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Well, good morning, everybody.

Welcome to week eight of the college football season.

Great to have you with us for game notes here on LPB I'm Howell.

We've got a full slate of action to preview here.

In the next 30 minutes, we will be talking about the top two teams in the Sun Belt Conference Western Division.

They're both from the state of Louisiana.

The Tulane Green Wave about the play back to back home game for the only time this season with a lot on the line, facing the number one team in their conference.

And we're less than an hour away from kickoff on the plains between LSU and Auburn.

All of that is coming up in the next 30 minutes.

Let's start with health news and something that broke on Thursday concerning the head coach of the Southern Football Jaguars.

When the news hit Thursday that Pro Football Hall of Famer and current southern head coach Marshall Faulk was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, it really put the talk about a game and even all the games on this show in perspective.

But Fox seemingly has a very grounded perspective on his own health, the Jaguar head coach said on the Caring Neurologist podcast.

He noticed some tightness and slight twitching while playing golf, and really didn't think much of it until he was told, you need to go see a doctor and not one to mess around with his health.

He did.

So why not sit and be concerned or slow down life instead of taking on the role of a college head football coach?

For Falk, it's all about being in control instead of letting the diagnosis fill that role.

I guess because I don't look at it as something that's terminal, you know, it's like it's like, hey, you know, you get to live with this.

There's there's far worse things out there.

And if that's the case, then, okay, so be it.

You just you move on, and you, you do what you need to do, and you continue to live your life.

You know, I didn't look at it like, you know, if if I got to diagnosis, it was something bad that I was, you know, life was going to end.

It's it's something you live with.

It's not to where it's detriment to your livelihood.

Now, if you don't take care of it, there's an opportunity for that to be.

But you have to take care of it.

Now, there have been two major studies focusing on Parkinson's disease and professional athletes, and the numbers are a bit I opened.

According to a Boston University study, those who play organized football have a 61% greater chance of being diagnosed with the disease.

A second study of over 20,000 former football players by the NFL found that they are four times more likely to die from a neurodegenerative disease, Falk said he uses a dinner he had one night with a legendary Muhammad Ali, as a reminder that he can continue doing what he wants to do in life, while closely monitoring his condition with his doctors.

And clearly, what he wants to do later today is get another win on the road, this time against Texas Southern in Houston.

Earlier this week, before the diagnosis, Faulk discussed what his team learned from their win in Texas against Prairie View and continued to work on in their bye week.

You know that we we have to, in today's game, give these kids a time enough to like learn how to play together, learn how to trust one another regardless of all the work that we do as a coaching staff, as an administration, at trying to get them to formalize as a team until they assembly and accept the fact that they are a team.

This is what we're going to deal with.

And I feel like after this game, learning how to play 11 as one, not one of 11, and what we are capable of doing, they they now see this.

And now once you put it on tape, going out there continuously and doing it is what we're looking for.

Well, they're well coached.

Their discipline, offensively they're explosive.

They can score points.

And defensively they got some big guys.

They they love their attack.

You in the run.

And they they they play good football.

We just gotta we gotta go out and understanding that we're on the road in the hostile environment potentially.

And and just play play our brand of football.

That's what we want to do.

We want to play our brand of football.

And if you know, if and when, we always hear this, that most games are lost before they're one.

Don't lose the game.

Don't don't beat ourselves.

Of course, the Winnie's referencing was against Prairie View the last time they were on the field.

Now, one thing about playing in H-Town the Jags have had a lot of success.

They lead the overall series with Texas Southern comfortably, and they've won the last five games played over in Houston.

This afternoon's kick is set for 2:00, and you can check out all of the action on Swac TV.

Really electric place.

Been there a lot.

And part of the Iron Bowls and, kind of magical place.

And so, you know, we're going to have to pray really well and be ready to play in a really, loud environment that they play really well at.

So, it's always about preparation and preparing really well, practicing really well.

And then when you go in there, okay, making less mistakes in a lot of times on the road, you know, as you break down your losses and close losses, they're usually not as much how many plays they make.

It's more of the mistakes you make and more penalties, more false starts and more turnovers than when you play at home.

Of course, that's LSU head coach Lane Kiffin talking about the challenge playing at Auburn this morning and what it will take to get the Purple and Gold Tigers a road win for the first time in two years.

He certainly got a big boost on offense this week with the return of tight end trade.

Has green, who's been out since the loss at Ole Miss in Week three and that's when he got hurt late in that ball game.

With all of the high expectations in his first year in Tiger Town, Kiffin was asked about the biggest challenge or surprise that he's faced so far.

