Rain remains in the forecast for Texas-USC

Fans attending the Texas-Tulsa Golden Hurricane game last weekend — the home opener at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium — managed to avoid any rain impacting the debut of Bevo Bvld. and Longhorn City Limits, but that luck likely won’t hold for Saturday’s big game against the USC Trojans.

Here’s the hour-by-hour forecast from the Weather Channel just before 1:00 p.m. Central:

Current projections have the strongest bands of rain moving northwest to the north and south of the Austin metro area, which is good news for fans hoping to head out early, but those fans heading out to the tailgates or pre-game activities around the stadium should bring a poncho and expect to see some rain at some point.

There could also be precipitation during the game, which could impact the passing game for both teams, as well as making it more difficult to tackle.

No matter how much rain falls before or during the game, the positive news is that FieldTurf has a drainage system underneath it that helps avoid the type of standing water and saturated field that impacted the game against Maryland. Following a rain delay of roughly 90 minutes, the natural grass at FedEx Field was extremely sloppy, which hardly helped the Texas passing game during the failed comeback.

Though traditionalists understandably prefer a natural surface, the FieldTurf should allow for better game play on Saturday in a worst-case scenario.