Chance of rain at Tiger Stadium Saturday night?
Always. Sorry, Dan Borne’.
At least for this game between No. 14 LSU (6-2, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) and No. 11 Alabama (6-2, 3-2 SEC) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC. Tropical Storm Rafael may be a hurricane by Wednesday in the Gulf of Mexico and could hit Baton Rouge, according to the latest forecasts.
LSU WILL BE WITHOUT STUD OFFENSIVE GUARD FOR ALABAMA
Whether it is a tropical storm or hurricane by then or not, there is an 84 percent chance of rain in Tiger Stadium.
Yes, it is still hurricane season until Nov. 30, though temperatures are not hurricane friendly in the Gulf of Mexico this late in the seasons – hurricane and football.
“Rafael is expected to weaken once it reaches the Gulf thanks to a sharp increase in wind shear, dry air and slightly cooler waters,” National Hurricane Center specialist Larry Kelly said Monday afternoon.
Located more than 150 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica as of late Monday with 45 mph winds, Rafael is expected to to approach the Cayman Islands as a hurricane amid warmer waters on Tuesday and enter the Gulf on Wednesday, but then weaken.
“It is too soon to determine what, if any, impacts Rafael could bring to portions of the northern Gulf Coast (Louisiana),” Kelly said. “Residents in those areas should regularly monitor updates to the forecast.”
The other Kelly – LSU football coach Brian Kelly – was as aware of possibly approaching Rafael on Monday at his press conference as he was of definitely approaching Alabama dual-threat quarterback Jalen Milroe.
“Goodness, I mean there’s so many things to consider going into the Alabama game,” he said. “The one thing I didn’t have to think about, I thought, was another storm coming. But as we get closer to game time, probably tomorrow (Tuesday), we’ll probably have to look a little bit closer at the weather situation. But it’s definitely on the list now.”
THE LEGEND AND LIFE OF DUB JONES
Should Rafael or its edges produce a lot of rain, Tiger Stadium would be looking at its biggest rain event for an LSU-Alabama game since this same time of year in 1979 when a torrential rainstorm pelted Baton Rouge on Nov. 10. The rain held back No. 1 Alabama (8-0) as it struggled to a 3-0 win over the unranked Tigers (5-3) in front of 73,708 very wet spectators as seat cushions and whole clip-on chairback seats flew throughout the game.
The defending national champion Tide went on to win coach Bear Bryant’s sixth and final national championship at 12-0 with a 24-9 win over No. 6 Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. LSU finished 7-5 with a win over Wake Forest in the Tangerine Bowl in coach Charles McClendon’s last game.
This LSU-Alabama game is being called an elimination game for the 12-team College Football Playoff – rain or shine.
“Well, if this is an elimination game, every game in the SEC is an elimination game (with the teams) that have a loss or two losses that play each other is an elimination game,” Kelly said.
Milroe is No. 2 in the SEC and 13th nationally in quarterback efficiency at 162.9 on 137-of-203 passing for 1,937 yards and 13 touchdowns with six interceptions and has rushed 102 times for 380 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Kelly hopes to stop one of the two Tides, particularly, as he has been preparing his team to play better against a running quarterback than it did in its last game at Texas A&M.
“Certainly a football team that we’ll have to play our best against,” he said. “We’ll have to have better balance offensively. Defensively, stopping the quarterback is going to be paramount.”
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