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Welcome to Game Notes here on LP.

Be a great Saturday morning to you as we get set for another big weekend of college football in and around the state of Louisiana.

I'm victor.

It's great to have you with us.

Coming up in the next 30 minutes, we have four teams coming off of there by their back in action.

We'll get you ready for their game.

We also have the second game in the Governor's Cup, the big showdown up in North Louisiana.

We'll get to all of that and more.

We want to start this morning with breakfast and pigskin.

Because of the early kick taking place in Baton Rouge, and for the first time since 2018, LSU and Mississippi State will square off with both teams ranked in the top 25.

The Tigers plummeted after their loss to Kentucky one week ago down to 23 now from ten while the Bulldogs are sitting at 16.

The SEC decided to give Tiger fans what they despise and 11 a.m.

kick for this one.

In fact, players are on the field right now starting to warm up.

But did you know while this will be the 18th pre kick in Tiger Stadium history, while the fans don't like it, the Tigers are 13 and four in the previous 17.

This week while getting ready for the dogs, Lane Kiffin was talking about the what ifs against the cats one week ago that landed the Tigers with two conference losses after just three games.

I mean, if you break the game down, you're at a one play game.

You really in a one yard game, you know where, like I told him to get four chances to end the game twice.

On offense, you have the ball in your head so you don't score the game's over or just make it second, first down and on defense, you have your on defense with the lead in the two minute and you're on defense with seven point lead in overtime.

Just do one of those four.

Even with injuries and all the things and like I've told them all, you have a chance to be a really good team.

What does that say to me, man?

We do really good things.

And then we don't finish drives on both sides of the ball well enough, you know?

So I don't know if a react either way.

Just like if we would have one stop on a two point play or any of those four scenarios, I would have been saying, man, we played amazing.

You know, we overcame adversity.

I would say, hey, we got some issues to work on.

Well, one of those issues Kiffin refers to surrounds the good and the bad of quarterback Sam Leavitt.

Leavitt is number two in passing yards in the SEC and near the top for total offense.

But on the other side.

He's also thrown more interceptions so far this season than any other quarterback in the country, and has some crucial turnovers in the red zone.

So what's the fix?

I think things happen fast in the red zone sometimes.

Sam has done some really good things in the red zone, and he's also missed a couple guys.

And you are right.

Both of those, he got off the reads early where they were open.

They'll miss on the final drive.

And then Saturday in the end zone, you know, we had to settle for three.

But yeah, I think it's because he's just trying to go really fast.

And so it's just got to get better.

That one really stung just because it was like the situation.

And you know, I really should have just like, scrambled to the right.

You know, I thought about it actually going into the play, kind of tried to force the check down and like, I was going up to pass it and it slipped out of my hand, or I think it got tipped.

But that one was pretty brutal.

There's, like, not much you can say there then, you know, don't jump and pass the ball.

Especially at that point in the game, like, I just, I need to be, you know, a savvier player and not try to win the game on that play.

Yeah, everything's going to run through Sam.

That's the system part of it.

But again, like you look at it just yesterday or on Saturday, I think you had 15, maybe 16 rushes.

You still put the ball in the air 35 or 36 times.

He's going to be the focal point for them.

And again, offensively they are they're scoring at a really high clip.

They're running the football really well.

They've been explosive.

So it is it's about doing a great job of tackling Sam when we get the opportunity to.

And then we've got to be able to create some turnovers.

As I mentioned, these teams are already inside a Tiger Stadium getting ready for the 11 a.m.

kick.

It's the fifth pre kick between the Tigers and the Bulldogs.

That's the most for LSU against any opponent.

These teams took the last two years off from facing each other.

But since 2000 LSU was 20 and three against Mississippi State.

As soon as we're done here on game notes, grab some extra breakfast and get set for kickoff.

And you can watch all the action on ESPN.

Well, they're separated by less than a 40 minute drive.

But somehow this is the first meeting between Louisiana Tech and Monroe since the 2000 season.

The difference with this one, it's a conference matchup.

