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And away we go here on a Sunday.

Welcome to Postgame Notes here on LP.

I'm Victor Hall.

Great to have you with us.

As we recap a fairly light weekend of college football.

We had six of our state teams on a bye for this first weekend in October.

Two of the teams faced each other, so the other teams we were guaranteed at least one winner.

Everybody else came up a little short.

Tough weekend for Louisiana teams, but we're going to break it all down for you.

Plus, we'll hear from one of our hotter coaches up in North Louisiana, his team on a bye.

Let's take you to our rundown of what's coming up here on game notes for this Sunday night.

And we'll give you an idea of the rundown, starting with that match of the interstate matchup down in Lake Charles between McNeese and the Lions from southeastern.

We will also look at the Colonels, who had a close one against a ranked team in the Southland Conference on the road, went down to the final few minutes.

We'll show you the one big play that made a difference in this ballgame.

And yes, we will hear from head coach Sonny Cumbie from the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech on a buy.

But off to a great start this season up there in Ruston.

But let's start first with that interstate matchup over in Lake Charles.

Matt Theater back for a second stint at McNeese.

The Cowboys been riding a four game losing skid, have come close a couple of times, but haven't been able to get back into the win column.

They were looking to do that Saturday night at home at Navarre Stadium, when they welcomed the red hot lions from southeastern.

They dropped a tough one to LSU earlier in the season, but as of late have been playing really, really well and that two quarterback system has been dynamic for the Lions offense.

So nice crowd for this one on a Saturday night.

Beautiful night over Lake Charles for this one.

But those who were wearing blue well they weren't happy for very long early on though they were.

They were cheering the defense.

Lions quarterback Carson camp looking waiting.

Pocket collapse Casey Lewis got the sack four plays later.

Camp to trouble again.

Keenan Landry gets the sack and it's a loss of nine.

The Cowboys defense making a statement early.

But now it's time for the Lions defense to make a play.

And boy did they Jake Strong.

He wants this one back picked off by Ian Connolly goodley his second interception at two weeks.

This one counts for 633 yards on the return seven nothing.

Lions and the Knights are about to get much worse for the home team next southeastern possession camp.

Just dumps it off to DeAndre Jackson.

He scampers 34 yards down the far sideline inside the five.

And then Jackson's going to just go ahead and finish it off.

He punches it in quickly.

It's 14.

Nothing southeastern midway through the first quarter.

Late first quarter more Lions defense.

Check out this interception by Cameron for replay.

Operator I'd like to see it again.

Please focus on the one handed balance as Ford reaches around to grab the interception with one hand, pins it on the cowboy receiver's legs, and then pulls it in.

Doesn't hit the turf.

Outstanding catch and interception.

First play of the second quarter.

It leads to this Kyle Low to Jalen DiMaggio.

I'd like to see this one again because you got DiMaggio to look at the athleticism up high in the corner of the end zone 21 nothing.

Lions after the first play of the second quarter.

Now come the splash plays.

Here's Deondre Jackson again.

He takes the handoff and outruns everybody.

The end zone 45 nothing.

It is 28.

Nothing.

Lions early second quarter.

And they're not done.

More defense Jake strong sack by Peyton Anderson.

The Cowboys going the wrong way.

The Lions taking advantage of a field position.

It's now 31 nothing when Carson campus Brandon Hayes and he well he he goes home.

He's gone 69 yards for the touchdown 38 to nothing.

Southeastern at the break.

They just cruised in half because they didn't have to do anything.

The second half.

That's your final score.

Look at the first half.

Total yards.

Southeastern had nearly 300 yards in the first half McNeese just 47 oh.

Both these teams will now be on a bye for the Lions their next game.

In two weeks, they'll be taking on the demons from Northwestern State.

McNeese will next be back on the road at home against Houston Christian after the ballgame, though.

Head coach Matt Theater, a broken man.

I don't think I've ever been a part of anything like that, to be honest with you.

I was trying to trying to think especially, you know, especially against a team that your level.