And spoiler alert it isn't an opponent.

I think probably the challenge really the unexpected challenge was the injuries.

And I'm not complaining.

Okay, I understand injuries happen, but the significance of ours with dynamic, All-American type of players that we're playing in that way and the leadership skills.

You have two sevens not playing like in an era where, you know, we were we were built top heavy, and I just think that was the best way to win, was to do that.

So you did have these marquee really good players and we built the team to, you know, be able to play against anybody.

And those, those are really challenging, challenging injuries.

And not just because the players that are behind them, but because of who they are from a leadership standpoint.

In your first year together?

Well, as we speak, they are on the field on the plains warming up for this morning's 11 a.m.

kick.

This was the first time in Tiger history that teams playing back to back 11 a.m.

games.

Now, with last week's win, the Tigers are now 14 and four in pre-launch kickoffs.

This used to be such a great matchup over the years when they used to play every season, but this is the first match up with Auburn since 2023.

Remember last week the Tigers knocked off a ranked Mississippi State team at home, while Auburn went to Athens and beat number one Georgia on the road.

So you can bet Jordan Harris going to be electric.

So kickoffs at 11 a.m.. After we're done here, slip on over to ABC and get ready to see the Tigers versus Tigers.

Well, two weeks ago, the raging Cajuns traveled north to Ruston for the first conference matchup against Louisiana Tech.

Despite a lot of positives in that game, including a double digit lead in the fourth quarter, they returned home to Lafayette with a loss.

There were no signs of a losing hangover the last weekend at home, when the Cajuns dismantled defending division champ Troy, and head coach Michael Decimal shared why he thinks that was the case.

I think what our staff did a better job of last week than anything, and no one knows about it.

No one's ever going to know about it.

Our staff did a phenomenal job of keeping our players confidence really high because that's what you worry about.

You know, when you get look, we we go, you know, we take a road trip and you expect to go in.

You expect to play really well.

You're in a position where you are playing really well and you got a game that should be locked up and you come back and you end up losing the game.

Yeah, you worry about guys being shaken a little bit.

You worry about how they bounce back from that.

And I think that's what our staff did really.

We kept we kept the issues, the issues.

Right.

It was it was about hey, here's what we didn't do.

Well, here's how we do it better.

Here's how you have success and guys believe in that.

You know, if a coach can't give you tangible things that you can do to have success the next time, then as a player you feel like you can't make the next play.

And that's what I think our staff did a really good job of, and I'm grateful for that.

So with the work the staff did and staying locked in, it actually paid off of the Cajuns.

This week went on Tuesday.

South Alabama lost to Marshall that lost by the Jaguars.

Move Louisiana up in the standings to second place.

All alone in the Sun Belt Western Division.

So now the challenge is even bigger to stay locked in with the team having to go back on the road in conference play against a team that has been a problem as of late.

I mean, every week that we're playing here is is an important week.

We cannot afford to slip up again.

If we want a chance to get in the conference championship.

We know this, this week is probably amplified a little bit when you're talking about a chance to get to your six win, which is our our second goal as a team.

And when you have a chance to accomplish one of those goals, it's a championship week.

It is.

And for us, it's been a long stretch.

You know, this will be eight in a row without a bye.

We've got to go finish this this four game stretch in the middle right here.

Really?

Well, we've got to go find a way to get a win on the road, which, you know, at Southern Miss historically has not been easy.

But we got to find a way to go do it.

Yeah.

He's right.

Hattiesburg has not been very welcoming to the raging Cajuns recently.

Southern miss has won eight of the last nine games played on its home field.

This season has been a bit of a struggle for the Golden Eagles, and Louisiana doesn't want that to change any time today.

Kick off a set for 4:00.

If you're not making the easy drive to Hattiesburg, no problem.

You can catch out the action on ESPN.

Plus, you don't mind a quick shout out to now former Louisiana Tech president doctor Jim Henderson and his wife Tanya.

Now that Henderson has stepped down as president, citing health reasons, the main reason for his departure, the recent disputes with the Louisiana system over the lack of educator pay raises reportedly played a part as well.

He was one of the driving forces to get the Bulldogs into the Sun Belt Conference out of conference USA.

He's a huge sports fan and thankfully a supporter of game notes here on LP.

So thank you, Doctor Henderson and good luck to you in your future endeavors.

He was on the sidelines last weekend in Monroe, watching his dogs bark louder and get their second conference win.

And in the process captured the Governor's Cup.

Tech celebrates homecoming today, and head coach Sonny Cumbie has been pleased with the way his team has handled the recent success.

