them to play. It was a great game last year. I watched the film of it a couple times already, the last couple days. We didn't play very well. We should have scored more points on offense. We shot ourselves in the foot a bunch. We had a freshman quarterback making his first start and had too many turnovers. Certainly a winnable game for us. It's going to be a challenge going up there. They're a lot better than they were last year, but I think we are too. We're looking forward to the challenge. Our kids are itching to play."
Marc asks if Frost has been watching football, and Frost laughs and says yes, he watched more than he usually does because of last weekend's cancellation.
Frost said "it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make," in regards to replacing the Oct. 28 bye week with a game, if they can find a willing opponent.
"Our kids deserve to play football. We've been practicing since July 26. I think we've made a lot of improvements. Our guys want to play. 10 games isn't enough. I'm hoping we find one more. Hopefully we play more than that, with a championship game and a bowl game."
Third segment appears to be reserved for the Scott Frost Trivia Challenge.
Nobody knew which president is on the $1,000 bill - it's Grover Cleveland.
What building is on the back of the $100 bill? Nobody knew - it's Independence Hall.
Fan knew the Spanish word for money is "dinero." Frost knew the Ecuadorian currency is the U.S. Dollar.
Fan knew FDR is on the dime.
There was a Gillagan's Island question regarding the number of castaways, and Scott Frost sang the theme song.
Frost didn't know the lead actress on 'I Dream of Jeannie.'
Frost did know Rod Sterling was the creator of the Twilight Zone.
Frost also knew Raphael is the red bandana Ninja Turtle. Frost said his favorite Ninja Turtle was Donatello.
Frost somewhat knew the heckling Muppets were "Waldorf" and "Astor" - it's close, "Statler."
In closing, Frost said potentially losing the bye week isn't ideal for recruiting, but stated it doesn't make a huge difference because the most important thing for recruiting is "winning games."
Next guest was Danny White, who still has no power at home.
"No power, but we're grateful to our great partners, the folks over at the Doubletree, we have my family set up there. We moved in yesterday. Excited to have electricity, air conditioning. I never realized how important those things were until we lived through a hurricane."
In recapping the events of last week, Danny said the UCF EOC was keeping him updated about the storm. On Tuesday, prior to Memphis, they had a big meeting and decided to move the game to Friday because they knew the GT game could have a question mark on it. They were trying to be ahead of the game.
"We were hoping to play the game. Just disappointed it didn't work out."
Danny says he wouldn't do anything differently, and the safety of the student-athletes and fans is always their primary concern.
"It may be unpopular decisions, but we always made the decision for their best interests. I feel good where we are. I feel we made the right decisions with the information we had."
Marc asks about the timeline for cancelling the GT game.
"I was talking to my counterparts across the state. The ADs at Florida, Florida State, Miami and South Florida. We're all talking with each other to make sure we're thinking things through. Similar situations. The school I think we were most similar with was Miami. Late Thursday night we learned the Memphis game wasn't going to be played, so Friday morning Scott Frost and I and others were talking. Kind of debating what the right thing to do with our team is. At that point in time, the forecast was the worst storm in the history of Florida beelining right through Miami and right towards Orlando. Very understandably, we had players' families, players themselves, staff, administrative staff, people were pretty unnerved as everybody in the state of Florida was and certainly Orlando.
"We didn't think it was the right decision at that point, to prioritize a football game that may or may not happen, eight days away, so we can prep and keep them here. Given all those circumstances, with the forecast at that moment, that wouldn't be right. It's not right by them. There were several student-athletes that wanted to go and support their mother, grandparents, parents. Parents wanted their sons home, they were worried. We realized that we needed to release the team, as did Miami. They had the same set of circumstances."
Even if the team was back and the National Guard wasn't here, Danny said hosting a game probably wouldn't have happened because of the strain on local first responders.
"It takes 1,200 people to host a game in that stadium. We've got flooding issues in Seminole County. All sorts of stuff going on that's more important than a football game."
Danny then talked about rescheduling efforts.
"I'm losing my voice because I've been on the phone all day. We have at least 50 irons in the fire. We're really hustling to find an 11th game. In talking with talking our conference office and our broker for the insurance, we have loss-of-revenue insurance for the games. We want to do something for our fans, our season-ticket holders, our single-game ticket buyers. We're trying to reschedule some things and trying to figure it out. We'll have more information to share as soon as we get it. To fans here at the show, appreciate y'all coming out, and folks listening, we're going to do something for our folks. That's important to us. The people that support us shouldn't take the hardship of this. We'll find a way to make it right in some way. I can't be more definitive than that because I don't know yet if a game can be rescheduled. We should find those things out pretty soon. We want to play an 11th game for sure."
Danny isn't worried about bowl eligibility with less games, he says he's focused on winning a conference championship.
On to the recap:
Scott Frost just got back from an entire day sandbagging.