So look up to I thought the first series defensively you know they got a first down.

We forced them to fight.

We got a sack.

And and from then on I don't I don't think we did anything good.

We obviously didn't play good offense defensively.

We didn't we didn't want good.

So anyway I have no answer that I like these kids, I really do.

I mean, like, the staff's good, like the players.

I mean, what we've asked them to do, they do, you know, I just wish that, I think that's the, the disappointing thing as a coach, you know, you're I've always felt like the number one job of the head coach is you got to help the players.

That's number one.

Number two, you got to help the coaches so the coaches can help the players.

And I'm not doing a very good job of that.

So yeah, I mean right now obviously I'm really disappointed in myself more than them.

But you know we got to figure out a way to, to I don't know.

I thought we actually played better at some, you know, some points of the year, but we just kind of, I don't know, I said, I don't have any answers, to be honest with you.

So I wish I did.

Well, now they have a week to find some answers before they're back in action.

You can see the numbers of the passing yards 267 to just 37 for McNeese.

And the struggles on third downs, three of 14 for the Cowboys.

It was a dominant evening for the Lions on the road to continue their winning ways.

And they're also finding a lot of positivity on campus as well as they're making some big time improvements, including a multi-million dollar new facility going up in the stadium.

I had a chance to visit the campus earlier this season and visit with head coach Frank for.

Talk about some of the developments going on here.

We're standing up in the press box there, but behind us, with your feel, one end zone is completely torn up.

A lot of improvements, a lot of things building here for the Lions program.

Yeah.

You know, we started, pushing this project as a $26 million project now, 6 or 7 years ago when I first got here, and now it's coming to fruition, we we broke ground July 1st, and, President Doctor Wainright, it was instrumental in getting this thing done and pushed through in such a short period of time.

He just got here two years ago, and he has rammed this thing through.

And we started construction.

We hope to get it in sometime next year.

And, it's exciting.

You know, I, I tell our seniors, I'm sorry that you're not going to be in this building, but you helped lay the foundation for this building, and the young guys get ready, man, because it's going to be yours to take over.

One of the new foundations, if you will, in college sports, of course, is nil.

And I know you had a player last year that went to Troy.

Now he's back with you.

But it's going to it's here now for the game.

You have to get used to it.

And I know you were mentioning a campaign you're trying to do here for the, the, the core of alliance and group and the community.

How is it going and can you tell us a little bit about what that campaign is?

It's good.

It's I'd like for it to be going better.

And what it is, of course you always do.

Right?

It's getting the game.

It's basically, we don't want our fans to sit on the sidelines and just watch the games.

We want you to be a part of what we're doing.

Has some stake in the game with our players.

Throughout the course of their careers here, and I, I just think that Hammond, America and southeastern cannot do without each other.

You know, Buffalo's, enterprises thrive when each other are involved, and there's no reason for us not to have that.

We got signs up all over town that says our team, our town, our town, our team.

And it's true here.

And, so what we're asking, we're trying to get $25 a month out of people for 12 months, and we're going to try to get 1000 people to donate.

And that's that's where we're going.

You can go to Line Sports dot net.

It's on there.

And donate, get in the game two weeks before their next game.

If you want more information on the lineup collective, once again you can go to their website at Lions Sports Dot net.

Not the typical stadium you think of when you think Big Ten football, but certainly the most scenic.

They're on the lake.

You on one road?

Warhawks on the road.

Last big non-conference game taking on northwestern.

Opening drive for the Warhawks.

Look at the strength of Braylen McReynolds.

Absolutely.

Trucks a defender 15 yards as he gets the first down on the opening drive.

McReynolds again, this time up the middle.

Makes one move.

Nice break.

23 yards on his first two carries the ball game.

But he only ended with 26 more for the rest of the game.

But don't forget this is the opening drive.

Then Brian Vinson goes deep into the playbook.

A little pitch back to Armon are, Aiden, our mentor.

Wide open.

Nick, your first game of the season, first touchdown of the season and a seven nothing Warhawks.