It's great to be two zero in Sun Belt play.

It's great to to be two zero in this state.

You know, in terms of the teams that we've played the last two weeks to be able to win the Governor's Cup the first year of it.

You got to be able to win the I.

20 showdown last week.

It's it's great to have all those things accomplished, but we understand we're halfway through the season.

You know, we have six games to go.

We have a lot of a lot of tough games ahead of us.

We've had tough games behind us and hopefully that our team can apply the lessons that we've learned in victory.

You know, also the lessons that we've learned in the couple of defeats that we've had.

Every game is like a new season.

Coach Cumbie was missing.

Once the game is done, is done.

You know, you celebrate your win that day.

That night.

And the next day.

You move on from it.

It's a whole nother week.

A whole nother game.

And we've been good about that.

This this season.

We played a game.

Win or loss.

Whatever happens, happens.

And you, you let it go.

The next day, we know what we gotta do in this conference.

We're we're still we're we're the new guy on the block.

So, we're still making a statement.

So every week is a new week.

We're not worried about any past games.

Any past wins.

I would say we're pretty confident.

I think we know how good we can be when we go out there and execute.

And we know we can, we just got to work on the attention to detail and everything we do.

I think that our football team is mature enough to understand that we're still searching for our best in terms of office, defense and special teams to play a complete game and or chasing that.

And so I think that is the I think, the motivating factor for our guys.

I think, again, we've got six one week seasons left.

So it's a home game.

You know, it's an opportunity for us to get to three and zero potentially in conference.

And so that's a huge huge opportunity.

Well well well what do we have here.

I told you just a moment ago that Louisiana woke up on Wednesday to find themselves in second place.

Well, with that same South Alabama loss, it's now Louisiana Tech that sits all alone in first place in the Sun Belt West.

And with James Madison losing Thursday night in an upset to App State, the dogs are now the only undefeated team in terms of conference games.

Not a bad first season in the Sun Belt so far.

Tech will travel to South Alabama next week in a huge game.

But first, this afternoon, the dogs celebrate homecoming, hosting the monarchs from Old Dominion, who are in last place in the East.

They'll kick it off at 4:00 at the Joe and Bulldog.

Fans not able to make it to campus can see all the action on ESPN plus.

Well, we talked about this at the end of September.

The Cowboys from McNeese have been hitting the trails, if you will, this entire month.

Two road games and a bye week have landed us here with yet another road game there in San Antonio this weekend, looking to build off of last week's win over Northwestern State.

It wasn't a win that you would want to display at a museum for its beauty, but then again, it was a conference win.

Head coach Matt Vitter had a chance to look back and find things in all three categories of evaluation as they prepare for Incarnate Word.

Some good, some bad, some ugly.

I talked to the players this morning.

I thought the the good was that, you know, we won a road conference game, which is never easy with two and two in the league, which the other thing too that talked to the players about, which is obviously not a good trend to start, but it's the second time in a row we've had a 17 point lead in the ball in the fourth quarter, and we're not doing what we got to do to just put the game away and not on offense, not on defense, special teams.

You know we go up 17, kick the ball out of bounds.

Give it to them at the 30.

You know those types of things.

And we're not doing the things.

So we got to do a better job.

I love the quarterback.

I watched him yesterday.

I mean he's a he can he can run the offense.

He can run it again.

Throw it different.

Kind of reminds me of the of the young man last year at Utah State kind of where he plays.

And he has that little ease about him and the way he kind of moves and all that.

Your ultimate job as a coach is, is to get the most out of the people that you have, you know, get the most out of your staff as the head coach, get the most out of your players as position coaches and coordinators.

And yeah, I mean, you don't think you're accomplishing that.

That's that's frustrating.

However, you know, you get frustrated to a certain point and you wake up the next day and I still believe that, hey, this is today.

And I still believe that this Saturday is going to be the day that we're going to put it all together.

And, you know, that's all you can do.

Well, next week, the Cowboys will play their final home game of the season on Halloween night.

But first things first.

And that's today's battle in the Alamo City.

UI W has defended their home field well.

McNeese hasn't won there in a decade.

This is another afternoon kick kicks off at 4:00, so be sure to check it out on ESPN plus.

Well, last weekend, for the fourth time in the last five games, the Lions from southeastern went north of 30 points in a win, 34 to be exact, in a three point win over eighth ranked Lamar.

It was quite the homecoming win and tough effort on the field, which sort of makes that three point effort in a loss at Utrgv two weeks ago.

Such a head scratcher.

