Clemson at LSU in lightning delay: When will Week 1 matchup kick off in Baton Rouge?

Less than an hour before kickoff, Clemson's regular season opener at LSU went into a lightning delay. It is that time of the year where pop-up thunderstorms happen all around the Southeast. With it potentially being on the docket coming in, this was not the least bit surprising. Unfortunately, this will delay opening kickoff between Clemson and No. 11 LSU, which was supposed to be at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Fate would have it Lane Kiffin made a big deal about the weather coming in, citing that it could be an advantage for his team playing in hot and muggy conditions. Well, it gets mighty toasty this time of the year in Clemson as well. With this being the signature primetime game in college football on Saturday, we may potentially be looking at this game wrapping up well into the early hours of Sunday.

How do lightning delays work in college football?

Usually, teams are supposed to wait for at least 30 minutes after the final lightning strike in the area has been recorded before potentially resuming play, or commencing in the case of this game. Once another lightning strike is registered within an 8-to-10-mile radius of the stadium, then the 30-minute clock will restart again, continuing the delay even more. This happens in college football quite often.

Clemson at LSU lightning delay update: When will opening kickoff begin?

As for 6:38 p.m. ET/5:38 p.m. CT, the 90-minute countdown clock heading into kickoff has not moved. The rain is coming down hard and it might be a much later start for this game than we anticipated. All signs point to the worst part of this storm coming later. Thunderstorms are expected to continue into the 8:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. CT hour before they become mostly rain showers about an hour after that.

With conditions only worsening, we may be in for a long night. Try to stay dry if you did make the trek. If not, well, there are plenty of other exciting football games you can watch before this one does get underway. The midafternoon slate was riveting, so we can only hope the same vibes will apply to the primetime games, or even late-night kicks. We also have games being played on Sunday and Monday.

Clemson at LSU weather delay update: How much longer will it continue?

As the sun started to returning to the greater Baton Rouge area, ESPN's Chris Fowler shared over the telecast that we are probably looking a 90-to-two-hour delay to the start of this game. Because both teams will need the proper amount of time to get ready to play, we could be looking at a start time for this game somewhere in the 9:00 p.m. ET to 9:30 p.m. ET window. This awful rain might be over with!

We have some fantastic news! All signs point to the 90-minute clock to start at 8:10 p.m. ET/7:10 p.m. CT. Assuming there are no more delays, we are now looking at a 9:40 p.m. ET/8:40 p.m. CT start time!

We will keep you updated as we gather more information on when kickoff time will be for this game.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow