Izzo urges students to evacuate

Tom Izzo is one authority figure Michigan State students will listen to.

Some of them, at least.

The Spartans basketball coach went over to the student section during a delay before Saturday's football game against South Florida and urged fans to leave the area because bad weather was on the way. A message was posted on the scoreboard, and the seating bowl was almost empty except for a student section that was about half full.

Izzo said on a microphone that it wasn't safe to stay.

"I'm going to ask you for respect for of our university, myself and you guys," Izzo told the crowd, according to Mlive.com. "If you can just walk out and abide by it, I promise I'm going to come back and sit right in the middle of you when this game starts, all right?

Michigan State's season opener last week was also delayed by bad weather.

Some fans remained near the field even after Izzo's speech - but a downpour about 10 minutes later helped clear the place out.