A lot of that might be attributed to confidence or in a way, according to head coach Frank, a lack of confidence.

They'll need a lot of the positive vibes today, facing one of the few remaining undefeated teams in the country and one of the most high powered offenses, and all of college football in Stephen F Austin.

What really tells the story is that effort and how hard we played our physicality.

We had to match them from a physical standpoint and a effort standpoint, which I thought we did.

I thought our guys did a good job.

They rose to that challenge because that was a team that had that plays hard and plays physical.

Coach Ross does a good job with them.

They're very well coached and that's the way they play.

And we were able to match that.

We said all along that sometimes that guys don't think they don't realize that they can be good, you know, and it kind of validates it that we get a chance to play against Lamar and they play hard.

Not particularly well.

Made a lot of mistakes, but we ended up winning the game.

And now maybe hopefully they'll have more confidence in the who they are.

I think sometimes we I don't have and probably it's got to fall on me to instill that in them, but they've got to have the confidence that they can go out on the field and and compete against SFA, wherever, whoever or whoever it is, you know, whatever the rankings call for, they got to be able to go out and compete against them and they got to believe that they can't compete against them.

You better, you better bring it every week and you got to play well and you got to play hard.

And if you do that, you got a chance and you know, so we'll have a chance this week if we do those things.

If we don't, it won't.

It's why you came here.

You know you want to play games like this, right?

You don't want to.

You don't want to be on seven playing another seven football team.

You want to play against the best teams.

And then that's how you measure who you are.

Remember the disappointing way the Lions opened the season at home with a loss to Houston Christian?

Look at how that loss is affecting them right now.

You replace that loss with a win.

And after last weekend's win over Lamar, that would mean today's game would be a battle for first place in the Southland Conference.

That's how close the margins are in college football now.

I mentioned needing confidence today.

The Lumberjacks averaged 490 yards of offense that stops in the conference and are the only team north of 30 touchdowns.

They have 36.

Oh, and by the way, their defense is ranked number two.

So the challenge is there.

Will the Lions be able to rise up to it and find that confidence.

We'll see when they kick it off at 5:00 this afternoon.

And neck and Texas.

And you can see all of the action on ESPN plus down in New Orleans.

The Tulane Green Wave only have one portion of their schedule all season long where they don't alternate between home game and road game.

And it's this weekend.

After a huge Friday night win over Memphis one week ago, the waves stay in the big easy to welcome the Roadrunners from Texas San Antonio to town.

UTSA sits atop the American standings with just one loss on the season and an undefeated record in conference action.

Coach Hall liked the change they made last week at quarterback, and plans on keeping that same starting lineup in place for this game.

One some big games this year and they're six and one first place in our league, and it'll be a humongous game this Saturday night.

And we're obviously going to be very urgent, very detailed in our preparation this week.

We'll start trace.

He played good enough for us to win, made some really good plays in a really tough conditions with the wind.

Made some plays.

You know, without that man, he might hit two more long ones for touchdowns and.

But but did some good things.

Had a critical mistake with the interception that he knows and addresses.

And then Bruno also did some good things too you know and we'll use trace will start.

We'll use all the resources we have to try to win one game versus a great, great team that plays for each other.

And we've been playing good defense.

So we expected to play good defense last week.

I thought our young men really bought into an awesome total plan by Coach Polk and the rest of our defensive staff of how to keep these guys from scoring, alright, and to give us an opportunity to keep them out of the end zone, because ultimately that's all that matters.

Yards don't matter.

First downs don't mind.

Like all that's cute and great, but like points are the only thing that determine whether you win and lose.

I thought our young men did a great job on that for us.

You know, it's about being able to do whatever they give us.

You know, to me, balance is being able to do what you need to do when you need to do it.

It's not necessarily running at 20 times, throwing it 20 times.

It's, hey, if they're taking the runaway, we need to be able to throw it.

We need.

Can we do it if they're allowing us to run it and the numbers are right to run it, we need to be able to run it.

Can we had it up, block it and make people miss and go.

We'll see if the Roadrunners can run their way into the end zone if and when they get inside.

The 21 of two lanes strengths this season has been the red zone defense.

They're the best in the conference and one of the best in the country.

We'll see if the Green Wave can topple the top team in the American tonight in a 7:00 kick in.

The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

You.

May go in the locker room, you know, after the game.

And our kids are emotional.

They're upset.

You know, they're it means something to them.

They're passionate.

We've got guys with tears and guys that care.

There's I haven't seen it.

There's no negativity.

There's no given in, There's really not.

