The vacation airline crunch put some Pitt football players in a pinch earlier than Joe Golding provided them a journey to El Paso on Christmas.
Jake Frantl, Samuel Okunlola and Hudson Primus have been all touring by way of Dallas to El Paso on Sunday en route to the Sun Bowl after spending time with their households. Like so many other holiday travelers, they discovered their plans disrupted when their flights obtained canceled on Sunday, leaving them stranded in Dallas searching for a plan.
Golding had one. The UTEP males’s basketball coach was additionally making his method from Dallas to El Paso along with his household and likewise discovered his flight canceled. He secured a rental automobile settlement earlier than provide ran out. Then he noticed the stranded Pitt players.
“I see these three guys, and they have Pitt bags on, and they start talking about playing in the Sun Bowl and having to get to El Paso and there wasn’t any cars left,” Golding advised KTSM’s Colin Deaver on Monday. “And I was like ‘hey, if we can find a big enough car, I’ll take you guys home.’ They were like ‘who are you?'”
Golding mentioned that he advised the fellows he was a coach at UTEP, and so they piled into an SUV alongside Golding’s spouse Amanda and youngsters Cason and Chase for an in a single day journey to El Paso.
“Out here in West Texas, that’s what we do,” Golding continued. “I didn’t even really think twice about it. I would hope somebody would do that for Cason and Chase one time if they were stranded somewhere on Christmas night and needed a ride home.”
Golding’s interview confirmed a narrative from Pitt football coach Pat Narduzzi, who spoke about his players’ ordeal and Golding’s hospitality earlier Saturday.
“Yesterday afternoon, we had a couple of guys get delayed on flights, they got stuck in Dallas,” Narduzzi mentioned. “Joe Golding, the basketball coach for … University of Texas-El Paso, him and his wife and child picked up and took our three guys and drove them because the flight was delayed to get them here for practice.
“They obtained right here late final evening, and I simply wished to give a shoutout to these guys. Just goes again to the hospitality. Great job by Joe and we respect it.”
Golding initially responded to Narduzzi’s interview with a tweet praising the Pitt football players he got to know on the nine-plus hour drive.
“My household and I have been blessed to give a journey to Samuel, Jake, and Hudson,” Golding wrote. “They have been terrific younger males that represented Pitt football in a firstclass method. I educated them on West Texas, they educated me on Pitt football and Stack’d burgers! I’m a Pitt football fan now!”
Frantl, a redshirt freshman quarterback, expressed his appreciation on Twitter.
And now that they’re in El Paso, Frantl, Okunlola and Primus can shift their focus to No. 18 UCLA, which awaits them at the Sun Bowl on Friday.
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