"I took a shower and got cleaned up," Frost said. "The kids worked hard. It was fun to see."
What has the team been doing to assist?
"We fed the National Guard last night, coaches got up and served them breakfast this morning. We're going to practice for the first time tomorrow morning. We have the majority of our team back, still not all of it. Since we weren't going to practice today, we lifted this morning and got on two buses. One organized food for emergency packages for people. The other group went to fill sandbags. Filled over 2,000 sandbags. The waters are still rising in a lot of areas around here, especially Seminole County. Hopefully we can save at least one house with the sandbags that we filled today."
Marc explained how the flooding threat is very real, even days after the storm.
Frost commented more about the National Guard setting up camp on campus.
"When they call and ask, I wasn't a part of that decision, but when they ask for your facility, that's a hard thing to say no to," Frost said. "As a football team, we're proud the people who are going out and helping the people of this state, our fans, are staying on our campus. Using our campus as a resource to organize and go out and help the people in Florida."
Frost reiterated they don't have a full roster back yet.
"I give credit to our administration and Dr. Hitt. They made the right decisions the whole way. They weren't the decsions we really wanted because we wanted to play football games. The Memphis game, we had our team ready. Nobody at our school made that decision not to play that game. That was made outside of Orlando. We were disappointed we didn't get to play that because we thought we had plenty of time to get ready for the hurricane after a Friday night game. I think they were very forward thinking in moving the game to Friday early. That should have allowed us to play.
"Once we lost that one, we were kind of in a pickle because at that point we had time to get ourselves ready for the hurricane. A lot of parents of our players wanted their kids home. A lot of kids wanted to be home with parents and family to help. We ended up keeping about 60 percent of our roster on campus, a little over half. Gerrod Lambrect, our DFO, I have to give him a lot of credit. We had them in the tower dorms over here. It's the safest place on campus with winds. All the student-athletes on campus stayed there. Gerrod organized food. Three meals on Sunday, three meals on Monday and fed all the student-athletes again Tuesday. At that point, a big part of our team was out of town. We tried to get them back as fast as we can. We still don't have them all back, but we have the majority of them bacl. All those things put together made it hard for us to get ready for a football game."
Frost said when the decision was made to let the kids go, they didn't know where the storm was going or how bad it would be.
"We thought the safety of our kids was paramount and the biggest part of the decision. We have kids scattered. Some in Georgia. A couple out of state, one in California. All over the state of Florida. Trying to help their families. Getting them back isn't that easy."
Marc asked how many days they need to properly prepare for a game.
"Our hard work days of practice are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday we start to shut it down and get ready for the game. Friday is a walk-through. We wouldn't have had our team back Monday. The hurricane was still here. It was unrealistc to think we could have them back for Tuesday. We basically would have had one practice to play a game. That would have been with 75 percent of our roster. There's just a lot of factors involved in this. It's certainly disappointing to me and our team because we want to play. Anybody to suggest anything else is out of their mind. These kids are dying to play football. I give credit to our administration and the leaders on this campus because I think our plan for dealing with the hurricane and the safety of our student-athletes was better than other plans that I've heard. That was the biggest factor in all these decisions. I'm proud of the decisions they made."
Frost experienced Hurricane Charley as he was in Orlando for Tampa Bay Bucs training camp. He said he wasn't really afraid of tornadoes growing up.
On the moving the game aspect, Frost said there are so many logistics. Travel, hotels, etc. He said the biggest issue was more about getting the players back together, and if they traveled they'd have lost another day of potential prepations.
"I think the right decisions were made. We're not happy because we want to play. I think wiser heads prevailed."
Marc didn't phrase it like this, but asked whether they were scared to play GT's triple option, as the one GT player said:
"We're going to play Navy later on in the year and they play a similar offense as Georgia Tech. Football is football. We've been preparing for Georgia Tech all through spring, and every fourth day of fall camp we showed our defense those looks. Hopefully we get to play them down the road."
Football wise, what are Frost's concerns after the long layoff?
"The biggest concern is we're starting over again. We feel like we're starting the season fresh and new. Our guys have been lifting the last two days. We're going to practice tomorrow. There were six days where they didn't do much, as the hurricane hit and we cancelled our game. We've got to shake the rust off. We've got to make sure our guys are back up to speed and their bodies and minds are right. We're going to practice a couple days, take the weekend and recover again, then try to get back into a routine on Monday."
Frost said they'd "break them in easy" because of the time off.
"We'll have a good spirited practice tomorrow, but it won't be as long as a normal game week practice. Friday we'll practice a lot harder. Then hopefully Monday we'll be back on a normal-week schedule."
Frost said their game plan for Memphis is "sitting in a file cabinet" and says he "hopes they'll have to use it again." He could be hinting at a possible rescheduling.
Then discussions shfited to Maryland.
