McNeese State Thread

[McNeese72]

McNeese fans,

what newcomers have stood out in spring?

We will have a veteran team next season, so there won't be too many newcomers making noise.

But I guess you could call Vaalyn Jackson sort of a new comer. After playing as a true freshman, he had to sit out last season because his academic advisor screwed up his schedule. He was very impressive in the Spring Game and with him on the same side as DE Bryan Smith, they will give some offensive linemen (and Qb's) some headaches.

 

[PSUVikings2]

McNeese fans,

what newcomers have stood out in spring?

We will have a veteran team next season, so there won't be too many newcomers making noise.

But I guess you could call Vaalyn Jackson sort of a new comer. After playing as a true freshman, he had to sit out last season because his academic advisor screwed up his schedule. He was very impressive in the Spring Game and with him on the same side as DE Bryan Smith, they will give some offensive linemen (and Qb's) some headaches.

We have lots of newcomers on D and O. Practice starts monday.

 

[FormerPokeCenter]

question to McNeese fans

about your Head Coach, does this look right?

McNeese State Head Coach: Matt Viator (7-3) 2nd Year
Experience: assistant Sam Houston High '86-88
head coach Vinton High '89-90
head coach Jennings High '91-94
head coach Sulphur High '95-98
McNeese State '98-present

Being the son and grandson of coaches, Matt's been around the game in a big way his entire life. His late father was an offensive coordinator at McNeese after having been a QB in the 1960's. Matt's father and Don Breaux, the long-time Washington Redskins OC were best friends, so Matt's been exposed to the NFL game, too....

Matt more or less followed in his father's footsteps, walking on at McNeese as an undersized defensive back in the early 80's before entering in the coaching ranks as a HS assistant, then earning head coaching jobs at a succession of successful programs. He got a HS state title a few years before he took the assistant's job at McNeese.

He's a good guy....he doesn't have the resume of a Mouse Davis or a Jerry Glanville, but he's a solid football guy and was our offensive coordinator the last time we made it to the finals, back in 2002.....

 

[PSUVikings2]

question to McNeese fans

about your Head Coach, does this look right?

McNeese State Head Coach: Matt Viator (7-3) 2nd Year
Experience: assistant Sam Houston High '86-88
head coach Vinton High '89-90
head coach Jennings High '91-94
head coach Sulphur High '95-98
McNeese State '98-present

Being the son and grandson of coaches, Matt's been around the game in a big way his entire life. His late father was an offensive coordinator at McNeese after having been a QB in the 1960's. Matt's father and Don Breaux, the long-time Washington Redskins OC were best friends, so Matt's been exposed to the NFL game, too....

Matt more or less followed in his father's footsteps, walking on at McNeese as an undersized defensive back in the early 80's before entering in the coaching ranks as a HS assistant, then earning head coaching jobs at a succession of successful programs. He got a HS state title a few years before he took the assistant's job at McNeese.

He's a good guy....he doesn't have the resume of a Mouse Davis or a Jerry Glanville, but he's a solid football guy and was our offensive coordinator the last time we made it to the finals, back in 2002.....

welcome to the board FormerPokeCenter, great first post

 

[PSUVikings2]

Hoping on opening day that we get a good crowd here talking about the game, a lot of you posters here haven't been on this site during football season, it's a cool experience to talk to fans about your team even though you aren't at the game, hopefully we can get lots of people here for road games.

As for home games, I hope you all are at the games!

 

[McTailGator]

Nice job by th McNeese Beat Writer from the Lake Charles American Press...

http://www.americanpress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1154&Itemid=96

High hopes for McNeese football season (5/29)

By GARY LANEY
AMERICAN PRESS

We haven't even had a chance to elegize the baseball season yet.

Heck, we still have two track guys getting ready for the NCAA championship meet with the promise of putting McNeese State in the top 25 in that sport.

But even though this sports year is still, technically, going on, it's not too early to hype next season.

And it's never too early to put out a preview magazine.

With that in mind, it's been leaked that Lindy's college football preview will come out today with the Cowboys ranked No. 4 in (take your pick) the Football Championship Series or Division I-AA, whichever you want to call it.

It's their highest preseason ranking since the 2002-2004 stretch when they were routinely a top-five team (and the top-ranked team in 2003).

Our friends at Lindy's have picked Cowboys defensive end Bryan Smith as their preseason defensive player of the year.

And to make it even better, they picked Portland State No. 7.

By the way, Portland State opens the season at McNeese on Sept. 1.

Talk about great stuff. You have the man in black, Jerry Glanville, making his return to the head coaching ranks at Portland State with an offensive coordinator, Mouse Davis, who created the run-and-shoot offense.

Davis brought the run-and-shoot to PSU as the Vikings head coach in the 1970s with a Neil Lomax-led offense racking up huge numbers against Division II opponents. Most recently, Glanville and Davis were assistants at Hawaii, where June Jones still piles up the yards with the Rainbow Warriors' version of the offense.

That potentially high-powered offensive attack will be going against McNeese and a defense anchored by the preseason national defensive player of the year in what's going to be Lake Charles' most highly-anticipated opening game since ... well, since Southern backed out in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

The tailgating for this thing could start any day now.

About the only thing Lindy's didn't do to help the build-up to this game is put a McNeese season ticket brochure in its publication.