Now that tech is in the Sun Belt Conference.

They opened SBC play last weekend with a win over the Raging Cajuns, thanks to a huge gut check.

And come back in the fourth quarter, an effort that got the attention of head coach Sonny Cumbie and his staff.

With eight minutes to go in the game, you're down 12 points.

And and again, I told our coaches, we'll find out the type of team that we have, and we found out that our guys will fight and they continue to play.

And a 13 year old, you know, he's pretty into stats and analytics.

Gray is and he reminded me that when it was fourth and three, we had a 1.3% chance of winning the football game.

And and that 1.3 is all that our guys needed because Blake ran it in for a touchdown and we ended up coming back.

We won the football game.

And so I think it says a lot about our players, their resiliency.

And obviously we'd like to do it in a better fashion in terms of that.

But just way to battle for our guys.

The thing that our guys know is none of those plays carry over to this week.

And this week we're zero and zero.

We're playing an opponent that's had two weeks to prepare for us.

We're playing a team that's going to play extremely physical on offense and defense and special teams, and they're very well coached.

Coach Vincent does a phenomenal job.

He's one of the best football coaches that I've had the opportunity to communicate with and to talk football with.

His kids will be extremely ready to play.

And so, you know, that's where there's no room in football forecasting or prediction, and especially in rivalry games.

And so our guys will be back to work tonight facing a big challenge this week as we go on the road.

And we want to win the one game that we're given this week.

Well, after tonight, the dogs head back home for homecoming against Old Dominion.

But then we will closely watch the next two games, both on the road against the current first place team in the conference and the defending Western Division champs.

As for the Warhawks, they're coming off their bye week and head coach Brian Vincent said it was just what the doctor ordered.

It's good to get back to game week, specially Radiance Technology I-20 showdown.

You know, I think the week came at a great time.

It gave us opportunity to really work on all three phases and clean up some areas, a lot of areas that we needed to get cleaned up.

I think our players were able to get their bodies back.

We had a lot of guys banged up, but also get a lot of preparation and a lot of work done on our own team.

This is going to be a the renewal of this rivalry and not having played since 2000, right at, I guess, 26 years, to be able to renew this rivalry is going to I think it's going to spark this region.

It's going to be big for northeast Louisiana.

We're 35 miles apart.

But we still you know, our team believes we believe this is still a good football team.

This team can win football games and we know it.

We just got to go out and prove it.

We're here to build this program.

Nobody's jumping off a bridge.

Nobody's panicking or falling out.

Are we disappointed?

Are we sick to our stomach?

Are we upset?

Yes.

Yes we are.

But what do we do about it?

There's no looking in the rearview mirror.

We're going to learn, and we're going to work on the things we're going to fix.

But we're here to build this program.

We're here to to win football games.

And this is the next one up.

And it's a big one.

Well, overall, it's the 44th meeting between the two programs and the first as conference opponents since 1986, when they were both in the South Bend Conference.

The Bulldogs are looking to make it nine in a row in this series tonight to 7:00 kick, and the game can be seen on ESPN plus now.

One week ago, we visited Monroe and I talked to sports director Aaron Dietrich about Louisiana Tech.

Here's what he had to say about the Warhawks and the tough road they've traveled so far this season.

It was a terrible start for football season.

He's certainly look at the fact now, this program has not won a game in an entire calendar year.

So how did they get to this point?

I think it all goes back to that game versus southeastern.

It was one of those games that the the walks had to win against the Lions.

You have them by ten points in this game.

They get off to a dreadful start.

Southeastern builds a lead.

The Warhawks put together a rally but they fall short.

So ever since that game and it was the home opener.

You know how homeowners are and you got to get the fan base kind of rallied behind a program, especially when you're in your number three.

And that has not been the case.

So the whole storyline going into this year was where they be able to finish if they got off to a great start.

That has not been the case this year, as they're still looking for win number one, and I don't know where the wind is going to come either.

That's the other issue.

They're hoping to get some things right before Louisiana Tech comes in to Saint Francis Stadium next week.