"I think Maryland's program and ours are in similar places. Two new coaches last year. I think we were both trying to get teams up to the point as playing as well as we want them to play. It was a great game last year. I watched the film of it a couple times already, the last couple days. We didn't play very well. We should have scored more points on offense. We shot ourselves in the foot a bunch. We had a freshman quarterback making his first start and had too many turnovers. Certainly a winnable game for us. It's going to be a challenge going up there. They're a lot better than they were last year, but I think we are too. We're looking forward to the challenge. Our kids are itching to play."
Marc asks if Frost has been watching football, and Frost laughs and says yes, he watched more than he usually does because of last weekend's cancellation.
Frost said "it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make," in regards to replacing the Oct. 28 bye week with a game, if they can find a willing opponent.
"Our kids deserve to play football. We've been practicing since July 26. I think we've made a lot of improvements. Our guys want to play. 10 games isn't enough. I'm hoping we find one more. Hopefully we play more than that, with a championship game and a bowl game."
Third segment appears to be reserved for the Scott Frost Trivia Challenge.
Nobody knew which president is on the $1,000 bill - it's Grover Cleveland.
What building is on the back of the $100 bill? Nobody knew - it's Independence Hall.
Fan knew the Spanish word for money is "dinero." Frost knew the Ecuadorian currency is the U.S. Dollar.
Fan knew FDR is on the dime.
There was a Gillagan's Island question regarding the number of castaways, and Scott Frost sang the theme song.
Frost didn't know the lead actress on 'I Dream of Jeannie.'
Frost did know Rod Sterling was the creator of the Twilight Zone.
Frost also knew Raphael is the red bandana Ninja Turtle. Frost said his favorite Ninja Turtle was Donatello.
Frost somewhat knew the heckling Muppets were "Waldorf" and "Astor" - it's close, "Statler."
In closing, Frost said potentially losing the bye week isn't ideal for recruiting, but stated it doesn't make a huge difference because the most important thing for recruiting is "winning games."
Next guest was Danny White, who still has no power at home.
"No power, but we're grateful to our great partners, the folks over at the Doubletree, we have my family set up there. We moved in yesterday. Excited to have electricity, air conditioning. I never realized how important those things were until we lived through a hurricane."
In recapping the events of last week, Danny said the UCF EOC was keeping him updated about the storm. On Tuesday, prior to Memphis, they had a big meeting and decided to move the game to Friday because they knew the GT game could have a question mark on it. They were trying to be ahead of the game.
"We were hoping to play the game. Just disappointed it didn't work out."
Danny says he wouldn't do anything differently, and the safety of the student-athletes and fans is always their primary concern.
"It may be unpopular decisions, but we always made the decision for their best interests. I feel good where we are. I feel we made the right decisions with the information we had."
Marc asks about the timeline for cancelling the GT game.
"I was talking to my counterparts across the state. The ADs at Florida, Florida State, Miami and South Florida. We're all talking with each other to make sure we're thinking things through. Similar situations. The school I think we were most similar with was Miami. Late Thursday night we learned the Memphis game wasn't going to be played, so Friday morning Scott Frost and I and others were talking. Kind of debating what the right thing to do with our team is. At that point in time, the forecast was the worst storm in the history of Florida beelining right through Miami and right towards Orlando. Very understandably, we had players' families, players themselves, staff, administrative staff, people were pretty unnerved as everybody in the state of Florida was and certainly Orlando.
"We didn't think it was the right decision at that point, to prioritize a football game that may or may not happen, eight days away, so we can prep and keep them here. Given all those circumstances, with the forecast at that moment, that wouldn't be right. It's not right by them. There were several student-athletes that wanted to go and support their mother, grandparents, parents. Parents wanted their sons home, they were worried. We realized that we needed to release the team, as did Miami. They had the same set of circumstances."
Even if the team was back and the National Guard wasn't here, Danny said hosting a game probably wouldn't have happened because of the strain on local first responders.
"It takes 1,200 people to host a game in that stadium. We've got flooding issues in Seminole County. All sorts of stuff going on that's more important than a football game."
Danny then talked about rescheduling efforts.
"I'm losing my voice because I've been on the phone all day. We have at least 50 irons in the fire. We're really hustling to find an 11th game. In talking with talking our conference office and our broker for the insurance, we have loss-of-revenue insurance for the games. We want to do something for our fans, our season-ticket holders, our single-game ticket buyers. We're trying to reschedule some things and trying to figure it out. We'll have more information to share as soon as we get it. To fans here at the show, appreciate y'all coming out, and folks listening, we're going to do something for our folks. That's important to us. The people that support us shouldn't take the hardship of this. We'll find a way to make it right in some way. I can't be more definitive than that because I don't know yet if a game can be rescheduled. We should find those things out pretty soon. We want to play an 11th game for sure."
Danny isn't worried about bowl eligibility with less games, he says he's focused on winning a conference championship.
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