Dark deluge spurs second-half slide in loss to LSU

For a few minutes to start the second half Saturday night, Tennessee and LSU played a football game in a washing machine.

In a 17-10 game coming out of halftime, a swirling rain inside of Neyland Stadium turned into a freezing dark monsoon, with lights going out and a dense deluge covering Shield-Watkins Field.

A mental sign fell off a scoreboard. Orange and white pompoms littered the rain-soaked turf.

And then the players took the field.

“That’s one for the record books I guess,” senior tight end Ethan Wolf said.

"Can’t say I ever played in something like that."

Despite the extreme conditions, SEC officials opted not to delay the game after meeting with both head coaches. Vols interim head coach Brady Hoke said he “couldn’t see the players on the field,” but “LSU had to play in the same stuff.”

“I said let’s play,” Hoke explained on his halftime meeting with officials, also comparing Saturday’s incliment weather to a game at Northwestern in 1998.

"I think our kids embraced it when they came out. I wish we could’ve gotten something going, obviously.”

Since the Vols deferred to start the game, they had the option receive or kick the football to start the second half. Hoke didn't think twice about the option and took the ball.

It did not go well.

Tennessee misplayed the opening kickoff, as the players were totally unable to locate the squibbed kick. Marquez Callaway, who muffed two punts earlier in the game, managed to dive on the loose football at the 3-yard line.

Wolf, who was on the kickoff return team, said he didn’t even notice that half the lights were out, but admitted the rain was so bad he had no idea where the ball.

“I saw it until I looked up and it seemed like someone was dumping a gallon of water in your face,” Wolf said chuckling.

“I could see it, kind of, I guess. We should’ve executed that better though.”

Tennessee’s inability to field the kickoff setup an already allergic offense just a sneeze away from its own goal line. After another 3-and-out, LSU took over at midfield and promptly scored a touchdown to go up by 13 points.

Roughly 15 minutes later, the skies cleared, the wind calmed down a bit and the rain stopped, but by then game was already effectively over.