All of the Bulldogs are there for tonight.

Now, last time out, the Warhawks lost to South Alabama, who currently sits atop the Western Division.

After tonight, Ulm will travel to face the reigning Sun Belt, West Champs and Troy.

As you can see, the road doesn't really get any easier, but it should be a great atmosphere tonight when the Bulldogs and the Warhawks get at it.

Well, the last time Alabama A&M was on the field, they lost to Jackson State by three.

That was two weeks ago.

Last week, Grambling got the win over Jackson State in a thrilling 45 to 38 contest.

The Tigers have scored 108 points in their last two games, both wins, and look to keep the offense rolling at Alabama Alabama A&M this afternoon.

But they've also given up 97 points in those same two games, which has head coach Mickey Joseph looking for answers with his deep.

Well, I think with the defense, when it's time to make a play, they make a play.

But with defense, if if one person screws up a front coverage, it can, it can gasping for yards.

So we got to figure out how to get off the field and not the not to give up these long runs.

And we got to continue to do a better job tackling.

I guarantee we missed a lot of tackles.

Now we're going to hit you.

We're going to hit you.

If you're there, we'll hit you.

But now we got to say I don't want to kill him.

I don't want to bury him.

I want to just get him down.

And that's what our kids got to say, because physicality is a part of our DNA.

We talk about that.

But sometimes our kids, they're trying to knock, knock you out your pads.

Sometimes we can't do that.

Sometimes we just got to wrap and hold on to my buddies get there.

So we got to do a better job of that and I think we will.

Well, for this week's did you know, we look at the discrepancy under Joseph when it comes to home versus away.

The Tigers have been excellent protecting home field in the last two plus years.

But for some reason that overall game doesn't seem to travel well.

So how does Joseph look at the difference and find success away from Eddie Robinson Stadium?

Well, we've been there before and I think every time we go on the road we have opportunity to win.

We just don't put it away.

So we got to put ourselves in a place where we can win the game.

Now we got to finish it.

I just think being on the road, we hadn't finished that.

You know, I think that we've been in games on the road now we got to be at a finish on the road and that starts with me.

That starts for me.

Y'all know me.

I'm always going to accept.

I'm always going to start responsibility when things don't go well with this program.

And it hadn't went well.

But we talked to the kids about finishing.

You got to finish on the road.

You got to finish in a hostile environment.

Well, this one is number three verses number four in the HBCUs rankings.

And it's also homecoming for Alabama A&M.

They'll kick off the on the field festivities at 4:00 this afternoon.

And you can catch all the action on Swac TV.

I think the big thing, the big takeaway from GB was the was a frustration of our football team not not really believing in who they are and what what they're all about.

I think we got I really do believe we got a good, talented football team, that just lacks a little bit of confidence in in what they're what they're capable of doing on a consistent basis.

So there were some things that we did really well.

And then the but mixed in, there was just a huge mistake that either killed or drive or gave up a big play was close to play.

So I think it's, it's we've been averaging over 30 points a game in the last three weeks and then turned around, laying eight this past week.

But it wasn't.

It was it was I think it goes back to a lack of confidence into who we are.

And that falls on me, you know, being able to instill confidence in our guys, to believe that they can, do what they need to do to to be successful.

And, you know, I, I got to make sure that's done.

We got Lamar coming in this week.

A very good football team, very talented, very well coached.

You know they they find ways to win.

They did last year and got them in the playoffs for the first time in.

I think since 18.

And they're finding ways to win this year not only with talent.

They've got good football players but they're they're there.

I think that's a team that playing with a lot of confidence.

So be a great, great game for us.

Tone coming got a lot of people coming in.

And I think that's pretty cool too.

You know, when people would get the alumni back out, there would be a great atmosphere.

So looking for a good crowd and, you know, can't wait to, you know, showcase who we are this week.

A bit of a surprise to hear southeastern head coach Frank will talk about his team struggling with confidence and belief.

After the way we saw their team playing for the three weeks prior to the bye.

