Major production.

Funding for game notes is provided by Hargrove.

Engineers and constructors is proud to support LPB.

Since 1995, Hargrove has been employee owned and relationship driven with 2700 teammates around the world.

Hargrove works as one team to go beyond expectations.

You have what it takes to begin your journey.

Curiosity.

Ingenuity.

Intellect.

Determination.

Through a vast portfolio of affordable and in-demand academic programs, hundreds of student focused activities, and wraparound services.

Southern University meets you where you are, giving you the tools and support that lead you to a successful career in the sciences or the arts.

Begin with your goals anywhere.

Finish stronger at Southern University at Superdog Edu.

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 U.S.

Army Baton Rouge Recruiting Battalion, the foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

And here we go.

It's great to have you with us for game notes here on a Sunday.

The Postgame Edition, along with my Super Bowl champ partner, Scott Shanley.

I'm Victor Hollo, week four.

In the books.

We are closing in on the end of the month of September, which means conference play is right around the corner.

Yes, some teams have gotten to play, but now you kind of get your final tuneup before the teams start really playing for future and as a coaching staff, you kind of figured out what your team is, what your players do well under the lights.

Like I said, practice and game times are different.

You've seen your team under the lights.

You get into conference play a whole new season.

Now for a lot of these teams, it's a brand new season.

These preseason game games, so to speak, are out of the way.

Now it's time to get your conference and get that first goal of winning a conference championship.

The Southern Jaguars had this weekend off.

They're getting ready for Jackson State next week.

So hopefully they had a chance to enjoy some of the action around our state on this busy week for.

Let's take a look at what we have coming up here on game those tonight here on LPB.

The cat fight in Tiger Stadium as the Lions with southeastern made their way to Tiger Stadium.

Good crowd on hand.

LSU taking care of business as expected, will review that.

The momentum keeps rolling up in Ruston for the Bulldogs from Louisiana Tech, as they welcome Southern Miss up there to Ruston.

And how about more drama up in Grambling?

Yeah, another one down to the wire for the Tigers.

All of that and more coming up here on game those.

But let's start out in West Texas where the Warhawks from UL Monroe made their return to the field after a bye week.

It's felt like a long time, maybe even longer, because the last time we saw the Warhawks on the field, they got blanked in a big way in Tuscaloosa to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Eagles were hurt.

Bodies were bruised.

It's an early season bye week for them, but Brian Vinson said this week he liked the way the team was grinding at practice, getting refocused, and they put it to the test late last night on out in El Paso against the miners from UTEp, Brian Vincent getting his team ready to go.

And just four minutes into the game, trouble.

An early strike for the miners, a 23 yard touchdown over the top.

But wait a minute.

There's a flag on the play.

Holding would take the touchdown off the board.

Would that come back to haunt them?

Well, they wind up doing nothing with the drive and the Warhawks open with the ball on the two.

And on the very first play, Dorian Lewis breaks free 72 yards down the near sideline to the 26.

That's how you get out of the shadows of your own end zone.

And two plays later an our mentor hits Jake Godfrey 12 yards to the left corner of the end zone, 98 yards on the drive for the Warhawks.

And now they are up seven.

Nothing but the miners answer in a big way.

As in the next play from scrimmage, Malachi Nelson hits Trevon Tate.

He finds a seam and he's gone 73 yards for the touchdown.

No penalties on this one.

It counts.

And we're tied at seven.

Near the end of the first back come the Warhawks are meant to Jake Godfrey.

Lots of time.

Deep drop finds caught for 37 yards were inside the 40.

Very next play.

Welcome to the party Mr.

McReynolds.

As in Braylen McReynolds his first run from scrimmage on the night.

He catches it in 40 yards on the touchdown for the transfer from South Alabama.

And the Warhawks have the touchdown lead.

Coach stay back.

Stay back.

We're going to score again.

And he's right.

We flip ends of the field.

And in the second quarter here we go.

Two minutes into the second quarter.

What a play.

What a play on this little crisscross Jonathan Phipps 35 yards into the end zone.

It's 21 seven.

You owe Monroe now 24 seven.

And we're in the third quarter.

Hunter Herring gets the pile shovel when he gets him in the end zone.

It is 31 to 7.

But that's when things take a turn.

It's now 3110 in the fourth quarter Malachi Nelson when Tommy Davis junior he gets it all alone in the end zone 44 yards and it's 3118 Warhawks have to punt.

And in 2.5 minutes the miners score again.

And it's Davis Junior again.

Now it's 3125 under a minute to go UTEp has the ball home field.

They could drive for the win.

But Nelson back to pass overthrows his receiver.

No timeouts.

So they have to do it all on the field.

And David Godsey seals the deal for the Warhawks.

Who?

What a game.

And what a big win for the Warhawks to bounce back and go to.

Two and one on the season, 31 to 25.

Look at the rushing yards.

250 for the Warhawks.

Just 33 yards for the miners.

Braylen McReynolds a big part of that 18 carries 107 yards and a touchdown.

The Warhawks are back home next weekend for homecoming against Arkansas State.

And after this one, Coach Vinson talked about the fight making the difference.

I was frustrated because when you're up 31 seven, you got to finish finishing period.

We've got them on the ropes and we just sat there and played with them and let them get back in the game instead of knocking them out and finish it.

So that's obviously something we can learn from and continue to grow.

I always like it after a win, you know, we always can fix it.

But those things right there, we've got a if we're going to be the team we want to be, we got to finish people when we got them on the road, and we've got to execute in the prime moments.

You let them catch a couple scores towards the end but then two minutes remaining two interceptions.

You know man it just tells you about the perseverance, the grit all the things that we talk about toughness, discipline, grit perseverance.

And right there our backs were against the wall.

And a touchdown beats us right there.

And our defense came up with two big picks.

My message is this look this team for two straight weeks grinded its tails off and prepared to win the third road game, the first non-conference road game since 2018.

I think that's pretty impressive.

That's pretty good growth.

But my message is real clear.

Show up and be loud.

Wear maroon and let's cheer on these warhawks that are fighting.

Fighting for this university in this town.

It's time to get behind them in a big way.

And I challenge everybody.

Just get behind us.

We're together, we're stronger.

And now's the time.

That was a big win.

Indeed.

You gave up a 70 burger in Tuscaloosa.

No slouch, of course, playing Alabama.

But to his point about closing it out, Scott, how tough is that?

When you're especially when you're on the road, you've got a comfortable lead.

All of a sudden the home team starts to come back.

Now they've got the crowd, now they've got the momentum.

Do you sense that offensive sometimes get a little conservative or defensive, worried about going to make the play, which could lead to a score going the other direction?

There's no question offensively you want to you don't want to turn the football over and do you credit.

They went on the road against the number one defense in the conference.

And they did what they needed to do.

They ran the ball well.

Didn't turn the football over.

You got out to this big lead.

And then to your point you start to be a little conservative.

Just don't lose the game.

Don't turn the football over.

Defensively you start to play very vanilla coverages.

You just make the offense check the ball down in front of you.

And before you know it, they score a couple times that momentum and the home crowd starts getting back in it.

