TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Rhett Lashlee knew his cue to lead his team onto the field. Florida State would go first, and with 3:30 left on the countdown to kickoff, SMU would make its entrance.Then, with 4:40 until kickoff, the countdown clock stopped. Lashlee, SMU’s coach, looked around. No one seemed certain what would happen next. Stadium personnel quickly ad-libbed: Once FSU ran onto the Doak Campbell Stadium field, SMU would go 30 seconds later.The reason became clear to Lashlee — and everyone else — within a few minutes of being on the field. Just before 7:30 p.m. ET, when Florida State and SMU were scheduled to kick off in the final game of college football’s Week 1, Lashlee noticed the stadium lights weren’t on. With Monday’s sunset in Tallahassee approaching, this was a problem.What followed was a nearly two-hour delay as FSU officials frantically worked to identify a fix, an eventual “old school” start without much of the technology of a modern football game, and, shortly after midnight Tuesday morning, a 27-24 SMU win that sent the FSU fans who stayed in the stadium for more than five hours home unhappy.“This was clearly an unforeseen and very unusual set of circumstances,” said ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who attended the entirety of Monday night’s marathon. “From the outset, the safety of the student-athletes, coaches, officials, fans and everyone on site guided every decision.”Power outage delays Florida State-SMU game by two hoursDavid UbbenWhen both teams took the field before knowing the game would be delayed, the pregame festivities mostly continued, too. Florida State’s Chief Osceola rode Renegade onto the field for the team’s pregame ritual. But Osceola’s pregame spear immediately fell to the turf, and two stadium staffers rushed to lift it off the grass before it could set the field ablaze.Florida State didn’t need a second crisis.Even the coin toss went on as planned. But then it was obvious the game could not be played.A power outage on the west side of the stadium had knocked out the lights. Eventually, FSU said an electrical short in the main transformer caused a “power disruption to the west side tower.”Lashlee told SMU’s kickoff team to sit on the bench as confusion reigned.“I was just wondering what was going on,” receiver Yannick Smith said.Upstairs, ESPN staffers frantically searched for solutions. Commentators Dave Pasch and Dusty Dvoracek completed their opening to the broadcast, but it couldn’t be shown on camera because the booth’s lights weren’t working. Even once enough power was restored to play, most of the monitors in the booth weren’t functioning, leaving Pasch and Dvoracek to call the game without seeing the TV feed and without any aids of replay or additional angles. What they saw on the field and video board was all they had to relay to viewers.Initially, there was hope power could be restored within 10 to 15 minutes. The stadium’s video board and ribbons never lost power. The stadium’s concourse — which was renovated in 2025 — also had power, so concessions remained in service.