Everything was a struggle last week in southwest Texas, and it certainly doesn't get easier with Lamar in town this week.

As you can see, the Lions aren't out of it in the Southland Conference, but they certainly have no room for error anymore.

The six teams in yellow are the games still to be played on the schedule, so if the Lions do make a move, they'll certainly earn it.

But first things first it's homecoming in Hammond.

Kick off of them are is set for 4:00 this afternoon, and you can see the showdown on ESPN plus.

Well, during the by week I had a chance to catch up with cell phone and we talked about the stretch run the teams about to enter.

We heard that conversation one week ago.

This morning.

Coach talks about his special player making big plays on special teams as well as the development on defense.

It's an interview you'll only see here on game notes.

I'm shocked that people are still kicking to Joseph what he has shown that he can do special team wise.

And I know coaches always talk about all three phases, but how big has that phase been in terms of field position scoring off of a kick.

Just what he brings to your team?

Yeah, he's just such a dynamic player you know and really where he's come into his own also as a receiver he was he played some receiver last year but didn't you know couldn't crack the lineup.

Had a few balls.

But he was dynamic as a return of last season.

And towards the end of the year they quit kicking to him.

And now everybody's back out kicking to him again.

Is that going to change as the season goes on?

That that remains to be seen.

And but what his work ethic and what he brings to the table every week, I mean, every day, really, he's out there catching balls off of the jugs early in the morning by himself.

He's working.

He's doing things.

He's prepared.

He had a great summer, great fall camp, and he's put himself in a position now that even when he has the ball in his hands, he's dynamic.

But he's done some things from a receiver, from a development standpoint there that I think is really, separating himself from a lot of other people.

Yeah, it certainly shown in the numbers and the results.

Have you been happy with the way your defense has developed through these first five games or so heading into this by week?

Because, obviously that was a strong point last year with a lot of guys.

And I know you lost a couple of the big stars there, but are you happy with what you've seen in that growth?

As you get ready to turn the calendar to October and get into this conference stretch, you, you know, you just think about what we lost last year with the the conference player of the year on defense, the defensive player of the year.

Four year starter for us.

I mean, we we were a senior laden defense.

And even though a lot of these guys that are playing now played some last season, it it really thrusting them into a new role.

Having them understand the entire game playing like, like similar to Kyle and that was that.

That was our whole team and and special teams also.

And I think what's happened is that you're starting to see more and more players emerge as playmakers for us on defense.

And we certainly appreciate coaches time and we know they got a big win this afternoon in Hammond.

Let's go down to Thibodaux now where the Nicholls Colonels are back after a week to reset.

And what a way to make a return.

Hosting the team sitting on top of the conference.

And that's Stephen F Austin during the by week.

Head coach Tommy right back.

It was nice enough to spend some one on one time with game notes to talk about his team's growth, some of the hiccups this season, and how they'll need to overcome a massive loss in the lineup.

I know so many coaches have, you know, and fans will look at the schedule wondering if it's too early for a bye week or two, late for a bye week.

Yours happens to basically literally slip in right smack in the middle.

I know you come off a tough road loss, but does this wind up being the best time for you to try to reevaluate some things as you get ready for the stretch run in the second half of the season?

Yeah, definitely say so.

You know, we have a young football team.

We got a lot of newness on this team, not only with players but also with some coaching changes and things.

So it fell at a nice time where we're able to evaluate what's taking place in the first six weeks and and see where we need to improve, what our identity is and how we can best be for the rest of the remainder of the season.

You know, I mentioned that you're just coming off of a tough road loss.

What's been the as you as you're on this by week and you're taking a look at things and evaluating things for your team, what have you seen is the biggest difference from the way you're able to protect home field so well?

But the struggles on the road, particularly on offense.

And I'm taking out the Kansas State game for a moment.

Let's we can put that aside.

That's a check game and a and a bigger opponent.

But it just seems like the offensive struggles are much more obvious, if you will, or much more of a showcase as opposed to home as you've looked at games and you're trying to evaluate, is there a way to find out what has been the difference between the performances they're in and the performances when you're away?