The Wildcats.

No answer immediately.

Preston Stone, 15 yard completion here.

Up the middle, almost to the 30 yard line.

Sets up Kaitlyn Coleman.

Easy touchdown for the Wildcats.

We're tied at seven.

Second quarter.

Your LMS defense is going to pressure Stone.

But he's going to find a way to escape.

And once he does he sees a lot of green.

And he's off and running bounces it to the outside.

Gets 30 yards on this run almost down to the 30 yard line.

Then Stone looks left finds Hayden Ellison 37 yards here as he makes one move and gets it into the end zone.

They go for two and get it.

So it's 15 seven Wildcats after fuel makes it 18 seven.

The Warhawks trying to answer back.

Here's Aiden Norman who again hits Trujillo again.

Right side.

He takes a shot but holds on to it 27 yards on the completion.

But now in Wildcat territory, our mentor is in trouble and we're going the wrong way.

He tries to get out of it, but doesn't.

It's a 16 yard loss on the sack that takes him out of striking distance.

They don't get any points on him.

Let's go to the third quarter now.

Third and seven still 18 seven Como Laffey again this time from 39 yards out.

Escapes one tackle gets into the end zone.

And now the Wildcats are getting some separation.

It's 25 seven still in the third Preston Stone pulls it keeps it slings it across the middle to Griffin while three catches on the day.

This one certainly his biggest 49 yards for the touchdown.

The Wildcats cruise in the fourth quarter.

And they get the win over the Warhawks by the final score of 42 to 7.

Look at the rushing yards nomination.

Something that you all love has been so good this season.

Just 87 rushing yards to Northwestern's 246.

Next game back on the road in conference against Coastal Carolina.

But first, here's Brian Benson on the loss.

Obviously disappointed.

You know with the loss.

I thought our kids came out and played really hard.

You know.

And we come out and we and we we were able to take the lead.

We've got a great drive going.

We take the lead early.

You know, then they were able to come back down and answer.

And then we had an opportunity and we had another good drive going, and we got down in there and we just weren't able to cash it in.

And when you're playing these games, you've got to maximize your opportunities, plain and simple.

You've got to maximize them.

And I thought we did a really good job in the first half of moving the ball and really executing.

And but when we get down in that half range and that high red area, that's where we've got to add touchdowns.

We had down in there twice in the first half and then and came away with nothing.

And that's really the difference.

You know third downs if you look at third downs just you know we're three for ten, three for 11.

Oh for one on fourth and then they're 11 for 16 and two for two.

That's the difference is we didn't stay on the field offensively and execute the third downs to keep the drives going.

And then we weren't able to get them off the field.

And third downs is really that simple.

We didn't have any success in the rushing game, but it sure was good to see Nick Trujillo back on the field.

A transfer from New Mexico.

As I mentioned, playing his first game of the season for the Warhawks and a big splash.

First, a big touchdown, their only touchdown of the game on the opening drive.

And then that 27 yarder, two catches, 61 yards for the transfer making his debut for you all.

And and Brian Vincent talked about what he could bring to the offense moving forward.

I just think he gives us a huge boost.

You know, he's a guy that can do a lot of things.

You know he can go up, he can catch the underneath plays.

He can go pass people.

You saw in that post that that, you know, we'd like to have back.

He's able to get on top of their secondary.

We just missed him.

But I mean this is his first game back.

And I just think he really just helps this offense, you know, really give us a lot more opportunities for explosive plays and just regular plays.

You know Nick's a tough kid and I thought our receiver stepped up today.

You know I thought they really did.

And we just got to continue to get better.

Well one thing that was just a disappointment for you all Monroe again the rushing yards they've been so good with that.

Just 87 yards to 246 for the Wildcats and third downs I heard coach mention three of ten for the Warhawks.

They couldn't stay on the field 11 of 16 which is outstanding for northwestern.

But the Warhawks now have a chance to get back in conference.

They'll regroup before going on the road at Coastal Carolina next week.

Hey, let's go to Natchitoches.

