New kickoff time officially announced for Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii matchup

Saturday night’s highly anticipated season opener between the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors was officially delayed due to lightning in the area. FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee had to be evacuated before the game, due to lightning being in an eight-mile radius of the stadium. The game was originally slated to begin at 7:30 PM EST. Vanderbilt officially announced a new start time and the game will kickoff at 9:11 EST. They began allowing fans into the stadium around 8:09 PM EST.

At 7:47 PM EST, the Vandy athletics Twitter page told fans that once the stadium area was clear for lightning, that the game would begin in approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, with 50 minutes for both teams to warm up.

According to the Vanderbilt athletics Twitter page, per game management policy, when lightning is detected within eight miles of FirstBank Stadium, competition will be suspended. Competition may be resumed after 30 minutes of no detected lightning strikes within an eight-mile radius.

The Vanderbilt Twitter page also let fans know that the Star Walk would 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. The stadium capacity is currently 28,500 for the 2023 campaign, due to all of 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.