Imagine that since June 1st you've not seen your family? You have connected only via zoom and you basically go nowhere and after six months of strict Covid-19 protocols and a form of isolation. Now, you are asked to stick around another month and do it all over again in order to participate in something you really have a hard time caring about.
That's where UCF football sits today. The Knights finished their regular season with a 58-46 win over their rival, South Florida. They only had nine games on their revised schedule and became one of the view teams to start and finish their schedule without having a game canceled or postponed during the year. But with the season over and no conference title, the Knights find themselves in the challenging spot of waiting to play in a lower tier bowl game or letting your players head home after the six-month period of your "football bubble" for the 2020 season.
A number of schools who are no longer in contention for a league title are seeing players opt out of remaining games to prepare for the draft(see LSU, FSU and more). UCF will likely find itself in the same position with, likely, 4-6 players skipping the bowl game to not risk injury. Add the challenge of keeping your team focused to play an opponent that won't exactly get your squad fired up to play, and the Knights are in a spot that a number of schools will find themselves in. However, most teams still have games to play in the coming weeks. That means their break between their final game and bowl game might be 1-2 weeks. But with UCF done for the regular season, the earliest bowl game would be December 22nd. Other games would be after Christmas and that is a tough sell after your players have gone six months of testing, "bubbles", protocols and not being with family.
It will be an interesting week as UCF tries to sort out bowl options and figure out what to do. Every team in college football has faced challenges to play and the process is not easy. UCF avoided the large outbreak a number of teams are dealing with but the biggest challenge may be convincing the team to stick around another month...
Notes: Florida's Kyle Trask is a Heisman favorite. He has thrown for 34 touchdowns and 2,810 yards and is completing over 70% of his passes. Kyle Pitts is building a worthy campaign of his own. Pitts has 29 catches and 11 of them for touchdowns and is the best tight end in the country. Trask plays the position the Heisman usually goes to but it is easy to argue Pitts is one of the best players in the nation...Trying to explain what has happened at FSU and testing and games being canceled is not worth the time. It's bizarre that it has happened multiple times at FSU and when the league says "you're not playing next week because we need Duke to play Miami since the Canes are still in the ACC race" sums up the 2020 season for the Seminoles...Watching talking heads on TV justify Ohio State still being considered for a playoff spot while playing so few games proves the bias to brands. The Buckeyes are among the most talented teams in the country, but when other teams will have played 10, 11 or 12 games as opposed to the 6 or 7 Ohio State may play should be a factor when picking the four teams for the made-for-tv invitational...If Jim Harbaugh is considered a favorite for the Lions' coaching vacancy, has anyone watched Michigan play that thinks he is a favorite? Maybe Harbaugh is bored and a return to the NFL is what he needs, but maybe he is burnt out and the message just isn't working...It's happening at Texas. With many thinking the Longhorns will move on from Tom Herman, Urban Meyer rumors are bubbling. From Meyer to Bob Stoops to Jon Gruden before he went back to the NFL- nothing is more fun watching the media and fans of a certain team believe their job is one everyone wants only to find out the real value of the position...
Final thought: Wendy's founder Dave Thomas was one of the most successful franchisees at KFC before selling his stores back to Colonel Sanders and using the money to start his burger chain.
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