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Well good morning.

Welcome to Game Knows.

It's time for week six.

I'm Victor Holland.

It's great to have you with us here on LP.

We have four of our schools throughout the state on the by week.

So a little extra R&R for them, but everybody else is in action.

Several storylines to talk about the Tigers waking up in Blue glass country, the Tulane Green Wave coming off a by weapon, the state of New York.

We'll get you ready for those games and more, but let's start the program.

With the big game being played tonight up in Ruston between two former rivals who are now rivals once again.

Tonight in Ruston, for the first time in school history, Louisiana Tech will play Sun Belt Conference football.

The Bulldogs are former members of the SBC, but that was before the conference recognized.

Football.

Tonight, they walk on the raging Cajuns from Lafayette to town.

Now, these two used to be conference opponents back when they were both in the Big West Conference last week.

Coming off of their by, the Bulldogs earned an impressive victory over Army, and the defense led the way.

They held the Black Knights to 85 yards below their season rushing average, and the offense produced when needed to get the win.

Now, they'll look to stop one of the top rushers in the Sun Belt Conference this year in lunch.

Winnfield a player head coach Sonny Cumbie is very familiar with.

I think if you have to ask him, if I remember correctly, there was probably one, I think school that offered him a scholarship and that was us.

And and we were we were able to see him, you know, and see that his stature was his advantage.

You know, where people think about that's what I like about our guys and our team is is from a stature or, you know, this size or this whatever.

Like we see those things as an advantage in people and in our players.

And so how do we play to those advantages in our personnel.

And certainly he understands that he plays with great leverage.

You know, he unlocks his hips, block destruction and anticipation of what's coming next.

He's very, very savvy.

It's no picnic trying to control Winfield, who has really settled in as quarterback of the Cajuns, as QB.

He's the conference number one touchdown score on the ground and the number three rusher overall.

And while his passing numbers are average when he does pass, his completion percentage leads everybody in the Sun Belt.

We'll talk Cajuns later, but for more insight on the Bulldogs, I spoke to a man who covers them very closely, Cano sports director Aaron Dietrich from up in Monroe.

Yeah, it is really energized, this fan base.

In fact, you look at the start of the season that they had, you know, everybody expecting to beat Northwestern State and they did handily.

And then the game down at LSU I think raised a lot of eyebrows just defensively how well they played.

And then of course LSU prevailed in the second half.

Went to Baylor.

Lost a tough one there.

Did show some signs.

So I thought the major test was going to be last week versus Army.

You know one of the leading rushing teams in the country, if not the top rushing team in the country.

And what they do, they go out and they want a hard fought game by two points.

That was a massive win for Louisiana Tech.

We had Sonny Cumbie on our show and he talked about the fact, you know, he's had some big regular season wins as the head coach of the Bulldogs.

I think that was one of the biggest ones, just in terms of changing the narrative now going into this game versus the Cajuns with Ulm on the horizon, they're sitting right now at two and two.

A lot of people looked at this season thought maybe at this point they would be one and three.

That two and two is a lot different than one and three right now.

And to kind of tail off of what you said, let's remind people that last year when they played in Baton Rouge, and I know it was a different head coach and a different regime, they played them very tough in Baton Rouge a year ago.

I think a lot of people were thinking blowout because the Lane Kiffin in the wild offense.

But to your point, for two and a half quarters, that defense which by the way down in Baton Rouge they talked all week that this is a unique defense.

Sort of like Army's offense right.

You don't see it a lot.

You have to give extra attention to it.

I think to your point, you're right.

People saw them with zero yards trailing by three at the half and into the third quarter.

Still competitive.

If there's a way to have a statement loss, that might have been one of them for Louisiana Tech for sure.

And then they come off that and go to Waco and they held their own against the bears, you know, and they were down without their starting quarterback, Blake Baker, who was injured in that game versus LSU.

They went and Trey Kuku he looked all right last week against Army.

He goes down.

So now Blake Baker is going to get the start versus the Cajuns the original starter at the beginning of the year.

But this team of Luke Olson that's where they hang their hat is on the defensive side of the ball.

And I think they're going to have an opportunity to give the Cajuns plenty of fits on that side of the ball.

In terms of the big picture of this conference, I think they like where they sit.

They win at home versus the Cajuns.

They're going to be a I would say probably a a touch touchdown two touchdown favorite versus Ulm.

Next week.

They have an opportunity to start two and zero to start conference play.

Well they're set for a 630 kick tonight at the A. And it should be a fantastic crowd.

With the renewal of this rivalry separated by 2.5 hours.