And then you're in a ball game.

But the defense did step up as you heard them mention not one but two interceptions.

Late.

The UTEp miners started using their timeouts, but when they needed to make a play, even on the overthrow, you needed somebody there.

They were there to finally seal the deal.

Yeah.

And you like to see that in a game where the ebbs and flows of the momentum and momentum is real, especially that you go to college level in the high school level and you have younger guys that that momentum of the home crowd can, can overtake you at some moments, no matter what the lead is.

So it's about making the plays in the moment that matters most right there at the end of the ballgame, when the moment mattered most, they stepped up and made the play.

And you mentioned about the running game, remember in our preview show we introduced you to Braylon McReynolds, Ahmad Hardy.

Yeah, he's a pretty good player now at Missouri.

Right?

250 yards.

One week ago this weekend over 175 yards rushing.

He was a war hawk last year.

So you've got to somebody find somebody to fill the void.

Right.

Well, here comes McReynolds.

He was at South Alabama.

Really couldn't find a window to play.

When we talked to him on a preview show, he said, hey, I'll do whatever coach needs in any style.

Passing game, running thing.

How about the day that he had yesterday over 100 yards rushing plus two touchdown on his very first carry 14 receiving yards as well.

That's a very deep running back room.

Scott McReynolds has certainly been the guy to take the lead.

You know there's no doubt Breeland played outstanding yesterday.

And Ulm won the rush about 252 to 33.

You're going to win a lot of football games that way.

When you've turned turn around, hit the ball off to a dynamic player like this, who can who can hit the home run ball on the outside?

You can run inside or outside.

Special player.

And this is why when you get into games like the special on the road, you don't have to be super aggressive you to turn on the ball.

And remember, a week ago, coach talked about how the Texas Longhorns got whooped at the offensive line by the UTEp.

So credit to the to the Ulm offensive line as well, no doubt.

And now they head back home to Monroe next weekend for homecoming.

Should be a great atmosphere as they try to improve to three and one on the season.

Let's turn our attention out of the catfight in Baton Rouge on Saturday night.

A gorgeous night in Baton Rouge for southeastern to make the easy drive from Hammond about 40 45 minutes away to make its way into Tiger Stadium just the third time these two teams have squared off.

What a wonderful opportunity for the Lions to get there and challenge LSU, who was looking to fine tune some things and sharpen it up before they start.

S.E.C.

SEC play in one week.

LSU at southeastern just outside of Tiger Village at the Marriage Assembly Center looking at Tiger Stadium, the Lions wearing their green and ready to go in this one.

Remember we found out this week from head coach Brian Kelly?

Garrett knows Meyer torso injury.

What injury he's throwing early right here.

Yes the completion of Aaron Anderson.

They had three catches on the night thus far.

Then push his way in for the score.

Look at that scrum helmet coming off tough quarterback gets it over the line.

Tiger score.

It's seven at the end of the first quarter.

Fourth and one for the Lions Frank self-assess.

What do I have to lose.

Let's go for it.

Unfortunately the gamble doesn't pay off.

They get stopped in the middle of the field and the Tigers take advantage with good field position.

But how about the Lions defense getting them thus far?

Seeing them sacked a few times throughout this early part of the season.

Caleb Proctor with the big sack there.

We switch ends of the field.

Still just seven.

Nothing early.

Second quarter for LSU on fourth and 11 Brian Kelly says let's go for it.

Xavion Thomas across the middle.

He gets the first down inside the 20 and it leads to Juan Johnson punching it in from two yards out.

14 nothing LSU loss Meyer then on the scramble what torso injury.

It's not hurt when he throws deep drop scramble.

See some feel heck with it I'm going with it.

And he takes it 26 yards on the scramble inside the ten yard line for smart.

Very next play.

It's Johnson again, Scott said.

It's always great to be able to hand it off to your best friend in the backfield.

He's balance.

Gets it into the end zone 21 nothing.

LSU now on top.

Lions still there with a fight.

Here comes Proctor again.

He gets the nose Meyer.

That's a loss of 11.

But on the very next play.

Thus Meyer says no worse I got you trots back to pass finds Berry and Brown into the end zone 28 nothing LSU at this point.

Now it's 35.

Nothing in the third.

Thus smart to Bower sharp.

Remember the one time southeastern lion.

Then he went to Oklahoma for a cup of coffee.

Now back in Baton Rouge he linked 23 yards on the touchdown to sharp.

It's 40 to nothing but the Lions don't quit Carson camp to Jordan Williams across the middle on Williams.

Picks up some room.

It's 30 yards there.

And five plays later on 1314.

Camp hits Deondre Jackson for the touchdown.

Gets the Lions on the scoreboard 42 to 7.

The Southeastern get some points up there nuts Meyer takes the rest of the night off.

Here comes Michael Van Buren.

And what a job he did on the night.

Really nice night.

Ten of 12 for Van Buren.

Coming in Kyle Parker kicks it 27 yards and a touchdown.

Tigers took care of business as expected.

Van Buren ten of 1222 yards and fill in role just in the fourth quarter.

Frank salvo nice job by his Lions.

Just too much LSU in this one loss at just six incompletions 273 passing yards and three touchdowns as the Tigers throw for just shy of 400.

Southeastern just 116.

Look at the red zone.

Both teams scored when they were in the red zone, with LSU a very impressive six for six on the night.

Southeastern opens up conference play next week against Texas Rio Grande Valley as for LSU, they are on the road for the second time this season.

They will be in Oxford against number 13 Ole Miss.

More on that ballgame in a moment.

Afterwards, comments from head coach Brian Kelly on the effort.

You know, we have a standard of the way we wanted to play and, I thought we upheld that standard.

You know, there's no perfection out there.

There's but there was definitely some progress.

So we made the progress that we're looking for.

Now we got to build on that, going into, Ole Miss on the road, get some very good football team.

Again, the the goal here was to, you know, play to a standard, not to the opposition.

A lot of respect for coach cell phone and what he's done and accomplished.

But, you know, we had the better team, and the better players.

So it then becomes much more about, your execution and the things you do.

And I thought we did some pretty good things today.

Certainly the really good players affect others around him and his energy, his passion for the game, brings up others around him.

Nice to see him catch the football.

We thought we would get a chance to get it to the tight end.

And certainly we found him in some, some big situations.

I think our third down conversion was nine of 14, and, you know, he was targeted on some of those, but, yeah, he obviously starting at, Southeast Louisiana, this was a big game.

He's one of our game day captains, and he was excited to play in it.

Earlier in this news conference, you use the word healthy to describe Garrett Nuss Meyer.

I know that he had, been battling a torso issue, since, since training camp.

Would you describe him right now as 100%?

And if not, do you expect him to be 100% for the Ole Miss game next weekend?

Yeah, I'd say that, you know, we talked about during the week that he was on the other side of the injury and he felt really good.

And that's why, you know, we actually ran him a little bit.

He felt good running the football.

And we knew during the week that he was healthy just by the way he was throwing the football.

So, yeah, I would I would say that that's the version that you you'll get the rest of the year.

