The South Carolina Gamecocks are going on the road to take on the No. 16 Florida Gators on Saturday. As numerous college football games brace for impact from Hurricane Isaias, Saturday's game between the Gamecocks and Gators is expected to have some rough weather.
Although Gainesville, Fla. isn't expected to see any direct impacts from the storm as it is expected to make landfall off the Florida panhandle on Saturday morning, there is lots of rain and maybe even some storms in the forecast.
Here's a look at the weather forecast for Saturday during the day, via the National Weather Service:
Showers and thunderstorms likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 3pm. High near 88. Heat index values as high as 101. Breezy, with a south wind 13 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
That means the grass field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is likely to be slick, as well as the football itself. There is also expected to be plenty of rain overnight on Friday as well, as the state of Florida will get some of the outer bands from Isaias. The NWS forecasts an 80% chance of rain on Friday evening. Luckily, the folks at Ben Hill will likely tarp off the field before the rain arrives.
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As for which team might benefit from the rain more, it likely would have been Florida before the Gators got pummeled by Missouri last week. The Tiger defense held Florida's run game to a season-low 42 yards on the ground. If Florida is unable to run the ball against South Carolina's defense, Gator quarterback Aaron Philo will likely be hesitant to air it out much with the rain.
Prior to last week's loss, Florida was averaging 260 yards on the ground per game. The Gamecocks' run defense has held up decently well so far this season, allowing just 100 yards on the ground per game. Gamecock defense coordinator Clayton White also alluded to learning from how Missouri was able to stop Florida offensively:
"The main thing I took from [the] Missouri tape was that they didn’t have an elaborate scheme," White said via Gamecock Central. They didn’t do anything that we run and they played with a high effort. Missouri did a great job of leveling their gaps and they played extremely hard. They only gave (Jadan) Baugh the ball 12 times because of the score, so that’s probably a good way they don’t hand them the ball. But they did an outstanding job."
Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said this week that the Gators planned to practice in the rain leading up to the game to prepare for the conditions.
Of course, hopefully it is just rain that the players have to play in. If there are in fact thunderstorms in the area, the game could be subjected to a delay.
Fingers crossed we don't see that come to pass.
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