Clemson will play with storm looming
Tigers move up kickoff to avoid weather issues
Second-ranked Clemson is the only major conference school in the Carolinas and Virginia that will play its scheduled football game this weekend as Hurricane Florence looms.
Several schools across the three states canceled, rescheduled or relocated games ahead of the storm, citing safety concerns.
Clemson officials say they are monitoring the storm’s path and believe there were no issues in playing Saturday’s game against Georgia Southern. Clemson has moved up the start time to noon EST from the original 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich did not respond to messages left by The Associated Press, but he did say Thursday on Sirius XM radio that fan and team safety is his top priority. He said the information Clemson has is the effects of Florence on the northwest corner of South Carolina (Clemson’s location) would not be impacted until late Saturday or early Sunday.
“Everybody would have ample time to get back to wherever their homestead is after the game,” Radakovich said.
They’ll have to do it with the help of fewer state troopers.
Capt. Kelley Hughes of the South Carolina Highway Patrol said instead of the typically 100 to 110 troopers who would help with traffic there will be just 16 on site Saturday.
The rest of the responsibility would fall to local and regional law enforcement entities like campus, county or city police near Clemson, Hughes said.
Radakovich said that’s happened before, most notably in 2015 when Clemson hosted Notre Dame in a drenching rainstorm that led to historic and fatal flooding in South Carolina.
“We’ve had a number of times where we wouldn’t have maybe the full complement of folks out on the highway helping people get in, but our fan base has been fantastic,” Radakovich said.
Other schools around the state did not take any chances with several other Top 25 teams canceling games, including: No. 13 Virginia Tech’s home game against East Carolina, No. 14 West Virginia’s trip to North Carolina State and No. 18 UCF’s game at North Carolina.
Virginia moved its Saturday home game against Ohio to Nashville, Tenn., and Boston College and Wake Forest moved their Thursday night matchup up several hours.
Clemson’s state rival South Carolina also canceled its contest with Marshall.
UTAH STATE 73, TENNESSEE TECH 12: In Logan, Utah, Jordan Love was 21 of 26 for 236 yards and two touchdowns — all in the first half — and Utah State beat Tennessee Tech on Thursday night.
Utah State (2-1) scored 60-plus points in back-to-back games for the first time in school history, beating New Mexico State 60-13 on Saturday.
Utah State led 45-6 at halftime by outgaining Tennessee Tech 424-133. Darwin Thompson’s 65-yard rushing touchdown and Jordan Nathan’s 59-yard punt return highlighted the first-half scoring. Nathan was the first Aggie to return a punt for a score since 2015.