We've got to be able to put all three phases together to win in the Sun Belt.

I thought our kids effort and their mindset, their passion was on full display.

But our execution has got to be on full display to, third downs on offense.

Two for 11.

That's not winning.

That's not winning.

And penalties to stop your drives is not winning football.

Really old defense has just played their best.

And, there's a recipe to that.

And you want to keep adding that sauce to continue to improve.

And I think those guys have found that out.

And I think there's a hunger on defense to be better.

And then there's a there's a personal, you know, focus offensively to be better.

You know it should be personal that that we got shut out that that's that should be personal to fix that.

It should be personal to never get stopped on fourth and one.

You know that that's that should be personal.

So there's the challenge, you know, for our offense.

That, of course, is Warhawk head coach Bryant Vincent highlighting some of the improvements he saw from his team coming off their bye week, but still not enough to grab that first win of the season.

Ulm is on the road today to face that same Troy team that was humbled last week.

And Lafayette by the raging Cajuns.

The Trojans have a top ten red zone defense on the Warhawks.

Offense will have to be up to the challenge today.

Kick off.

It's 3:00 this afternoon.

You can check out all the action on ESPN plus, if it's possible for a winless team to be feeling more confident than a team that has wins this game, could be it.

The Colonels from Nicholls have jumped on the struggle bus as of late and can't find its scoring offense at all.

Meanwhile, the demons from Northwestern State haven't won a game yet, but head coach Blaine McCorkle keeps seeing improvement in their overall game and building belief that they're on the right track.

And the players are still very much bought in to what they're doing.

Hopefully it gives them a lot, you know, and they got a they got to prove themselves that they can do it, you know, and stop buying the lies about themselves and go out there and perform.

So hopefully gives them a lot of confidence.

It gives them a lot to work with.

You know, this morning in the meetings, they had a really, really good look in their eye.

They were eager to get back to work and learn and start putting in a new game plan against Nicholls.

So I liked where I saw them after the game and where I saw him this morning.

I think they're in a good spot to build on that.

You know, for me personally, I think throughout the whole season my confidence.

And I would say that for some of the guys on the team has just kept on getting more and more and more.

And you can see it on the field.

Especially after this game to, like, even though the scoreboard wasn't what I wanted to be.

I think we still have really high confidence with what we did on the field, how we produced, and that will help us moving forward to keep on playing faster and kind of carefree, because we're just really confident out there on the field.

I think we got to keep building on what we did last week and what we've done every week.

You know, for like every week we've gotten a little bit better and just keep chipping away.

And if we can continue to do that and the guys continue to, you know, by in which they have and believe and work hard and have a good attitude.

I think things will work out good for us.

And that the biggest thing, you know, just like every week with us right now, our biggest opponents ourself, we got to worry about ourselves taking care of the football, not giving up the big plays, doing the things that give you a chance to win.

And then whatever happens, Saturday happens.

You know, in seven games we scored more points than we scored in 12 last year, you know.

So there's a lot of things for the guys to look at and say, yeah, we can do this.

We are getting better.

We just got to find that w. Well, this is homecoming for the demons.

And for what it's worth, the last Southland Conference when they had was three years ago against these same colonels from Nicholls.

I'm not saying.

I'm just saying they'll kick it off in just a few hours.

2:00 this afternoon from Natchitoches.

And you can check out all of the action on ESPN plus.

Well, sad news to report from the world of college basketball as we say goodbye this morning.

And it hits right in the heart of our state.

Dale Brown, legendary LSU coach who led his teams to two Final Fours, died on Friday at the age of 90.

Just this week, Brown was named the recipient of the John Wooden Legends of Coaching award.

Brown took over a lowly Tiger program after Pete Maravich and his dad, press, had come to town and left back in 197273, and after a quarter century as coach, he guided the program to those two Final Fours, countless SEC title games and coached some of the biggest names in the game Chris Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal, Stanley Roberts, Rudy Macklin and so many more.

Brown was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Had the court named for him in 2022.

He was a voice for the game for the university, and was famous for not backing down from the NCAA forever.

The LSU coach, Dale Brown, passed away at the age of 90.

That is going to wrap it up for us here on Game Notes on OPB.

Hope you enjoy the day of football throughout the afternoon.

We'll look forward to seeing you Monday for postgame notes.

Until then, I'm Victor Howell.

Thanks for joining us.

Enjoy your weekend, everybody.

Major production funding for game notes is provided by Southern University and A&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.

Red Stick Sports, the foundation for excellence in Louisiana public broadcasting, and viewers like you.

Thank you.