South Carolina made the decision Wednesday to cancel Saturday’s home game against Marshall due to Hurricane Florence.

With Florence bearing down on the East Coast, a number of games have been either cancelled or rescheduled.

“Whether or not the game could have been played, we made the decision we think is best for the state and those who are evacuating the coast,” South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner said in a press release Wednesday. “There is no question this is the right thing to do and the decision was supported by President [Harris] Pastides, Coach [Will] Muschamp, our Board members and myself.”

With the Marshall game being a no-go, South Carolina’s attention turns to adding a potential game later in the season.

Following the announcement of the game being cancelled, Ray Tanner joined 107.5 The Game’s Heath Cline. The entire audio is below, but here are the important quotes from Tanner.

On the decision to cancel the game: “We’ve been meeting all week. The president has an emergency management team. The track of the storm has been so unpredictable and not really knowing what we’re going to deal with it. We saw it change and turn. Now it looks a little more consistent and the impact it’s going to have on the North Carolina coasts and South Carolina coasts. We were in meeting this afternoon and felt this was the right time to let everyone make the necessary arrangements. We were going to understand fully that resources from the state would be on the coast and would be where the areas are impacted; so,  a football game wasn’t at the top of the list.”

On adding another game later in the season: “We do have Dave Brown as a consultant to the Southeastern Conference who helps us with scheduling. Mark Womack in the SEC office. So, there’s people in involved. We’ll start pursuing that. Coach Muschamp obviously will be involved. The October 20 date is an open date for us, but it also puts us in a position to play 10 straight weekends. Would that be in your best interest? If we can make it to the championship game, you’re playing on December 1. If you’re not, is that a viable date? I think it’s way too early to start speculating what might happen. We’ll take a look and we’ll probably pursue playing that 12th game if possible.”

Any consideration to move the game to another venue? “There was a conversation at one point that we may have a viable opportunity to go somewhere, but the whole time that conversation occurred, we were somewhat optimistic that we might play here at home. That was overriding that It’s very difficult to move a game. I think you understand that logistically ticket-wise and travel-wise.”