The Arizona State at UCF game was moved to a 5:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Saturday after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted its nationwide ground stop late Friday night, forcing a same-day travel scramble for the Sun Devils.
The game had been scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET before the disruption. By Friday at 3:54 p.m. ET, the FAA had grounded all domestic departures, and Arizona State was stuck on a plane for two hours while waiting to leave for Orlando, Fla.
A travel delay that changed the schedule
Kenny Dillingham said Arizona State has often flown out on Fridays when playing games two time zones away, but this situation was different. The Sun Devils were left waiting on the tarmac during an FAA ground stop that affected their trip roughly 1,900 miles to Florida.
Once the team finally got moving, the broader logistical picture still looked messy. Arizona State returned to its facility Friday night, and some players were expected to be without access to their apartments. Joe Connolly said all of the luggage was still on the plane, with plenty of players missing their wallets and keys as the team tried to reset for Saturday.
Dillingham: keep the focus on football
Dillingham’s message was simple: don’t turn the delay into a bigger issue than it already was. He said you can’t predict a worldwide stoppage, called it something there was really nothing to do about, and stressed that if the team made a big deal of it, then it would become one.
He also pointed to his own coaching background, noting he has handled long bus rides before and telling his team, “let’s dance!” The point, he said, was to keep the situation in perspective and make it as little of a distraction as possible.
Connolly echoed that approach, saying it was more of a mindset issue than anything physical. Arizona State did not have much time to sort through the disruption, with Connolly noting the team barely had enough time to get its pregame meal down before the revised kickoff.
In the end, the schedule change turned a routine conference road trip into an overnight test of flexibility. The game will go on at 5:30 p.m. ET, but only after a travel plan was thrown off by the FAA ground stop and reset in real time.