The demons from Northwestern State.

Sure glad to be there.

They have been there for over a month.

It was homecoming on Northwestern's campus Saturday night, and here we go hosting East Texas A&M.

The opening kick.

This is Antonio Hall.

And look at him scoot 65 yards down the far sideline.

Great field position right out of the gates for the demons.

However the offense couldn't take advantage of it.

And Grayson Linton comes in.

And from 40 yards out he pulls it wide left.

So no points on the scoreboard for Northwestern State.

East Texas A&M doesn't waste any time.

One A quarterback hits a wide open Devin Matthews, who finds his opening behind the defenders, turns around and gets another eight yards on this one.

Takes it all the way down to the two.

It's a 40 yard completion that leads to E.J.

Oakman.

Two plays later.

He takes it in and it's seven nothing.

Lions.

Lions had a field goal, so now it's ten.

Nothing but special teams remember going the same direction.

Northwestern state got a fumble against all four and stay for a touchdown here.

They block the punt.

And once again great field position.

But once again the offense can't do anything.

And once again a field goal is missed.

Two golden opportunities early in the ballgame.

And the demons can't take advantage E.J.

Oakman can though on the next drive he gets it into the end zone and it's 17.

Nothing.

All of a sudden the Lions are pulling away quickly.

Last play of the half Cooper Evans, a new kicker, comes in.

He tries from 30.

It's close but it's good.

Points are on the board.

And it's 17 three at the half.

Third quarter where it all went wrong.

Opening drive K.J.

Schenkel watch on the far side.

Breakthrough three tackles 24 yards gets into the end zone and it's 23 to 3.

East Texas A&M watch the pump fake here.

Everybody bites on the fake except for Christian Jordan.

That's because he's the receiver.

And he knew what was coming.

Touchdown pass makes it 30 to 7 after another missed field goal for Northwestern State.

It's open again for the hat trick.

Third touchdown of the night.

It's 37 to 3.

There is a little good news for the demons.

Five minutes into the fourth Colby Barrow gets in the end zone for the demons.

But that was one of the only highlights on homecoming night for the second straight season.

East Texas A&M gets the first win of the year against the demons for Northwestern State.

4210.

Is your final score the third quarter of the match and that's where it went wrong.

Outscored 20 to nothing.

You can see total yards almost 550 for East Texas A&M.

Just a buck 90 for the demons.

So now get back to work.

And then on the road next weekend at Houston Christian.

Here's coach head coach Blaine McCorkle.

After the game.

It's very disappointing night.

Can't say I saw that one coming.

I think that was one that we all really thought and hoped that we would play a lot better and have a chance to win.

And we were obviously a lot farther off from being where we want to be than maybe we thought we were.

And we've still got a lot of work to do.

We got a lot of look in the mirror to do, as players, as coaches, with schemes, with how we practice, with how we prepare our bodies.

We we got a lot of work to do.

So, all we can do is go back to work.

And nobody said this thing was going to be easy.

Nobody put a timeframe on it, except for me, because I want to do it right now.

So we're frustrated.

We're we're we're down.

We're beat up right now.

But more we'll come back to work and try to do it again next week.

That's the beauty of it is you always get another shot the next week.

On the defensive side of the ball, Landry Hudson led the team in tackles with 11 against the Lions from East Texas A&M.

But another good night for Fernando Washington.

The young man we featured on game notes on Saturday.

The interception here late in the second quarter set up that field goal to make it 17 three.

He still ranks number one on the team in tackles and tackles for loss, and he also ranks number 11 in the Southland Conference.

And I'll try to do a little more when they are back in action.

Let's head to Southeast Texas, outside the Beaumont area where the Nichols colonels were taking on number 20 Lamar.

And before your ticket was even scanned, Lamar is up seven.

Nothing opening play of the game.

How about an 85 yard touchdown Aiden McCown goes up top for Blake Thomas.

And just like that it's seven.

Nothing carnal.

But the Colonels answer for Cal Brock Junior 14 yards on the run here.

