Georgia Tech offered to host Saturday's game against Central Florida, which canceled the game because of the effects of Hurricane Irma.
“I think our administration offered to play the game here, and I don’t think (UCF) had an interest in that,” coach Paul Johnson said Wednesday on the ACC’s weekly teleconference.
Tech and UCF had a home-and-home arranged, with the Yellow Jackets going to Orlando, Fla., on Saturday and the Knights coming to Atlanta in 2020. Johnson said his hope was that the schools could flip the order, but the interest wasn’t mutual.
UCF cited the state of Florida’s call for state universities to assist in hurricane preparation and recovery and the uncertainty of the team’s ability to reconvene for practice as reasons for cancellation. UCF agreed to host up to 1,000 National Guard members and 250 vehicles, and the area around the football stadium was to be used for staging recovery operations.
Tech will not seek to find another game as a replacement.
Johnson also said that, with the cancellation, the team is using this week’s practice doing fundamental work to clean up mistakes and also beginning preparations for the ACC opener against Pittsburgh on Sept. 23. Players will be off Friday, Saturday and Sunday before returning to practice Monday.
Johnson has shared concerns about his team's fatigue level after playing the season opener against Tennessee on Labor Day and then the second against Jacksonville State five days later.
“So hopefully we’ll have a fresh football team when we come back on Monday,” he said.