The Bulldogs, by the way, have won eight straight in this series.

If you don't have a ticket, you can watch all of the action on ESPN plus.

Well, for the second time this season, the 10th ranked LSU Tigers are on the road.

They're in bluegrass country set to take on number 25 Kentucky tonight.

It's just the third trip to Kentucky since 2002.

A lot of eyes will be on LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt, who's been dealing with a minor hamstring injury and a lot of focus on his play has been his willingness to leave the pocket early and just run, something he says he's been working on and can see the improvements he's made himself.

I've always seen the game really well.

I definitely think it's like a different perspective that I have now than I had week three.

Just the way of like, I don't even know how to explain it.

It's kind of just a feeling of the pocket and a feeling of how the flow of the game is and, understanding of when you got to take off and run and check downs and things like that.

So, like I said, it's just a progression week to week.

And I'm really happy that it happened for me like it did.

So I can, you know, really learn and grow and use it to my advantage, like I said.

But yeah, I think, you know, I got to just play quarterback first and playmaker second.

Use my legs when you know it has to happen rather than forcing it.

And I think that's when it can be even more lethal.

Well, here's a little.

Did you know for you prior to kick off tonight, LSU was the only school in the SEC to rank in the top five for rushing and passing offense and rushing and passing defense.

That's why overall, the Tigers have the number one ranked overall offensive unit and defensive unit.

Those rankings will be tested by the Wildcats tonight in Lexington.

630 is the kick at Kroger Field, and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

Well, Division two and Naia, those are the homes of the two teams southern football has beaten this season.

The struggles have been real on the bluff for first year head coach Marshall Faulk to find some consistency in performance from his team from last week, the Jags were up ten seven over Arkansas Pine Bluff and that was the first quarter.

Then they lost the last three quarters 34 to nothing on homecoming.

Faulk this week was asked if he needs to change how his team prepares and practices during the week.

Here's the reality.

And I you know, I'll say this again if if I felt like our approach was wrong, then, you know, I would I would literally I go out there, we're just we're making mistakes.

We're doing a lot of things.

We're we're still involved and beating ourselves.

And if you don't get out of your own way to opponent, you become an easy target for the opponent.

And that's that's what we what we've done.

And that's that's it.

Either we don't start well or we start well and we, we cool down.

We just haven't been able to put it all together and play consistent football.

And and I'm not trying to play a perfect game.

You know, I'm not saying I want them to play a perfect game.

I understand you have an opponent.

They're going to win some time.

But for the most part, we just have to not do the self-inflicted things to where we heard ourselves.

I keep saying this in the game of football, there's adversity and you have to meet the adversity and fight your way out of it.

And it's going to be like, until we do that, we're there's the games going on.

We're doing good stuff.

They're doing good stuff.

We do something bad, they do something bad.

They do some good.

We're still doing bad things.

We're not like we haven't been able to to overcome the self-inflicted wounds.

And it's not.

I'm just telling you, it's not like the other team is doing things to us.

It's we're we're making the mistakes ourselves.

Like, other than the Houston game, no one's just flat out dominated us to where, you know, we were outmatched.

We we had a chance.

You know, it's just we're not able to overcome the adversity yet.

Well the Jags will try to crack the win column in Swac play this afternoon when they face Prairie View on the road.

It's been almost 18 years since southern lost that purview.

So maybe some of that luck continue.

Now Jags fans take note.

There are changes for this afternoon's game.

It was originally scheduled at 2:00.

It's now a 3:00 kick instead.

And the broadcast can now be seen on the HBCU go app.

We excited we will take the win because it's hard to win in football general.

It's hard to win.

And when you have a team like all corners who is hot on offense, come in here.

It's probably going to have to be a shootout to win.

But these kids was down 17 in a never quit and I appreciate that for them.

Well that was Grambling head coach Mickey Joseph this week talking about his team's come from behind win over Alcorn, a game that combined had over 120 points scored and 1200 yards of offense.

So basically zero defense.

I don't know if it'll be another shootout today against Jackson State, but this should be quite the Tiger tangle.

Jay state comes to Grambling undefeated and is one of the top teams in the country.

But their head coach, T.C.

Taylor, knows today's game is anything but a walk in the park.

But where did you.

Well, you know, there's a lot of pride over there.

And that program coach Joseph got him playing well.

He's done a great job of recruiting.

Just been watching some of their defensive personnel just right now.

You know, they really fly around and they strike.

People get 11 hats to the ball.

The things you preach.

You know, I hadn't really had a chance to watch a lot of their offensive schemes yet and get with my defensive staff on that.

But they almost scored 70 points this past weekend.