And this is what they're looking at for the rest of the year.

Now sitting at four and zero after some grind out wins at Clemson at home against Florida, a tough one against Louisiana Tech, you go to Oxford against a high octane Ole Miss rebel team.

We'll talk about here in just a moment.

Then you get the first by the season.

But then Scott, here comes the call of South Carolina.

May not be what people thought they were early this season.

Vanderbilt is everything people wanted them to be and then some.

You can see where the grind starts to kick into overdrive.

Yeah, those next four games, you look at them, you start to break.

South Carolina arguably has the number one draft pick right now, and sellers lot of people moving him up.

The draft boards at Ole Miss Ole Miss played outstanding against a really good football team.

So if you just look at the short term the next two games, the nice thing is you have a couple of bye weeks, but you have a lot of a lot of tough football to play between now.

And that's why I remember in the preseason in August, there were the, erroneous reports that he had an ACL injury might be done.

Everybody's holding their breath now.

We find out about the torso injury.

It certainly looked like he had his best complete game.

When he's comfortable, he put up the numbers even with the scrambles.

And we showed you that we're used to Garrett nuts smile from a year ago.

Yeah.

And it's great to see.

And a lot of people you expect it in a game like this.

But like Coach Kelly said it's about us.

It's about our execution.

It's about our standard that we have to play no matter who's across from the other side, the other side from us.

So you look at games like this and coming out of a game like this, you want to see not smart play.

Well, that makes you feel good.

You can get them out of the game early.

Keep them healthy for the Ole Miss game coming up.

But you get reps for guys like Van Buren 10 or 12.

Kyle Parker scoring a touchdown late.

Building that depth on your team in games like this is critical for early in the year.

For late in the season when it gets critical, you look at some of the stats and numbers as the Tigers get that big win over the Lions Saturday night in Tiger Stadium with this matchup here in the rushing yards.

Scott, if there's one thing that I think Tiger fans really want and remember Brian Kelly was asked about this.

I know when the best timing, but the rushing game 135 yards against southeastern.

Now you can easily say, oh we didn't need it.

We were 395 through the air and everything was working.

But if you take a bigger look at the bigger picture with that running back room, they have Lee Tiger fans want to see that.

135 be it 175 right.

190 511 62 something bigger before that Gantlet that we just talked about and the support that you give us.

Meyer there's no question everybody loves to see the football plan here.

But in the SEC conference you have to do two things.

You have to be able to run the football when it's needed, and you have to be able to play good defense.

And the thing is, playing good defense and running the football go hand, hand.

Those are compliments in the game of football.

So yes, everybody likes to see the ball flying through the air.

You want to have an efficient passing game but you have to be able to control the line of scrimmage.

This is the line of scrimmage league and that's why there's some concern around the running game.

Very impressive.

Both teams were perfect in the red zone.

Of course LSU had at six for six and they get the big win.

And now they'll head into conference play with southeastern playing Texas Rio Grande Valley and then LSU will be taking on Ole Miss.

Speaking of the Ole Miss Rebels at home on Oxford, facing Scott mentioned a very good Tulane team undefeated with already two big wins over Power Four teams, with northwestern having gotten past them already, and then also getting the big win against Duke out of the ACC.

Now on the road, instead of playing at Yeoman Stadium up in Oxford, where there's an outstanding environment.

Another great day.

Gorgeous day for weather.

The Grove you know is hopping when the Ole Miss Rebels are playing at home.

Well, it's a good day for the rebels.

Not so much for the team wearing green, but here we go.

They come out firing Trinidad Chambliss.

Now, look, this might be the starter, Scott.

He was coming off the bench.

He's not even supposed to be the number one guy.

His numbers are absurd so far.

Two games and I think speaks a lot about Lane Kiffin as an offensive mind, especially in the college football game.

Lane's been outstanding no matter who's playing quarterback.

Go back to many years.

He's always had success at that position.

He had a 13 yard pass.

That's a 41 yard scramble.

Then it ends with this bullet into the end zone and taken right at Ole Miss has a seven nothing lead.

Rough start for Tulane's offense.

And Jake Retzlaff who has been wonderful so far this season.

This one thrown behind receiver.

This one on a scramble is thrown into the dirt.

Second quarter down 13 nothing.

Still no completions for Tulane's passing game.

Retzlaff says I'll fix that.

Remember, I can run deep.

Drop avoids the tackles, find some room.

And now he's off to the races.

30 yards here for Retzlaff on a great pickup using his legs.

Unfortunately the offense stalls but it sets up Patrick Durkin 34 yards out at this point.

Still perfect on the season.

It's 13 three rebels.

Very next offensive play.

Chambliss again up top DeShawn Stribling 53 yards on this completion.

Boy this chunk plays.

And they hit just so fast with these five plays later Cohen Lacy takes it in on the direct snap.

It's now 20 to 3.

The wave have it.

Closing out the first half.

Retzlaff across the middle trying to get things going.

And it's dropped.

That's the kind of day Tulane had.

Tulane opens the third quarter with a 14 play, seven minute, 70 yard drive.

Ole Miss they come up empty.

Ole Miss then scores 22 points in the fourth quarter.

Rebels win it.

Big 45 to 10.

Here's Coach Summerall after the game.

Not our best today.

Frustrating performance.

Tom may start to me.

Ends with me.

I gotta have our guys more prepared to play better football.

You know, felt like.

Hats off to Ole Miss.

Really, really good football team.

Really well coached team.

It's simple.

Fast.

It's fast.

It's legit.

The thing is, is just trying to get it lined up before they do.

I think I think we did a decent job of that, but, we obviously we to practice it all week.

I think I think they just made more plays.

So it was more difficult in that aspect.

The thing I was most pleased with in the game, I'm still fresh with all of it.

But the third quarter, you know, our guys came out and fought.

You know, like I told them, like, guys, your character is revealed when things are going good, not when it is going good.

Like and right now things are going very good at halftime.

Like can't fix anything.

It's already happened.

I can just move forward.

We shouldn't focus on this all.

I don't look at will.

We don't look at losses as a loss.

We just learn from our from our mistakes.

And I feel like going into next week, we gotta come out harder, practice harder, and all we got to do.

I mean, every week you gotta flush the game.

You gotta.

You gotta move on.

Like, whether you win or lose, you have to move on.

Because if you don't, he's going to he's going to either beat you next week or another week down the road.

So just knowing like we have in the rough, like knowing that, hey, we got to come back and bring it every day, every day.

You got to bring it like otherwise somebody will come in and sneak up on you.

That's a hurt locker room.

I mean, those guys worked really hard.

And they know they didn't perform their best today.

Like.

And that's everybody to me.

None of us were at our best today.

And that that really sucks because we missed an opportunity.

It was a special one.

We got conference play start next week.

That's pretty special, too.

You know, I'll talk.

I will dress for them.

I already kind of hit on this, but I will address for them that, you know, conference play is the beginning of a new day.

You know, you get in the conference play, you know, conference championships are kind of one of the biggest goals you have every year.

And so I think this group will focus and turn our attention towards conference and be ready to attack.

