Will Hurricane Helene weather affect Clemson football game? What we know

Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall on Thursday night on the northwest coast of Florida and impact a large portion of the southeastern United States.

Will that affect Saturday’s Clemson football home game against Stanford?

As of now, the answer’s no.

A Tigers athletic department spokesman told The State on Thursday that while university officials are actively monitoring the weather and have contingency plans in place, there are no major changes expected as of now for Saturday night’s game.

The Tigers and Cardinal are set to kick off at 7 p.m. from Memorial Stadium, and there are “no changes” to football operations at this time, according to a spokesman.

Clemson’s main campus is expected to receive 8 to 10 inches of rainfall and wind gusts of 35-50 mph stemming from Hurricane Helene starting on Thursday night, per a university news release, and there’s also potential for flash flooding and tornadoes.

The City of Clemson was already under a “special weather statement” for the possibilities of winds up to 50 mph and pea-sized hail late Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service’s Greenville-Spartanburg outpost, as well as a flash flood warning Thursday morning.

But based on current information from the Clemson University Office of Emergency Management, as well as the university’s Emergency Operations Center, a spokesman said the school isn’t anticipating any major changes to Saturday. Any changes, if they happen, will be communicated directly via email to people who purchased tickets and posted on Clemson’s athletics website and social media pages.

The current Weather.com forecast for Saturday night in Clemson is: “Cloudy with occasional showers late at night. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.”

A later kickoff time (7 p.m.) may actually end up helping Clemson, as it could give the university more time to make sure Memorial Stadium and surrounding areas are as dry as possible. Clemson’s field – which was painted for Saturday’s game earlier than usual this week since it’s hard to paint a wet field – was draining and holding up well Thursday morning after taking steady rain overnight Wednesday.

Based on how much rain Clemson gets overnight Thursday and/or Friday, the university could make a few small adjustments such as delaying what time the tailgate parking lots (which generally open at 8 a.m.) by a few hours ahead of Saturday’s night game. A large portion of those lots are grass – not pavement.

Tigers football coach Dabo Swinney said Wednesday night that the weather hadn’t changed “anything” for his team yet outside of a small change to Clemson’s Wednesday practice schedule. The Tigers started practicing outdoors but had to finish in their covered indoor facility because of rain.

Swinney said Clemson’s contingency plans have mainly focused on things happening before Saturday, such as the football facilities losing power at some point this week or the local team hotel the team will stay at Friday night losing power.

“We have a lot of contingency plans, but we anticipate it being clear and a nice game day,” Swinney said in a post-practice Zoom interview, adding that “we’ve gotta have a plan just in case. (Director of football administration) Mike Dooley does an amazing job making sure that no matter what happens, we’ll be ready.”

Stanford coach Troy Taylor – whose team was scheduled to fly from California into South Carolina’s Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport on Thursday with a nighttime arrival – said Tuesday that he also felt OK about the forecast.

“I think the weather, they think, is going to be mostly on Friday, but you know how that goes,” Taylor said. “We have a plan to be able to keep the ball dry – lots of towels and the right gloves and all those things. I heard the field is incredible, that it drains really well, and so I know it’ll be in great condition and we’ll be ready to play.”

The inclement weather has already prompted Clemson to push Tigerama – its annual homecoming celebration and rally – from this Friday to Friday Oct. 18, the night before Clemson football’s next home game against Virginia.

The weather could impact Stanford’s practice plans, though. As of earlier this week, the Cardinal were planning to practice Friday at a local Upstate SC high school (presumably outdoors) ahead of their first ever game in Death Valley on Saturday.