So, you know, we got our work cut out for us again to think about.

Gremlin.

They defend their home turf.

Well you know they do a great job of that.

They just took care of one Mississippi school and here comes another.

And they're looking forward to it.

And let's be honest, they had our number the last couple of years.

They found ways to, you know, really, kick our books on the football field.

So, you just got to try to get in here, watch a little tape, you know, get a good plan together, and hopefully they don't get 70 close to 70 points this week.

But I know our defense, our players, you know, we're feeling good as a football team.

You know we feel like we're right where we want to be five zero as a football team.

So you know we're up for the challenge and going up against that high powered offense.

Remember, these two teams last year played a thriller out in Las Vegas, a game Grambling won in the final moments.

In fact, as consistent and successful as Jackson State has been over these last few years, they've also consistently struggled against the black, red and gold.

It should be an electric atmosphere this afternoon inside of Eddie Robinson Stadium.

Kickoff is 4:00 and you can catch the action on Swac TV.

Back to our big focus game where a win tonight in Ruston over the Bulldogs from Louisiana Tech would put the Raging Cajuns in a tie for first place in the Western Division of the Sun Belt Conference last week.

The Cajuns had to gut it out for a 23 to 20 win over Arkansas State.

While the defense has been what the Cajuns have been hanging their hat on, it was the offense that stepped up in crunch time one week ago to seal that victory, something head coach Michael Decimal has no problem with.

Told our team this, told our defense.

This in particular, you know, we played with we played really physical and we played with great effort and we played with intensity.

And you know, you still find ways to win when you get into games like that whenever you play that way.

So you know, overall could possibly be the best thing for our team to win a game like that.

You know, where the offense had to shoulder a little bit of the load, you know, down the stretch and had to make some plays to win, which was really good.

And our defense mean hell.

I mean they they got to stop, you know, right there in the fourth quarter and had them punt the ball back to us, you know, to give us a chance to win the game.

So there's a lot of good things in there.

You know, certainly things that, you know, I think if we do a little bit better, you know, the score maybe indicates a little bit more what the game maybe felt like or you wanted it to be.

But, you know, at the end of the day, good teams find ways to win.

And, you know, that's where.

So we want to be when it's all said and done, it's a good team.

So we got to keep finding ways to win close ones.

You know in the Western Division that is not going to be the last close one.

You know, and whenever you play Arkansas State pretty much every week, it is a close one.

I expect this one probably be the same this week, to be honest with you.

But with their win first day night, the Jaguars from South Alabama are the leaders in the clubhouse for the Sun Belt Western Division, and you can see just how important a win tonight would be for both the Cajuns and the Bulldogs earlier on.

Game notes.

We talked to Aaron Dietrich about the Bulldogs.

So let's do a bit of a deeper dive on the Cajuns.

And to do that, earlier this week, I talked to their TV play by play voice and a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Dan McDonnell.

And we started with the feelings around Lafayette having Louisiana Tech joining the Sun Belt, first time since 1995, Louisiana and Louisiana Tech have met as conference rivals, if you will.

That's when they were both in the Big West.

Has there been a level of excitement in Lafayette to get back up there and welcome Louisiana Tech into the conference?

I know in Ruston, obviously there's been a big countdown.

They are thrilled to be back in the Sun Belt Conference.

What's been the mood there in Lafayette with the game only being about two hours away?

The rival now back for year after year and getting ready to face the Bulldogs this weekend.

Well, I, I sort of put them in two groups.

You know, when it was started, the rumors started that the tech was coming, you know, into the Sun Belt and so forth.

There's this one group over here that's, you know, athletic supporters.

They're thrilled because they know, you know, what that can mean right here in the state, what it can mean for reivers and so forth.

There's this other group that is already irate.

You know, they they said, oh, we hate those guys.

You know, and and you know, you get both of those two and it creates a lot of excitement.

I know people are talking about it.

People are talking about playing with genetic again.

I mean, I had somebody yesterday that was excited because these same two schools are playing this weekend, Friday and Saturday here in Lafayette.

They're playing volleyball.

They haven't played volleyball against each other for 20 years.

And these people are excited.

So we're going to go to the volleyball match Friday night.

It's just, you know, anytime in-state rivalries are like the best anyway.

And then when you can, when you can link and in state rivalry and have them back in the conference.

You know, it doesn't get any better.

I, I'm hoping that this can last for a long, long time.

Because I think this can be special as you've been prepping or you're expecting to see basically a defensive lockdown type of ball game.

Well, I really do.