All make like many teams getting ready to get into conference play.

That's where it becomes important.

And it will for Tulane next week they will be at Tulsa.

More on them in just a moment and some of the similarities they will see.

But Scott as you take a look at this.

You notice they have three games and then two bye weeks in the next five weeks.

But that brings it to the end of the month.

And I take it back to our preview show.

The two teams mentioned of being contenders in the American UTSA, Memphis.

Both of those teams on the road back to back after that second bye week.

So to some point, this is where things start becoming important.

Yeah.

And you look at those breaks sometimes having that many bye weeks, it can be good and bad.

It can be good because you should be fresh after those.

But it's bad because sometimes you lose a little bit of a rhythm as a team.

When you, you have to knock off some rust.

But you look at what happened yesterday against Ole Miss, Ole Miss at home.

We talked about yesterday since 2020 over 500 yards a game at home.

They did it again at 548.

I think if you're Tulane, the biggest concern you have come around this game is probably your inefficiency in the passing.

We've seen Retzlaff been great with his legs all year long.

But if you want to get to where you want to get to and that's winning a conference championship and hopefully the College Football Playoff, the inefficiency in the passing game, they have to be addressed a little bit.

Yeah, Tulane hopes that was just a one off because he's been outstanding in his short time at Tulane.

But it took him to almost the end of the first half, late second quarter before Retzlaff got his first completion.

They had missed like nine in a row, ten in a row before he finally got one.

The other thing for Tulane of note, the last two times they played an SEC team, they lost big to Florida in the bowl game to end last year.

And then now it gets Ole Miss having outscored 78 to 18.

So you know there's some things they need to adjust size wise strength wise and maybe schematically.

Well when it comes to scheming and especially Ole Miss.

And we talked about this on game notes on Saturday morning.

Ole Miss is one of the best teams in the country when it comes to speed.

I want to just show you the sequence.

Okay.

Now this is fourth quarter.

It's not fair to say the game's put away right?

31 three.

Watch this on a 53 yard completion.

Down inside the ten.

Inside the five.

Now watch the clock when he gets up.

It's 1210 on the clock, right?

Yep.

You're up by 28 points.

1210.

Remember when he got off the ground.

So we are just about going to get to where we are here.

We're about to get to 10s.

And Ole Miss is already almost at the line of scrimmage with no huddle.

They're going to go about five more seconds in the next snap.

They're third in the SEC, ninth in the country, averaging 22.4 seconds per play.

This one went off at 21.

Yeah.

And this is this is Lane Kiffin offense.

Well these guys practice this from the moment they step on campus.

This is our tempo.

This is how we run our offense no matter what the score is this is what we do.

And the hard thing about defensive football replicates that that tempo.

In practice you can't replicate it.

Because what happens in practices I remember when we played tempo teams, you'd have the scout team who go off of cards.

They don't know the other team's players.

They're looking at what their assignment is.

So you'd have multiple scout teams looking at cards and sprinting in as soon as that plays over, because they don't know the plays, obviously they run them off card, so it is impossible to replicate the true speed until you get to the game time.

Well, Tulane plays Tulsa next week.

Tulane's ninth in the country at pace, Tulsa 10th.

So at least Tulane has gotten a little taste of it.

And oh, by the way, LSU might want to check out this game film because they're rolling it.

They're rolling into Oxford next Saturday afternoon.

Welcome back to play for the Nicholls Colonels who came off their bye week.

They are on the road at Texas State.

You know they play.

It's the battle for the paddle.

These two teams used to play in conference play.

Yeah there's a real paddle right there.

Back in the 90s they were going there because of flooding.

No comment was made man.

You had to get there with a paddle.

Now they play for the paddle.

How about that something maybe you didn't know Brad Jackson, the quarterback for the Bobcats early on, got them going with hitting both sparks for that pass down the far sideline.

Two plays later Jackson keeps them himself.

And it's seven nothing Texas State Colonels offense gets going Shane Lee he takes a handoff.

He's going right side towards his bench with a little spin.

Keeps going.

Gets it inside the 30 yard line.

Now second and five from the 14.

Bad news here.

Deuce Hogan can't handle the snap.

They lose yardage lose it down one up.

Settling for a field goal gave Showalter from 32 yards out.

And it's good seven three Texas State at this point.

Unfortunately for the Colonels that's when the Bobcats would find their offensive groove and they would get big.

Chunk plays.

Jackson to post sparks again.

This time he gets behind the defense 28 yards on the completion switch.

Ends of the field.

Second play of the second quarter Brad Jackson.

He takes it in from four yards out.

It's now 14 three.

His second touchdown of the night.

They're just getting started.

More big plays for the cats Jackson here finds Kyle Evans.

Evans does the rest across the middle.

Outruns three defenders 45 yards.

He gets it down to the five yard line.

Next play towards Burgess.

He takes it into the end zone 21 three Bobcats still in the second quarter.

Jackson hits Kyle Evans on the little pitch and catch a nice little over the top throws.

He finds a seam inside the defenders that leads to a Lincoln Perry nine yard touchdown.

And it's getting out of hand here.

And he's safe with the slide 28 to 3 Bobcats just before the half kernels are on the doorstep.

But Hogan looking to the end zone picked off by Kamari Terrell.

That was as close as they would get to making something happen.

Not much happened in the second half, but that's bad news for the kernels.

They needed a lot to happen.

They want to lose in this ballgame 35 to 3.

Three straight losses now for the Colonels Texas State was five for five in the red zone.

Rough afternoon for Hogan 15 to 21.

Just 97 yards in that pick.

Next time we are back on the road.

Remember that was the first of four straight.

They'll be on the road at Eastern Kentucky.

Let's go to Grambling.

What a ball game.

Our squad.

And let's talk about the schedule first here for Nicholls and Scott.

The point to make here excuse me for jumping ahead for a second here.

You're going on the road.

Remember the first of four of a four straight on the road.

But remember the Colonels opened the season at home against Incarnate Word, the defending champ, and got the win.

So while they've struggled in three straight they are one to no.

And South in conference play heading in.

Yeah.

And the theme of today is the all these teams mostly to talk about are getting into conference play.

You said the season goals at the beginning of the year.

We want to win the conference.

Most teams set that goal.

So you do have that conference win.

And it's been a little rough stretch here.

And it's about to get a little rough going on the road.

But you do have that in your back pocket.

And I think that's what you preach as a coach and as a player.

You feel good knowing that as we get in the conference play, we've already got one one in the back pocket.

All these teams focusing on the importance of conference play.

Nicholls has already been there and done that with one big win already.

Now let's take it to grounding.

Sorry, I had to put it in reverse for a second ever.

Now we're back in drive.

Grambling hosting East Texas A&M.

Remember coming off one week ago, an overtime win at home with some bonus football?

How about the thriller that they would have Saturday night?

Eric Rodriguez for the Tigers 17 yards for East Texas as they get things going.

E.J.

Oakman then ends the impressive drive.

This is lions and Tigers again by way.

Second matchup of Lions and Tigers.

In a state of Louisiana here seven nothing.