Yeah, I mean, credit, of course, to a week ago to Houston Christian.

And what they did defensively really challenged us.

But you know when you look inside you see execution errors.

You see things that you need to be able to clean up.

You're searching for consistency offensively.

And you know that's really where we're at is just trying to, you know, double down on our identity and and get some consistency so that, you know, our game will travel no matter whether we're playing at home or we're playing on the road.

We're able to be productive offensively.

While you have this time away from prepping for a game, and I know most coaches will do a lot of self-evaluation, do some deep dives.

What are 1 or 2 of the highlight things without giving away game schemes?

Obviously, but what are one of a couple of things you might be looking at during this by week that you've been focusing on with the team, before you return to action next week against Stephen of Austin?

Yeah, just clear identity, you know, on early downs.

What are we looking to do offensively defensively and how can best can our players execute and then also focus in on some key, situations like third down where we can improve.

And so really taking a deep dive and looking at our film and looking at our preparation in those areas and seeing what's working well for us and what can we do different to improve down the stretch on the offensive side of the ball?

Obviously, we know about your quarterback in Rodrigue being back again with his experience.

The running game has been a little lack for maybe what we've seen in the past, as there have been.

Is that more of a scheming situation?

Has that been personnel?

Because I know he's put a lot on his shoulders to try to carry the load on the offensive side.

Is that something you've been looking at?

Yeah, for sure.

I mean, you know, you look at the games that we've played, you know, there's flashes in there where we've been able to run the ball.

Well it just has not been consistent enough.

And you know it's definitely not a change in philosophy.

We're always looking to run the football here.

And we know that that sets up everything else.

And so we're looking we're searching for that consistency there in the run game for sure.

I have to ask you how Jordan Smith is doing.

I know he was an outstanding receiver for he was putting up some nice numbers, had that horrible injury at the end of the game.

In fact, he had just had like a 30 yard completion a couple of plays before that.

Can you update us on how he's doing?

I'm assuming based on the injury he's probably lost for the year, but, the impact it'll have for you on the field.

But then personally, for him, how is he doing?

Yeah.

Jordan, was able to, you know, have a surgery in Houston and has just recently returned back to Louisiana.

But many meant so much to our team, not only on the field, but also off the field.

He's one of our key leaders on the team, and he's got a ton of respect from his teammates in the locker room and also from the coaching staff and and really, anybody who touches Nichols football knows about Jordan Smith and the type of young man he is.

And it's just unfortunate that we lost him in the, you know, you know, for him to lose his senior season the way that he did, it's really unfortunate.

We'll have to bounce back.

I know he'll be right there with us and rooting for us along the way.

And the next guy is going to need to step up.

Look, one, look at the numbers and you can see what a loss it is.

With Smith being gone for the season, he was at the top of the conference for yards and four touchdowns.

But now we're backing the Colonels.

We'll look to see who can step up and they'll have their first chance to do so this afternoon when Nichols hosts the Lumberjacks.

It's a 3:00 kick inside of Guidry Stadium.

And as always, you can't make it.

Check out the action on ESPN plus.

Over in Lafayette, the raging Cajuns are ready to rebound after last week's tough loss up in Ruston.

A heartbreaking fashion to Louisiana Tech.

We told you earlier, the Bulldogs rallied big in the fourth quarter to get that win, which also means it was a rough ending to the game for the Cajuns.

For head coach Michael, it's how the team learns from the loss and applies what they learn moving forward that will make the difference.

Yeah, I mean, losing sucks.

Losing in the manner we lost makes it even worse.

You know, it's, it's always difficult, but it's certainly a tough pill to swallow, you know, to to give up a two possession lead late in the fourth and, you know, feel like you let one slip.

So, these are things that we talked about, though, you know, we had two other games this year where we felt like we had an opportunity to put it away.

And did not, you know, and we talked about it kind of.

Listen, this this will come back to bite you at some point if we don't get this corrected.

And here we are.

So, you know, it's a tough lesson to learn.

But you turn the ball over three times.