And then Shane Lee watch him bounce.

This one to the left side.

And he gets some great yards 30 yards on this one.

When it's all said and done inside the 30 inside the 25 down to the 20.

That's going to lead the deuce Hogan a quarterback.

He closes it out on fourth and one with this touchdown.

It's an 11 play 88 yard drive.

Great response on the road by the Colonels.

We're tied at seven.

Later in the first it's Shane Lee again.

The difference this time nobody's going to get him 75 yards on this 114 seven nickels after a four play 94 yard drive.

Outstanding run by Shane Lee midway through the second quarter Lamar ties it McCown keeps it himself.

We're tied at 14.

They add a field goal.

So it's 1714 at the break in the third quarter.

Deuce Hogan through the air on first and 20 hits Brian McQuaid for 21.

First down six plays later Hogan pitches it to K Nando for 12 yards.

That's going to lead to a game show.

Walter field goal from 45 yards out.

And it's good.

And we're tied at 17.

Let's go late fourth quarter under four to go.

The young man you're going to see here his name is Farrell Harewood.

Why am I introducing you to him.

Because he's the reigning South Conference special teams player of the week.

Now you're going to see why he might be a back to back winner of the Southland Conference special teams player of the week.

Misses one tackle misses.

The second tackle makes one move and he is gone.

Picks up a great block.

87 yards later he's at the house.

So under four minutes to go.

But it's a special teams play that puts Lamar up 2417.

However, the Colonels get the ball back and the crowd goes nuts.

Curls have a chance.

Fourth and 11.

Deuce Hogan gets flushed.

He's looking, biding time, trying to find a receiver.

But once he tucks it and tries to run, you know he's got to get 11 and he only gets eight.

They come up short.

A great effort by the Colonels on the road against the only ranked team out of the Southland Conference.

Tomorrow is fifth.

You remember now they're number 20 in the four and one overall one zero in conference play as Nicholls has now lost five straight and they dropped to one on one in Southland.

Shane Lee three carries only just 103 yards after that big burst in the first quarter.

Didn't hear much from him after this, and the Colonel struggled on third downs in the fourth quarter.

Just one for six.

Next up, after another bye week, the Cardinals be on the road at Stephen Foster.

It's been a great start to the season so far for the Bulldogs up in Ruston.

Louisiana Tech off to a fantastic start this evening.

Enjoying the bye week this week.

Then an oddity in the schedule.

They have a game and then another bye.

Let's talk about that.

And some of the way the season has gone, we're pleased to be joined by head coach Sonny Cumbie joining us here from Ruston.

Up there by the field.

Up there on Louisiana Tech's campus.

Coach, it's great to see you here.

Thanks for joining us on Game Notes.

How are things.

And so you're at the quarter pole of the season.

Give us your evaluation of the Bulldogs so far.

Well no it's great to be on.

It's great to be on.

It's good to see you, Victor.

And you know, appreciate what you guys are doing, you know, for covering the schools here within the state, the great state of Louisiana.

There's there's obviously a lot of really good football players and all over the state, you know, from the north to the south to central Louisiana.

And there's a lot of really good college teams that are in this state as well.

And, you know, I'm excited about how we've started.

You know, we're four and one, two zero in our conference.

And, and, our guys have played, you know, some, some really good football early on.

And the thing that's encouraging and exciting, obviously, is you're two zero in conference.

But, you know, I think that we're still chasing our best football in terms of offense, defense and special teams in terms of playing complementary football, you know, and playing together on all three sides.

And so that's the thing that's encouraging to me is I think that we still have a lot left in the tank from the standpoint of what we can accomplish as a team.

In terms of how much better we can get, you know, regardless of the opponents that we're playing.

And so, you know, right now we're in the middle.

We started October.

You know, it's it's unique for us here in the conference USA, our midweek series.

You know, we will play next Thursday, at Kennesaw State in Atlanta.

And then we won't play again until the following Tuesday.

So we have another week and a half.