East Texas gets on top.

Second quarter it's still one nothing a seven nothing one.

Nothing like a baseball.

DeShawn McMillan 14 yards here that sets up third and three when Rodriguez hits his tight end Bryson Davis.

It's 14.

Nothing East Texas A&M but here come the Tigers.

Trey Bradford takes it right up the middle a beautiful 20 yard run there to set up Grambling.

And good scoring position with a minute to go in the first half.

Savion Desert John Horton 11 yards on the touchdown.

It's 14 seven Mickey Joseph's team back in it early third quarter.

Whoa oh that's the Lions is going the wrong way.

And that's bad news because of the bad snap.

Kicks it out of bounds.

The Grambling Tigers get it at the one.

It took them four plays on fourth and one.

But they finally get it in as Z punches it in.

And we're tied at 14.

Thanks to the special teams gift.

The Lions and come back and answer Rodriguez to Jayden Proctor.

Tremendous catch.

Originally ruled out at the one, but you can clearly see he spun inside the pylon.

It's 2114 Lions back come the Tigers.

Look at this sprint Warren Robinson 54 yards up the middle for the House call.

And we're tied at 21 early fourth quarter McMillan again for the Lions six yards and a touchdown run.

They're back up by seven now.

Under three minutes to go.

It's 2824 Lions Clyde McLendon for Grambling near side knocked out of bounds at the half yard line the very next play.

If you did all the work you get the rewards.

He punches it in.

It's 3128.

Grambling East Texas A&M gets one last shot.

They move the ball down the field.

They get the field goal position.

But for Oso Rigby, his career long was 35.

This attempt is going to be from 52.

To get the game to go to overtime for two straight weeks for Grambling, and it is wide left.

Had the distance but wide left.

Grambling escapes with more drama at home.

But hey, come out on the win column.

You feel good.

Three and one on the season now for Grambling as they win it 31 to 28.

Grambling had just 54 plays.

They have 19 more plays to East Texas A&M to set 14 to 26 for Buck 79.

He rushed for one and he threw for one.

Next game they'll face Prairie View, but that game will be played in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl.

Second time it will see Grambling playing on neutral sites.

We talked about that earlier the season that they do that so often.

You know Mickey Joseph, you know, from his playing days.

We've seen him coaching around now their second straight week.

Now they've had to grind it out.

What do you take away from it though with what his team is learning being able to come out on top.

And that's that's the name of the game.

But three and one they're getting great quarterback play.

This is a well-coached team.

But but for me the discipline of this football team is standing out to me.

Only five penalties all day yesterday.

No turnovers.

You're making other teams beat you.

And when you do that, if you think about the Bill Belichick days with the Patriots and the Patriots, we just play these boring football games.

Sometimes they would wait for the other team to make a mistake.

I'm not saying Grambling.

Grambling is very balanced on offense, but they're playing smart, disciplined football and that's how they're winning a lot of these games.

And he's had has been outstanding.

Of course, a former Southern Jaguar, you don't often see that move southern to Grambling with the rivalry that have.

But he has fit in very well.

Remember when we talked to him during our our preview season special?

He talked about having 3 or 4 guys trying to work things out, started to settle in on one.

And when you're a new quarterback and not making mistakes, then you definitely know you feel like you're going in the right direction.

Yeah, most positions, especially the quarterback position, you have to have a little bit of you have to have a little bit of a leash.

If you feel like the coach is always going to yank you because you make a mistake, and what you're seeing right now, you're see confidence grow at that position.

And when confidence grows at that position now, the rest of the team gravitates towards that position, and the rest of the team believes they have a guy who can take them where they want to go.

Let's take a look at the upcoming schedule for the Grambling Tigers.

As we mentioned, they'll be facing Prairie View from their opponent, but that game will be played in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl before Grambling gets its first bye week.

Then they will jump into the heart of Swac play.

Of course, it'll be a big win against Jackson State on October 25th, and as always, they'll have a bye week towards the end of the season before the big one against the Southern Jaguars again.

They were on a bye this week, but they'll look to turn things around when they get in the conference play.

And that will be the Bayou Classic play down at the Caesars Superdome to close out the season at the end of the month of November.

The demons from Northwestern State play McCorkle finally out of those big time, big time games at Ohio State at Cincinnati.

Now they're still on the road at Perryville.

Remember, they were inches away from beating Prairie View one year ago trying to make it work this time.

And Abraham Johnston to Jackson Kings early confidence.

Remember, they have scored a point in two weeks with all the big games that they've played.

Get the quarterback, the young kid some confidence that play here later on third and 11.

Johnson it's Cameron Davis that's good Colby Burrell as well.

He gets it 31 yards.

Here comes Cameron Davis.

This is 21 yards for the touchdown as Johnson buys time and lets his receiver get over the top of the defense.

They get the score at seven.

Nothing preview.

Then he gets five plays to tie it up.

And of the five plays it was one big one.

Tevin Carter on the keeper.

Oh he sees an opening and he is gone 56 yards.

They go for two and misses for the demons.

Have a one point lead.

Second quarter.

Now it's ten nine demons.

And another big play for Prairie View as Chase Bateman goes 34 yards Scott the gap to the defense have got to be able to tackle missed opportunities.

Yeah missed tackles in space.

That's the name of the game.

That's how you play a great team defense.

You need 11 guys the ball to to eliminate those lames.

McDowell then takes it in from one yard out for perdu.

It's 1710 Prairie View at the half.

Let's fast forward to the fourth quarter.

It's 2017 for review.

McDowell again from five yards out.

Now they're up ten.

But wait the demons aren't done.

Abram Johnston again up top to Ben Broussard for 44 yards.

Love to see the patience and a little bit of growth from the young quarterback Scott that we've seen even since week one.

Yeah he had great time in the pocket, wasn't panicking, wasn't hearing footsteps around him and delivers a great throw and speaking up.

Look at this.

On that pass.

Look how he threads the needle right between two defenders.

Outstanding pass there by Johnston.

It's 2724 late.

The demons has to get a stop.

You've got to get oh they didn't get the stop.

This is going 19 yards for McDowell.

That's all she wrote McDowell had a huge day for Prairie View.

It was a big day for them as a team as well.

It was a grind, but they wind up getting the win over Northwestern State 27 to 24.

As for Johnston, 12 of 19 for 156 and two touchdowns and also had 71 rushing yards and doing with his legs.

See him get a lot more comfortable there just four games into the season for the redshirt quarterback.

Prairie View 346 rushing yards McDowell, one of two players each with over 100 yards on the ground.

Next up for Northwestern State after a bye week October 4th against East Texas A&M.

But about that bye week play, McCorkle.

We didn't play well enough to win.

We didn't take advantage of opportunities when there were there.

We didn't play complementary football offense with make a play and defense wouldn't back it up defense and make a play.

An offense wouldn't back it up.

So we didn't do the things we needed to do to give ourselves an opportunity to win tonight, and that's very disappointing.

Right now we've got a very battered and bruised football team.

We've got an extremely tired football team.

And this weeks coming at a good time, we've got a lot of football ahead of us.

