Florida State Fans Still Waiting As Alabama Kickoff Keeps Getting Pushed Back

The much-anticipated clash between Florida State and Alabama faces a prolonged delay as persistent lightning forces officials to repeatedly push back kickoff time.

The Florida State-Alabama showdown in Tuscaloosa has been stuck in a weather delay, with lightning in the area pushing back the Week 3 kickoff.

What was supposed to be a 3:30 p.m. ET start at Bryant-Denny Stadium got derailed as storms moved through the area. At the moment, there has been no official announcement on a new kickoff time, and every new lightning strike inside the eight-mile radius keeps resetting the 30-minute delay clock.

The first strike came around 3:10 p.m. ET, just as players from both teams were beginning to head out for warm-ups.

Since then, the teams have been sent back to the locker room while officials monitor the weather closely. Florida State had already dealt with a delay in Week 1 against SMU because of a power outage.

The updates kept coming as the delay stretched on. At 3:11 p.m.

ET, lightning was detected near Bryant-Denny Stadium, triggering another 30-minute wait and resetting the timer again. Another strike followed, and warm-ups were stopped once more.

By 3:31 p.m. ET, an additional strike had been detected for the fourth time, keeping the clock in effect in Tuscaloosa.

Then at 3:43 p.m. ET, another lightning strike inside the eight-mile radius forced yet another 30-minute delay, and warm-ups were paused again.

By 4:09 p.m. ET, there still had been no official kickoff update, though the storms had started to move out of the radius.

At 4:13 p.m. ET, there was finally movement toward getting back on the field.

Players and staff were set to return to begin working out ahead of the game at 4:35 p.m. ET, with the current projected kickoff time listed at 5:15 p.m.

ET, barring any more weather changes.

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