Because they've got this, you know, and I, I know Army does it and a few others because it's almost like a three, three, three or you got these, the three interior linemen, you've got the three linebackers and you've got basically a three deep safety with one.

On being a rover with the two corners out there.

It's it's a coach.

Put it well in his Monday press conference.

It's very simple but it's also very difficult to try to work against a it's a and plus they've got guys that run to the football.

This is probably you know in my in my look this is easily the best defensive team that the Cajuns will have faced so far.

And I'm including USC in that group because I mean the Cajuns were able to really move it up and down the field pretty good against USC.

I think it's going to put a lot of pressure.

We've talked about lunch, Winfield.

It's going to put a lot of pressure on him.

He's going to have to make good throws.

He's going to have to make quick throws because they do bring a lot of pressure.

When they want to pressure, it's going to be you know, I think it's interesting.

Will they be able to run the football, you know, against this kind of defense.

And it puts a huge amount of pressure on the offensive line.

And that's an offensive line that has been pretty solid.

But they also are a man down Matt Broussard hurt.

And it's going to be out for an indeterminate time.

So they're going to have to, you know, those guys are going to have to step up and play really well.

You know, it's you know, yeah, it's it's going to be a physical game either way.

Whatever happens, you know, it's going to be physical.

You know, these guys are going to be fired up to play each other.

And, you know, especially coming from the side of the Bulldogs, you know, this is going to be their first ever Sun Belt football game.

I'm sure there's going to be a this the stands going to be packed.

It's going to be motivated.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

Well, last week we had the chance to visit with southeastern head coach Frank salvo, who told us they would be deep diving into the roster during their bye week last week, said it gave him in his staff time to evaluate players that they might need to call on as they head into the heart of the Southland Conference schedule.

Whether the by came at a good time or not remains to be seen.

The Lions were hitting on many cylinders with consecutive wins over North Alabama.

You all Monroe and Northwestern State.

Well, tonight it's time to get back to work.

And for the first time, the Lions are in Edinburg, Texas, getting set to face the from Texas Rio Grande Valley.

This week's couple was asked if he thinks that with the current three game win streak, his team is living up to expectations.

Expectations is to continue to get better, and I think we've done that.

I think we've we've gotten better in all three phases.

We've got more production in all three phases.

There's some things that we got improve on, obviously, and there's some players that's got to get better, but I think we've gotten better, so I don't know.

I don't set a goal for week five or the open date to be at this point.

It's just a we see an improvement and we're seeing it.

We're seeing a upward trajectory right now.

Well, an interesting note here when it comes to Texas, Rio Grande Valley.

Since kicking off football in the South Conference and stepping up to Division One last season, they're undefeated at home.

Said he personally was looking forward to the road trip to experience game day there, where they expect another sellout crowd of around 14,000 tonight.

Should be a firm on the watch.

They're going to kick it off at 7:00 from West Texas and you can see it all on ESPN plus.

While the Tulane Green Wave joined southeastern last week as the second Louisiana school on a bye week.

Last time out, they won the battle for the bell against Southern Miss at Stadium 2421 through two wins in four games.

There have been a lot of things for first year coach with a Will Hall to be proud of.

But his message even after wins, has been we have a lot to clean up.

So was he happy to have the by week hit when it did in the first week of October?

Here's how the Green Wave head coach answered that question.

Yeah, for me, I don't really.

Things that I can't control.

I don't get caught up in liking them or disliking them.

For the most part.

I just kind of like, man, I play the hand I'm dealt.

I try to play it with a great attitude and make the most of it.

But vantage of when our bye week feel as it is, right smack dab in the middle of our season.

We had five weeks of fall camp, then four games.

That's nine weeks.

Now we've got a bye week.

In eight games left, that's nine weeks, so it's right in the middle.

I think that's kind of neat.

It is right before conference play and separates, and it's right before we play an option team.

I think those are advantages.

Late in the year.

Sometimes you'd prefer to have it later in the year when you are a little more not fresh.

But, man, we play the hand with that.

We had it this week.

We'll take it.

We tried to use it to the to the maximum of advantage it would give us at the time.

I do think we've improved since the last time we played.

And I'm looking forward to showing that.

Well, the wave are two and two on the season with the alternating schedule of road game, home game, road game, home game.

That pattern has led to loss, win, loss, win and has.

We've heard head coach Hall say on more than one occasion, the road efforts by the Green Wave have been tough to watch.

Well, that's why they are today on the road in West Point, New York, to take on the Black Knights from Army.

As we talked about earlier, Army has one of the most unique offenses a team ever has to prepare for.

And the way they execute it is one of the many reasons, Hall says he has so much respect for the Knights.