One thing we'll do during the open date is we gotta learn how to tackle.

Okay.

For two weeks, we have not tackled a soul, and we've got to get better at it.

Scott.

There you go.

He echoes your point about being able to make those tackles big enough.

You talked about being banged up.

And I know everybody's already playing 4 or 5 games only.

But just remember at Minnesota at Cincinnati blank playing those bigger teams, getting Brousseau to his point about them being worn out.

You can see why this is their only by week on the season, but for them it probably comes at a good time.

It definitely does because those road games that Minnesota and Cincinnati, they take a lot off you as a defensive player or just playing in the trenches and hitting those type of body types.

What you can't do is let those earlier losses lead to later losses.

I think coach, he says it best, is a great time for a bye.

They need to rest up their bodie From the demons.

Let's check in on the cowboys who are out in beautiful state of Utah.

What a great night for football in terms of the scoreboard.

But Matt Villatoro had his team out there facing Utah State first drive of the game.

Aggies go 72 yards.

But at the end zone Javon Jacobs one of those Scott stretch the ball on the line.

But it's always dangerous because look at the scrum.

The ball comes loose.

They would check it again.

And indeed McNeese forced the fumble right there.

Always a dangerous play.

Yeah.

Back reaches out for for that goal line.

And it's an a great opportunity as a defensive player to swipe a football and create a turnover.

Unfortunately for the Cowboys they went three and out.

And Utah State hits big Bryson Barnes to a wide open Connor Davis 45 yards.

Certainly a busted play there for the Cowboys six.

Nothing as they would miss the two point conversion.

Another three and out for McNeese and another big play for the Aggies Barnes to Brady Boyd.

He gets past the defense and he's off to the races 53 yards on a two play drive.

And it's 13 nothing Utah State second quarter.

Aggies starting to make it look easy.

Miles Davis he's going to write a song about this 30 yards on the left side.

He gets it in the end zone 20 to nothing after for a four play drive.

Previously a two play drive for the score.

You kind of get where this is going.

Finally an offensive spark for the Cowboys.

Oh courtesy after they citizen up the middle breaking away.

It's 51 yards before they finally bring him down inside the 25 yard line.

McNeese keeps it going right side.

Get into the end zone for the Cowboys.

Finally on the scoreboard.

But here come the Aggies once again Barnes on the keeper.

Look at him hit the brakes.

Turns it upfield 24 yards here.

That sets up a three yard touchdown.

This would make it 20 to 727 seven Aggies closing minute of the first half Barnes again on the scramble sits back in the pocket.

Sees the opening.

Takes off 20 yards up the middle down to the one very next play.

Javon Jacobs will take it in for Utah State.

Kind of see the night.

It was beautiful area of the country to be in.

Not so much on the field last night for the Cowboys.

They were challenged.

Utah State just a little too much.

In the end, they wound up getting the win by the final score of 48 to 7, 239 yards for McNeese.

But look at the six.

Berger 627 for Utah State.

So first time since 2012, the Cowboys have faced two teams in the same season.

Next up for the Cowboys Dome open up conference play to stay on the road, but it's a much shorter trip.

They will take on Stephen F Austin as we take a look for what the Cowboys were able to do for their schedule.

And again, you played some of these bigger challenges, what you can learn from them as they now get into conference play.

Matt.

Victories proven.

He knows what he's doing in the South and conference.

He's had success before.

Now you got to take what you've learned, take some of these bumps and bruises that they had really a game a couple weeks ago.

They could have had the two point conversion he made.

That decision, could have tied it, maybe get a win.

You take all that now package it up.

Let's get ready to go to conference play.

That's exactly right.

So the theme of the show is is the silver lining the glass half full message to most of these teams who suffered losses were getting the conference play.

Those were most of our goals were set.

And what these other games for about were about learning what our deficiencies are, inefficiencies, things we need to improve.

I think through increase.

You want to improve the pass game?

Jake Strong quarterback Jake Storms win their MVP their team.

He's been outstanding all year.

But how can we get him in a rhythm in the passing game.

Get that passing game going.

Or do we need to throw more screens?

Do we need to throw more three step drops more rhythm throws to get him going?

Because really what.

Like I said, you just using these early season games to find out what we need to do better getting in the conference.

Citizen.

Outstanding on the ground Jake Strong as your reigning Offensive Player of the week in the South and coverage from a week ago, but need to try to step up when they get in the conference.

And it starts next week because we mentioned they'll be on the road at Stephen F Austin, but then it continues.

You'll be against southeastern Louisiana.

That'll be a big game against the Lions before the Cowboys finally hit their bye week.

And then you see down the stretch three road games in a row.

In fact for the last five Scott will be on the road.

So the challenge will be there for the Cowboys to take advantage at home early because you and you'll be traveling a lot, needing some big wins.

Absolutely.

You got to take care, take care of business.

When you're at home in front of the your fans and in your in front of your crowd to get that momentum.

But when you get on the road later in the season, you don't know the coach.

You're telling your team doesn't matter where we play late in the season, we're not going to be the same team at that point.

The season that those teams were watching early in the season, it's about improving every single week and being a completely different team better at the end of the season than you were at the beginning.

Let's check in on the Cajuns from you.

Lafayette up in Ypsilanti, Michigan, taking on Eastern Michigan.

The Eagles winless on the season.

Cajuns come out slinging it.

That's right.

They come out swinging into the passing game Daniel Field a Robert Williams 18 yards on the completion here.

Then they go to the run.

That two headed monster.

They got it.

Running back Zeeland Perry one of the two.

Look how he takes us here 23 yards on the touchdown one great start for the Cajuns on the road up seven.

Nothing with the passing game going and the running game going.

Donte McMillian for the Eagles.

And he's going to take it 21 yards up the middle.

Remember these two teams.

Both of them struggle against the run.

In fact Eastern Michigan dead last in the country against the run.

That would set up a Noah Kent three yard touchdown ten seven.

Cajuns in the second Kim finds Nick Devereaux.

Look at this catch spinning out of bounds at the two.

The Eagles punch it in to make it 1410.

Cajuns respond though seven.

Play drive the dagger Bill Davis there's another running back.

He gets it done 45 yards.

Cajuns are up 1714 now just before the half Noah Cam finds Joshua Long 15 yards on a completion.

It's 2117.

Eastern Michigan up by four at the break.

Almost ten minutes into the third.

Cajuns retake the lead thanks to the defense.

Cortland Flowers Johnson front of this horrible pass and he's going to take it home.

Makes a couple of moves gets it into the end zone 35 yards.

It's 2421.

Cajuns first play of the fourth quarter Dunlap again from six yards out.

Back come the Eagles 2824 late fourth.

Now it's 3124.

Watch bills stay in the pocket.

Up top the shell that Sampson 43 yards for the great catch by Sampson.

That's going to set this up silent Perry under a minute to go ten yards out.

This ball game is tied at 31.

But in the ensuing kickoff a squib a squib kick.

Really interesting.

It's short.

The Eagles get good field position on third down.

They need to get a stop.

The key just got to get to him.

