Helene forces App State-Liberty cancelation, hampers Broncos

Appalachian State has canceled its home football game scheduled for Saturday against Liberty due to damage caused by Tropical Depression Helene.

In a news release, the western North Carolina school said the storm has caused “severe impacts to App State, the town of Boone and surrounding areas.”

The game will not be rescheduled.

However, Liberty AD Ian McCaw told ESPN that, if possible, the program would like to add a 12th game this season to replace the game against App State. Liberty is currently 4-0 and would only be able to play 11 regular-season games if they aren’t able to find a 12th game, which could hurt their chances of securing a College Football Playoff bid.

Heavy rains in the North Carolina mountains brought flooding to Boone and the town was placed under a state of emergency Thursday.

The storm made landfall late Thursday in a sparsely populated region of Florida as a major hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph. But the damage extended hundreds of miles to the north.

Also in North Carolina, East Tennessee State was unable to finish its trip to Charleston, South Carolina, for its game against The Citadel, which was scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m., because of flash flooding.

Elsewhere, the Denver Broncos, who have spent the week at the Greenbriar Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., before Sunday’s game against the New York Jets in MetLife Stadium, were forced indoors for their practice Friday. The resort, which has two grass fields and one turf field outdoors, does not have an indoor football field.

So, the Broncos did their work on the resort’s indoor tennis courts.

“Everything went good … we got our work done,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said. ” … The change was made relative to the lightning forecast.”

“This is a first (for me),” Broncos linebacker Cody Barton said. “They’ve got some pickle ball courts down there too, but yeah, this is a first for me.”

“Maybe a basketball court, a ballroom, but this is a first time on a tennis court,” Broncos wide receiver Josh Reynolds said.

The Broncos have spent the week at the Greenbriar after their game last Sunday in Tampa. The team’s travel plans changed with the weather as well Friday as instead of traveling to New Jersey from the nearest airport, they bused to Roanoke, Va., for their chartered flight.

Also, the Nashville Predators postponed their home preseason NHL game against the Tampa Bay Lightning scheduled for Friday night because of severe weather. The game was rescheduled for Oct. 7.

ESPN’s Jeff Legwold and The Associated Press contributed to this report.