FirstBank Stadium evacuated due to lightning before Vanderbilt season opener

Lightning has been detected within an 8-mile radius of FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. That means the stadium has currently been evacuated ahead of Saturday night’s season opener between the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, according to the Vanderbilt Twitter page. Kickoff is currently set for 7:30 p.m EST.

Check out the post below from the Vanderbilt Twitter page.

Lightning has been detected within an 8-mile radius of FirstBank Stadium. The stadium has currently been evacuated.

We encourage fans to exercise safety and seek shelter. We will provide updates as they become available.

— Vanderbilt Athletics (@vucommodores) August 26, 2023

We’ll have to see if there are any more delays due to the weather. The Vanderbilt Twitter page has encouraged all fans to seek shelter. We’ll continue to monitor the Commodores’ Twitter page for more updates as they become available.

The Vandy Hustler–the school newspaper, is expecting the start of the game to be delayed. The original kickoff was slated for 7:30 PM EST. But no official updates yet on the start time. As of 6:48 PM EST, fans were not being allowed in the stadium due to the inclement weather.

The Vanderbilt Twitter page also let fans know that the Star Walk will not occur on Saturday night, due to the inclement weather.

Last season, Vanderbilt throttled Hawaii to the tune of a 63-10 beatdown. Commodores quarterback Mike Wright had exploded for 163 rushing yards on the ground, scoring two touchdowns. He also threw for 146 passing yards through the air, tossing two touchdowns. Vandy used a 35-point third quarter to put last year’s game away and silence the crowd in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Wright entered the transfer portal this offseason, packing his bags and moving onto Mississippi State.

The Commodores have been doing extensive renovations to FirstBank Stadium this offseason and they still have plenty of work left. FirstBank Stadium capacity is currently 28,500 for the 2023 campaign, due to the construction. The previous capacity was 40,350.

Vanderbilt had some impressive plays in the first half

Once play finally got underway on Saturday night, the Commodores had a number of spectacular plays. First, they had a spectacular 97-yard kick return for touchdown from wide receiver Jayden McGowan. Then, he also had an amazing catch down the right sideline in which he left his feet and stretched horizontally to bring it in.

Hawaii’s defensive line gave Vanderbilt plenty of problems in the first half. The Rainbow Warriors were getting plenty of defenders up the middle to bother Vandy quarterback A.J. Swann. Hawaii got some pretty accurate passing from Brayden Schager, who threw two touchdowns with one interception in the first half.