Kim scrambling, heaves it up.

Oh no.

He finds Joshua Law for 27 yards.

That leaves seven seconds on the clock for Rudy Kessinger to come in.

And from 41 yards out, he sends the Cajuns on the long road trip home with a loss, 34 to 31.

Eastern Michigan cracks the win column for the first time this season.

Bill, we'll talk about in a moment a very solid day at the quarterback position.

You'd like those picks back, but the numbers certainly improve.

Total yards.

Louisiana had more.

In fact, statistically they had a lot more of everything except for in the final score where Eastern Michigan gets the win.

And now the Cajuns have to regroup before jumping into conference play against Marshall.

We knew we were going to start getting some heavy boxes, and we're going to have a bit of play throw, you know, throw and catch and, you know, it was good.

This part of the game look a lot better.

You know, and certainly you see some of those guys make some big plays.

You know, Daniel, the receivers, you know, protected.

I thought a whole lot better really in general.

So, you know, that's certainly a positive, you know, it's just, just not not frequently enough, I guess, as an offense to, you know, be able to continue to attack points.

So Scott was one of those strange games because there was so much improvement that they wanted to see.

But then when you look at the breakdown total yards advantage, Cajuns rushing yards advantage, Cajuns third down conversions or even red zone maybe here's your difference.

You only got in there twice.

They had the ball for two seconds less so many positive numbers.

Even though they had two more penalties it was a fewer yards.

But in the end it's that scoreboard.

It just couldn't make the plays when needed down the stretch.

Yeah.

And I think when you look at scoreboards like this and box scores, it looks a lot like it does on Sundays.

And it's about making the plays at the very end.

Those 4 or 5, six plays that you look at do, did we make them in in the critical moment when it mattered most?

But, you know, if you're the case and you're encouraged by the passing game, the passing game came alive this week.

You don't want to turn the ball over twice in the passing game.

But I think for the offense, the more you can get the ball to Perry and Samson, I think good things will happen for the staff and certainly starting to find their own, and we'll talk more about the passing game in a second, but I want to go back to that, to what happened at the end.

I will tell you that after the ball game, because they were up in Michigan, they had a zoom call so we could try to talk to coach and get some comments, and we did get some comments from them.

But then the call went out and they lost a signal.

One of the questions I'd love to ask, and I'd love to know if he'll address this this week when he talk to the media.

Let's go back to that last segment after they tied the game at 31, you have a chance to maybe pin them back unless you're afraid of them running it back, which I'm not sure had been a problem at all.

The squib kick, if that was scheduled.

I'm not sure it was kick the way it needed to be.

Scott.

It started at the 35.

Yeah, I have no problem with the squib quick kick.

I think a lot of coaches in situation would have done it.

You would like that squib kick to be dribbled at least another 10 to 15 yards.

A lot more force.

And I don't know if he just mishit it, but it just wasn't a force on the square.

Yeah.

So you want to you want to see a swift kick.

Would you want it to go to the 2015.

Right.

You want to dribble down there.

Roll around where the return guy has a trouble picking it up.

Now your coverage unit gets a chance to get down there and corral him a little bit.

You don't want to kick off a normal kickoff.

Let that hangtime happen.

That's where the lane start to happen.

You give up a kickoff return.

So no problem with the squib quick.

The execution of it probably should have been a little harder.

Okay.

Fair enough.

You also talked about the passing game and let's talk about that because remember one week ago for the Cajuns they completed two passes for four yards.

Both of them were in the first quarter and one of them was for a negative yard afterwards Decimos said, I've never seen anything like that.

That's a ridiculous line score, Daniel Bill's been trying to work in because Walker Howard was the guy.

He finally looked comfortable.

This is what they were hoping to see for passing game that they wanted.

To your point about Sampson and company, now they can get a comfort with their quarterback.

What I like Scott here.

Check downtrodden right first he stays in the pocket.

Let's get him going a bit.

Let's get some comfortable.

Now we're going to drop back.

Now we're going to kind of let it rip a little bit.

He gets a nice one here.

You'll see more in a minute where there's another check down ten at the end we saw the big one is Sampson.

It's you're almost like watching them build confidence as it's going.

Look at the progression before he finds a wide open guy checked out here.

But you know what that does.

That's 14 yards.

That's building confidence.

And what you have to do for a quarterback.

Because in the passing game it is all timing chemistry rhythm.

And if you let a quarterback drop back there and you're throwing deep routes, deep crossing routes, and he's getting hit in the back of the head, that speeds up their internal clock.

And now they're off course for the entire game.

So I love the rhythm.

They got this young man in early just you said checkdown Charlie there's nothing wrong with that.

Take what the defense is giving you.

And I thought it was a much improved passing game from last week.

Yeah, they certainly needed it.

And they want to continue growing that as they get ready to open up conference play in a big matchup with Marshall.

But a nice job by be able to see that development from a couple weeks ago to what we saw Saturday.

Unfortunately a three point loss up there in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

All right.

Let's go up to Ruston.

Now.

Let's talk about Louisiana Tech in the momentum that the Bulldogs have been building even after that tough loss in Baton Rouge, where they played the Tigers tough and even had the Tigers kicking field goals at the end instead of punching into the end zone.

They carried that momentum home one week ago, and they look to carry it over again Saturday night, when Southern Miss made the easy drive from Hattiesburg over to take the Bulldogs, and after a night, Blake Baker once again getting the start.

The difference this time, Scott, he played the whole game.

It wasn't an issue with Blake Baker having to share time with anybody else.

He played the whole game in this one and it helps when you're first play from scrimmage is a 73 yard catch and run with your tight end.

Eli Finley takes it all the way down to the one yard line.

Just ran out of gas.

But on the very next play, Baker takes it in himself.

How about that?

You do the work now.

Walking in from one yard out.

Baker gets the score and it's seven.

Nothing early for the Bulldogs.

Southern miss, though, has a quick response.

Braylen Braxton 39 yards here to Cole.

Chester big completion.

Chester holds on to the ball.

And then the very next play Braxton is going to share the wealth carry.

And he takes it 30 yards for the touchdown.

And we're tied at seven.

Now we're tied at ten.

Finley for tech.

Baker is going to find him across the middle.

And that's good for 18 yards.

And gets it past midfield.

That sets up Amari Wiggins and Wiggins from three yards out.

Punches it in and it's 1710 Louisiana Tech.

We're still in the first quarter.

Let's go to the second quarter.

Let's go a minute into the second quarter Braylen Braxton with the quick pass but not quick enough for Colby Fields.

He jumps in front of it.

He's going the other way 46 yards for the touchdown.

It's 2310 Louisiana Tech later in the second clay Devon and scores from one yards out.

It's 30 to 10 at half.

Great start for Louisiana Tech.

Not a huge second half but at this point they didn't need it.

30 to 20 is your final score as Louisiana Tech improves to three and one.

And they're three zero at home for the first time since 2019 Eli Finley your tight end a career high in receptions and yards, including that very big pass right off the bat that he got all the way down to the one yard line.

Next game for Louisiana Tech, they stay in conference USA play.

