USC at Purdue weather delay: When Week 3 game will resume

USC and Purdue were slated for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff inside Ross-Ade Stadium. Due to Mother Nature’s impact in West Lafayette, Indiana, the Big Ten showdown won’t be starting on time.

UPDATE: The game is expected to kick at 6:45 p.m. ET now. That comes via Keely Eure of USC.

“Due to inclement weather in the area today’s game won’t start at the original 3:40 PM ET kickoff,” Purdue announced via social media.

CBS sideline reporter Jenny Dell updated the latest just after 4 p.m. ET. It sounds like an even longer delay could be ahead.

“I just wanted to recap what we’ve been dealing with lately,” Dell said. “Of course, the rain started lightly with thunder and lightning at 2:30 p.m. It really started coming down just a few minutes ago at 4:15. I was told once we do get the clearance to go out onto the field, they’re gonna take about 17 minutes for these players to warm up before we go to kickoff. Talking to the guys in the Purdue locker room right now, they’ve got music playing. They said they’re not actually going to start stretching until we have a set time of when we’re going to kick off. The latest report when it comes to the weather, severe thunderstorm warning at 5 p.m. That’s issued. Storm may produce hail.”

Entering Saturday’s showdown, Purdue is 2-0. USC is as well. Something has to give between these two teams who both entered 2025 hoping for a better season than they experienced in 2024.

Thus far, it’s been Ryan Brown slinging the rock for the Boilermakers, accumulating 481 yards and four touchdowns. On the other hand, Jayden Maiava has been borderline perfect for the Trojans, passing for 707 yards and six touchdowns in 2025.

It’s both squads first Big Ten game of the season as well. Whichever one is victorious in West Lafayette will be set up nicely for the rest of September.

Joel Klatt points out USC as a team flying under the radar

Despite being 2-0 with nearly a 50-point average margin of victory, USC remains unranked so far this season. But, it’s the details in the numbers the Trojans posted so far, albeit against smaller schools, that Joel Klatt thinks suggest good things for the Trojans.

During his show earlier this week, Klatt named USC as one of the things in college football that no one is currently talking about. That’s despite the start at 2-0 as Southern Cal is almost not in the Top-30 of the AP Poll.

“Another team that no one’s talking about, that maybe we should be talking about? I’m going to go with USC,” Klatt said. “Nobody talking about USC. They’re sitting at 30th in the AP Poll, so not even really close to the Top-25. They would have to pass four other teams who are getting votes.

“First and foremost, no drama at USC and I think that that’s a big deal for Lincoln Riley over the first two games. Granted, lesser opponents. I understand that. But, again, let’s go back to the fact that some people are taking care of business against lesser opponents and some people aren’t. So, if we’re going to give credit where it’s due, they’ve taken care of lesser opponents.”

USC winning 73-13 over Missouri State and 59-20 over Georgia Southern isn’t going to put a spotlight on what it is doing to this point in Los Angeles. Still, they have the No. 1 scoring offense at 66 points per game and No. 1 offense in yardage at 676 yards overall in the country at the moment. We’ll see if they can keep it up when this game gets going.

— On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.