It's hard to win that way.

We weren't as efficient in the throw game as we had been.

Even though we created some explosives.

And, you know, you can't give up 19 in the fourth quarter.

You know, I say all the time, you got to run the ball to win at some point.

And we weren't able to do that effectively.

You know, no one play, no one person, no one face, is solely responsible.

It's it's shared accountability, good and bad.

But it's a lesson that we've got to learn and we've got to learn from it quickly.

This game could come down to who holds serve inside the 20 yard line.

The cages have the sun belts top ranked offense in the red zone, scoring at a 96% clip.

But to enter today's game with the sun belts best defense in the red zone, only allowing scoring 63% of the time.

Gotta love it when you can get best on best going at each other.

It's a bit of an earlier day for what we're used to in Lafayette.

He'll kick it off at 4:00 this afternoon inside of Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium.

Should be a Chamber of Commerce Day, so get out there and enjoy the game.

We'll catch it all on ESPN plus.

Well up in that.

Head coach Blaine McCorkle has been the epitome of patience and positivity this season.

That's not to say he's happy that his demon football team is winless, but he insists he has seen improvement from his team as a season has progressed to this point.

And now they're coming off a bye week when they had extra time to get healthy and do a deep dive into the program.

Yeah, it came at a really good time.

You know, first six down and six to go.

So it's dead in the middle.

Very rarely those year by week fall dead in the middle.

But it did for most of our conference.

So it came at a really good time.

And I think we got a lot of work done.

It went fast.

It went really, really fast.

But, we've got a lot of good self scout done in all three phases, kind of looking for our own tendencies, things we're good at, things we need to get better at, things that we're kind of giving away.

So I think we accomplished a lot there.

Looking inward, we're able to get a bit of a jumpstart on McNeese.

They have a bye week this week too, so those are really give you an advantage or disadvantage there schedule wise.

And we're able to get some bodies healed up.

You know, get some guys back and let some guys rest.

You know it's a new season.

It's the second season.

You know we talked about last week was a mini preseason for us.

Now we're zero and zero.

And we've got some really good teams on the backside of the schedule.

But being at home helps that, you know, for the next six.

We've definitely done a lot of traveling in the first half.

We played in FBS and then two top 25 teams, you know, in the first six and a lot of those being on the road.

So that's tough sledding.

So, you don't quite have that on the back end.

And you're at home even though, you know you got some really, really good teams coming.

Four of the next five will be in Natchitoches.

So the demons hope some home field advantage can kick in.

You can see who will be rolling into town.

Now that is all conference play from here on out.

And it starts with another team coming off.

It's by McNeese making the short trip up from Lake Charles.

Emphasis for us last week was, you know, going back and I just don't I think we got to get better at the details.

And we've talked to the players coaches about that.

I think the details are, you know, have been spotty at times, which just cost us a few things.

You know, whether it's something on offense, whether it's a blocking scheme, whether it's something, whether it's a, you know, communication on defense on the back end, there's just a variety of things that happen.

So I think we got to be better detailed and hopefully, you know, we get a couple guys back this week and, you know, go and have a good performance out.

Has to like it.

When he sees the demons on the schedule, he's never lost to him since he's been a head coach.

It's another early kick around the state on this week seven slate, an hour after LSU and Mississippi State kick off at 11.

They'll kick this one off at noon in Natchitoches.

Enjoy the high noon affair on at Turpin Stadium, or enjoy watching it on ESPN plus.

And because it is an early day to start football, we are done and ready to go.

We thank you so much for joining us here on Game Notes.

We look forward to seeing you on Monday night when we wrap it all up for postgame notes.

Until then, I'm Victor Howell.

Enjoy your football weekend.

And thanks for joining us here on LPB.

Major production funding for game notes is provided by Southern University and A and M College and Hargrove Engineers and Constructors and the Romp Pugh Agency, with additional support from Lafayette Travel, the LSU Alumni Association, and the Cook Hotel and Conference Center at LSU, Louisiana Tech University, Northwestern State University.

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