We play at home against Western Kentucky, and then we have another week and a half and we play on our Friday night at home again on Halloween for homecoming against Sam Houston State.

And, coach, you're doing all of this with 14 new starters.

I believe you're tied for most of the country in terms of new starters in FBS in their first season.

So have you been surprised at the consistency you all have been able to develop so far as anything stood out with so many newcomers?

Well, I think that, you know, defensively, you know, we've been able to return a good group of guys, you know, at linebacker really like when you think about like linebackers and safeties, you know, we've been able to return a good core group there on defense.

A lot of the new guys up for us are on the offensive side.

And and you know defensively you know I think our guys have played really well.

They've they've done a phenomenal job of creating takeaways.

I mean we've scored you know I think five five touchdowns.

On defense, which is pretty phenomenal.

We've been able to take the football away.

We played great in the red zone.

Our defensive line, that's where there's a lot there's some newcomers there, that have really stepped up and played well.

We've had some, some brilliant individual performances.

You know, when you think about, you know, Colby Fields, Makai Mason, you know, Chief Leo at linebacker, you know, it's safety.

Jakari foster, who's got a pick six.

I think he leads the conference in interceptions.

You know Michael Rashad.

Mike, Mike's done a phenomenal job and has, an interception in the LSU game.

He handles an interception Saturday night at USF on an overthrow.

And then you got Jacob Fields, who had his best game against UTEp.

And then a corner.

You got Jamal Shelby, you know, a kid from Saint OG High School.

Down in New Orleans who's really played well at corner has done a great job for us there.

And you know, then offensively that's, you know, where you have some of the newer faces.

And then we've we've had some moments.

If you put in new Mexico State and Southern Miss versus together, you know, you're right around 700 yards of offense and around 80 plays.

And so we've got to just kind of we've got to be able to capitalize that and play for quarters offensively.

And and we're going to our guys there are accountable is determined and they're talented.

And so I think that's you're going to see an offense that is going to get on track here.

You know later on in the season you know starting this week at Kennesaw.

And so but I've been proud of the chemistry and the camaraderie I talked about.

This football team is very high.

They've been very intentional about getting to know each other.

They care about each other.

And this has been a really fun team to be around even before we started the games.

You know, this has been the most enjoyable team that I've ever been a part of, just from the standpoint of, how much they like each other, you know, how much they, enjoy being around one another.

And, and that's really the atmosphere here in Ruston that we want to create from a, a football standpoint, you know, is, is, you know, this is this is a place where you can really hunker in and be around each other a lot and really concentrate on football quite a lot.

And that's what we've been able to attract guys that love to do that.

Certainly want to thank head coach Sonny, come back for his time and we'll have more with Coach Cumbie next week on game notes.

As you mentioned, Louisiana Tech will be a Thursday night game against Kennesaw State.

Also, Tulane playing a Thursday night game against East Carolina, another game out of the American, southeastern, McNeese and Nicholls all on a bye next week for week seven.

As we look ahead at some of the games, Louisiana, who will be the starting quarterback for the Cajun when they take on James Madison?

A big win in the Swac for Grambling and Texas Southern.

You on Monroe as we talked about facing Coastal Carolina and then the big one out of the SEC in Baton Rouge, the Gamecocks and South Carolina pay a visit to LSU just some of the games we are looking ahead to next week in week seven.

It's been a fun one, a short week for week six because of all the way to so many teams on a bye, but we're back at full slate next week and we look forward to it.

For everybody here.

Associated with game notes I'm Victor Howell, thanks so much for joining us.

And we'll see you next week right here on LP.

Major production funding for game notes is provided by Southern University and A&M College and Hargrove Engineers and Constructors, and the Robert Pugh Agency, with additional support from Lafayette Travel, the LSU Alumni Association, and the Cook Hotel and Conference Center at LSU, Louisiana Tech University, Natchitoches Regional Medical Center, Northwestern State University, Red Stick Sports, the US Army, Baton Rouge Recruiting Battalion, the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and viewers like you.

Thank you.