How possible hurricane Helene has impacted CU’s plans for UCF

Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes have had an interesting week with weather forecasts and it continued on Tuesday as the team is adjusting their travel plans for their Big 12 road opener against Central Florida.

Sanders spouted off last Tuesday about not caring much if it rained during the Buffaloes Week 4 game against Baylor. He went as far as to say that it ‘wasn’t going to rain-rain’ so CU had not practiced wet-weather drills. Supposedly the team changed gears and did practice some stuff in preparation for rain later in the week—and it paid off as the drizzle slowly turned into downpour Saturday night all the while the Buffaloes pulled off a fantastic comeback via Hail Mary.

A week later Sanders is getting way out in front of any possible weather and that means sending his team out early to his home state. Flordia is preparing for current Tropical Storm Helene to reach major hurricane status by Thursday morning. Landfall is possible that day anywhere from central Florida to the coast of Alabama. All of this information comes from the National Hurricane Center.

Colorado doesn’t play UCF until Saturday afternoon so the storm’s weather will be gone by kickoff but its impacts may still be felt in the area. And more importantly for the long-traveling Buffaloes, they don’t want to get caught out by the weather on their way across the country so they’re getting ahead of the storm to make sure they don’t get caught out behind it.

“Our players like simplicity, and I do too, so I don’t want to take a risk and a chance of we’re going to leave Thursday anyway, so the storm is supposed to hit Thursday,” Sanders said on Tuesday. “So we don’t want to take that chance and the storm hits Thursday. Now we can’t get there until Friday evening and now it’s a rush, so we’re trying to get ahead of the curve and be smart with it. Our guys like consistency, so being settled and having a consistent plan in place works in our favor. We’ve already secured practice facilities. We already think sent the truck on the road. We’re right where we want to be. We’re just going to make it consistently possible for our young men.”

A good chunk of Colorado’s roster comes from Florida or the coastal regions, meaning they’re used to big storms. But it will be nice for a lot of them to see their families.

While it seems both Orlando and the Buffaloes will dodge most of this storm, the UCF Knights are no slouches, with Colorado entering the week as two-touchdown underdogs.