I got the utmost respect for Coach Monk and have been friends with him for some time.

The way he runs his program, the way his guys play, they play so hard.

Everybody talks about that, but like they really do.

It's not just a cliche like, man, even when they make a mistake, they make a mistake correctly to force it back into their help.

And they play great on special teams.

And it's a tremendous challenge for us.

You know, we're at a point where we're going into conference play and we know we've got to play better.

We've not played our best yet.

That's a negative but also a positive that our best is still out there.

You should get better as the season goes on.

It's why you practice.

We feel like we're a much better football team right now.

And last time we talked to you.

We had a great week this week and we're looking forward to getting up there and playing in a big time atmosphere at a great venue.

I think our players are the type players that that want to be tough, that want to play tough and enjoy tough games and that also understand what it takes to win this game.

I don't think our guys are prima donnas or anything like that that don't want to play against this kind of football.

I think.

I think they enjoy this, so I think it'll be two of the toughest teams in the country playing each other Saturday.

And you know, I hope, I hope to see our guys play at their best.

Paul said he liked the way his team worked through the bye week last week.

And now they'll face that so difficult option offensive army.

And of course that's a team angry from the loss in Ruston that Louisiana Tech last week for Tulane to win.

They're going to need to have the ball.

Army leads the conference and is fourth in the nation for time of possession just under 35 minutes.

So you know that will be a point of emphasis.

By the way, this is the conference opener for the Green Wave, who since 2022, in conference play are 29 and three.

That's a conference winning percentage, second only to Georgia in the nation.

These two teams are already on the field warming up.

Why?

It's an 11 a.m.

kick.

So go grab a late breakfast and enjoy the game on the CBS Sports Network.

Offensively, I think we're getting better every week, I really do.

It's it's the third downs that that I think were self-inflicted that that we had and we didn't execute.

Oh that that were frustrating.

But I think the belief and the confidence and the want to in the attitude and the mentality of offense is there and and it's it's player driven and but the thing man if we can just eliminate you know that one turnover then that was tough.

Down seven to nothing.

And Aiden's about to throw it and gets hit from behind.

And it goes right to their defender.

And now it's 14 to nothing.

But then I like how we answered 14 to 7.

But our execution on third down has got to get better.

You know offensively.

And I think then we extend our drives.

But I do think that offensively we have not played our best game.

I think our confidence is growing.

I think that we are getting better, week to week in a new offense.

And I think that Aiden, you know, you take away two passes.

And I think overall he played he played a good game.

That of course, is Ulm head coach Brian Vincent, who has seen improvement in his team this season, just not enough yet to capture that first win of the campaign.

This week, he and his staff have to be looking for answers.

Maybe not so much for how to win a game, but how to convert, which will help them win a game.

Just take a look at the numbers on the screen when it comes to conversions, giving up the most first downs and third down conversions to opponents while getting the least third down conversions for themselves on one side of the ball.

They can't stay on the field and then they can't get off the field on the other side of the ball.

It's been a consistent message for Vincent all season long, whose team needed to hit the reset button, and the schedule makers agreed.

Really proud of our kids fight and their effort.

It's just our you know when you when you've you've got one takeaway on defense and that was interception against you AB when you don't have you got one takeaway and you're not getting off the field on third down or fourth down.

Then you know you're you're giving up scores and we've got to be able to match scores offensively.

And when we don't make plays that are there, you know then you get behind.

And it seems like these last I don't know several weeks or really the whole season that we've been playing from behind the whole time.

And I'd like to get it where our kids are ahead, you know, and trying to stay ahead.

But obviously, you know, it's tough.

It's not really going to get any easier.

Everybody in this league is good.

We the open week came at the right time.

We are a beat up football team just like everybody else is in this league.

So it's a good time to to really clean up, you know, the things that we've got to clean up and get our guys refreshed mentally and physically heading into the seven game stretch.

And that's seven game stretch will kick off next weekend when Louisiana Tech, one week after hosting Louisiana, will make the short trip over to Monroe and play the War Hawks at their home stadium.

And there you see the rest of the way Troy at the top of the Western Division.

Another big matchup with Southern Miss.

So hopefully the Warhawks can find themselves with more improvement on this by week before they hit that tough, tough stretch with six of the seven games.

All come from the Western Division, and we will be back here on Monday to wrap it all up for you on postgame Notes.

But until then, it's time to go enjoy some football.

Thanks for joining us here on Game Notes on LP, I'm Victor Hall.

We'll see you Monday night for Game Postgame Notes.

Until then, enjoy your weekend.

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