When they welcome UTEp they'll be in fact excuse me.

They'll go to to UTEp next weekend to continue conference play afterwards.

Comments from head coach Sonny Cumbie.

You know, it's one of those things where actually that's our guy, because when you go to a game like last week where he didn't have but one target, there was a holding penalty and there was really didn't sense of frustration on his part.

He just wanted to win a football game.

And he did that.

And then this week he came back to work and prepared really well, made big plays, made plays in the open field, easy money.

I mean, it felt good.

But I mean, at the end of the day, I got to do my job.

It's my role that night.

Zero catches in my roles like tonight.

I mean, I'm willing to do that job as long as we get a W. For me, the biggest play of the night was recovering the onside kick.

You talk about a nerve racking situation, but I think he relied back on his, his goalie skills, as he was.

He was a goalie.

He was a big time soccer player for a long time in high school until he decided to play football.

And and this was the starting goalie at UTEp as well.

And, played here Friday night.

So he was able to watch her play a little bit, have a lot of high expectations for him.

And, and he led up to him tonight and really lives up to them every day.

Because the kid really wants to win.

And I said this about, you know, it's all me, you know, on the, on the post game, you know, it's like, you know, these guys had some opportunities and I think what, like, they want to be here, they want to win here.

And and they've done that so far this year.

And they're a big part of it.

I mean it's just a mindset.

Every week we go in we expect to not let nobody score.

And when people usually do score, we kind of be surprised.

Defense full of good players, man.

I mean, like I said, we got a three deep in every room, not just a linebacker and not just a D-line room, not just a safety.

We're not just a corner room.

I mean, everybody, you know what I'm saying?

Anybody could go out there and play for the Bulldogs in any given moment and, play at a very real high level.

A two days, one day, you're three deep.

You're all all but hey, you know what?

But give him credit for the confidence that they're playing with right now and what they're doing.

Let's take a look at the stat breakdown.

What?

Southern miss had a very big offensive game, but it wasn't making the plays when they when they needed to.

Louisiana Tech certainly converted in the first half and did what they need to do to put this game away.

Yeah.

You can see the confidence growing with this football team.

Again, I think they're a well-coached team.

I think Coach Cummings a really good coach.

I think the confidence started with this team when they went kind of toe to toe with LSU for a while.

Yeah, and I think after that game, they've been a completely different team.

They're settling in on the quarterback position.

They've been starting the last two games, starting fast, fading a little bit in the end.

But they've been a completely different team since playing that game and Death Valley.

Well, to your point, Sonny Cumbie and said, hey, if LSU is kicking a field goal and we're stopping them late, you're an SEC team, you should punch it in.

He took that as a compliment and respect for the defense, and we've seen what they've done the last two games out on the field, getting it done defensively as well.

And yes they now settle on the quarterback.

We've seen him remember two weeks ago he said hey I'm rotating everybody to settle in.

Baker the last two weeks has been very strong.

Yeah yeah.

And I think the one thing that allows you to do that as a coach, and I'll go back to the quarterback position, is his defense has been really good all year long.

When you have to worry about the defense side of the ball, we don't have to panic about the quarterback position.

They haven't had to panic about the quarterback position, like I said, because the defense playing well.

But they've taken their time.

They found out what they have in all three of their players.

They've been evaluating and they're starting to settle in.

And it's very important.

I know teams like to play a lot of different quarterbacks, but it's important to have a guy to rally around a locker room, to rally around defense, to rally around guys to have confidence in, and that leadership grows when that quarterback starts to take over your team.

Remember, at LSU they played hard and played well into the second half.

But that to your point, over the last couple of weeks they've gotten out to a really quick start.

It's been at home and they've been able to settle a little bit.

But in the second half, as you mentioned, they've been fading.

And well, don't think Sonny Cumbie has a noticed that as well.

And that's something that he's talked about needing this team to improve as they move on.

Yeah that was the thing.

It was disappointing was the second half and we talked about at halftime is that we have, you know, a standard of how we play regardless of the score and the opponent.

And and we did not play to that standard in the second half.

You know our defense played really well.

And you know I have to watch the film to see the specific reasons why, where the breakdowns were.

And I think that's, you know, just something that, you know, for, you know, the fourth quarter game, you know, we've got to be able to execute.

And, you know, I think the kids, you know, I don't think they really have any idea of what they're capable of.

If we do that for four quarters and that's our job as coaches and try to, you know, to find ways to unlock that in our team.

So, Scott, let's take a look at what they did.

Remember you had a conference game in New Mexico State a week ago.

Then you get the win Saturday night against Southern Miss.

But what you're looking here, looking at here are the third quarters of the last two games.

To your point about safety.

You go into halftime feeling well, but you got to carry that momentum back up and start in the third quarter because these two quarters show you that the numbers, well, they haven't been very strong for tech in the last two games.

Yeah.

Every coach is going to be concerned about saying what do we have to do different come out of halftime.

We showed the clip earlier of Ole Miss.

Even though they're up by 30 some points are still fast paced, fast paced.

You have to stay to who you are, no matter if you're winning the game at halftime or not.

Nothing changes.

Coming to that locker room in the third quarter, we're going to be who we are, whether it stays aggressive on offense and and staying aggressive on defense.

And I look as we know coaches will look at something like this.

They know that this is something they need to improve on.

But in the end it's that final score.

And congratulations to tech to getting enough done in the first half to hold on and make it three straight at home for the first time since 2019, before they go on the road to take on the miners from UTEp.

So now we look ahead to week five and as we've talked about it, Scott has been kind of the theme of the show.

We're now getting ready for that second season, if you will, because conference play will be starting in fall and some of the games we'll be looking at next week to close out the month of September.

Well, of course, there's a big one up in Oxford with all that LSU and Ole Miss, two ranked teams that will be top 12.

You own Monroe.

It's homecoming Arkansas State.

They're Tulane again.

You're going to face another fast paced team at Skelly Field in Tulsa because they rank right behind Ole Miss in terms of pace of play and down towards the bottom of the screen.

Well, that's Southern Jackson State when there's some hatred between those two teams.

Scott again, conference games that are all important.

Absolutely.

You get into these games and these players have been talked to all year starting in in spring football.

Your goal is to win the conference.

Your goal is to win the conference.

Now that time is here.

That season is here.

Now go get it done.

We look forward to seeing if they can get it done, because we're going to preview it all for you next Saturday, and we'll recap it all next Sunday.

Glad you joined us here for this week four edition of Game Notes for the Postgame Edition.

We look forward to seeing you next week for Scott Shanley and Victor Hall.

Have a great week.

We'll see you here next Saturday on LPB.

Major production funding for game notes is provided by Southern University and A&M College and Hargrove engineers and Constructors, and the Ralph Pugh Agency, with additional support from Lafayette Travel, the LSU Alumni Association, and the Cook Hotel and Conference Center at LSU, the Louisiana Tech University, Natchitoches Regional Medical Center, Northwestern State University, Red Stick Sports, the U.S.

Army, Baton Rouge Recruiting Battalion, the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and viewers like you.

Thank you.