Most are expecting McNeese and Portland State to be pretty good this year. But the other super-early preseason poll, the Any Given Saturday poll, has McNeese at a more realistic No. 12 and the Vikings at No. 14.

I would expect as the summer wears on (we have three months and three days before the opener), more of the off-season polls will look like AGS's early survey than Lindy's. McNeese is a borderline top 10 team on paper, PSU a solid top 20.

But it's the common practice for Sports Information Directors to go with the highest poll prediction in labeling their own team and the team they are playing. So, understandably, for the next three months you'll hear McNeese vs. Portland State called "a matchup of the No. 4 vs. No. 7."

With a special thanks to Lindy's.

McNeese really hasn't started pushing its season ticket sales full scale yet — as of now, renewals for current season holders are out, but general sales haven't started — but when they do start, McNeese would be crazy if "No. 4 vs. No. 7" isn't somewhere in the season ticket literature. And maybe the words "Jerry Glanville" and "Run-and-Shoot."

And, oh yeah, you get a chance to buy a ticket to the Louisiana-Lafayette game on Sept. 15.

If you can't sell this season, you can't sell.

 

[frinq]

Both teams ranked in the upper middle. Interesting. Lots of talk about MeNeese defense, lots of curiosity about PSU's offense. What kind of offense does McNeese run?

 

[McNeese72]

Both teams ranked in the upper middle. Interesting. Lots of talk about MeNeese defense, lots of curiosity about PSU's offense. What kind of offense does McNeese run?

Multiple offense. We can be in anywhere from a I formation with two tight ends to a shotgun formation with four wide outs and one back in the backfield. But since Matt Viator (moving from OC) took over in the middle of the season last season, he has tended to open it up a little more.

Doc

 

[PSUVikings2]

Both teams ranked in the upper middle. Interesting. Lots of talk about MeNeese defense, lots of curiosity about PSU's offense. What kind of offense does McNeese run?

Multiple offense. We can be in anywhere from a I formation with two tight ends to a shotgun formation with four wide outs and one back in the backfield. But since Matt Viator (moving from OC) took over in the middle of the season last season, he has tended to open it up a little more.

Doc

How is your O-Line doing? JG likes to blitz anywhere from 5-8 players on every play, can the line hold?

 

[McNeese06]

Everyone on the line returns this season. Fremin returns as our center from an injury last year and should be a pretty good anchor. We lose an UDFA to the Cleveland Browns and is replace by James Jordan, who also has starting experience. The line should be as solid as it has been in a while. If I had any questions about this team, I would question the secondary. Which is not a good thing considering we start off with the run and shoot.

 

[PSUVikings2]

Everyone on the line returns this season. Fremin returns as our center from an injury last year and should be a pretty good anchor. We lose an UDFA to the Cleveland Browns and is replace by James Jordan, who also has starting experience. The line should be as solid as it has been in a while. If I had any questions about this team, I would question the secondary. Which is not a good thing considering we start off with the run and shoot.

Our starting WR's are among the best in the FCS, but depth is an issue, we will need more then 4 WR's throughout the game.

 

[McNeese06]

Everyone on the line returns this season. Fremin returns as our center from an injury last year and should be a pretty good anchor. We lose an UDFA to the Cleveland Browns and is replace by James Jordan, who also has starting experience. The line should be as solid as it has been in a while. If I had any questions about this team, I would question the secondary. Which is not a good thing considering we start off with the run and shoot.

Our starting WR's are among the best in the FCS, but depth is an issue, we will need more then 4 WR's throughout the game.

So are our WR's. Probably among the best in the country. ..and the depth is there.

 

[PSUVikings2]

Everyone on the line returns this season. Fremin returns as our center from an injury last year and should be a pretty good anchor. We lose an UDFA to the Cleveland Browns and is replace by James Jordan, who also has starting experience. The line should be as solid as it has been in a while. If I had any questions about this team, I would question the secondary. Which is not a good thing considering we start off with the run and shoot.

Our starting WR's are among the best in the FCS, but depth is an issue, we will need more then 4 WR's throughout the game.

So are our WR's. Probably among the best in the country. ..and the depth is there.

Well we will have to account for that.

Only 87 more days....

 

[cut41]

Everyone on the line returns this season. Fremin returns as our center from an injury last year and should be a pretty good anchor. We lose an UDFA to the Cleveland Browns and is replace by James Jordan, who also has starting experience. The line should be as solid as it has been in a while. If I had any questions about this team, I would question the secondary. Which is not a good thing considering we start off with the run and shoot.

Ha! That is a bummer because we are going to send your DB's to the wood shed.

 

[McNeese75]

Everyone on the line returns this season. Fremin returns as our center from an injury last year and should be a pretty good anchor. We lose an UDFA to the Cleveland Browns and is replace by James Jordan, who also has starting experience. The line should be as solid as it has been in a while. If I had any questions about this team, I would question the secondary. Which is not a good thing considering we start off with the run and shoot.

Ha! That is a bummer because we are going to send your DB's to the wood shed.

With 4 WR????

 

[CaseyOrourke]

Never underestimate the run and shoot. Anybody who is an eligible receiver is a potential problem for the DB's.

 

[McNeese75]

Well, it is 10:20 PM here in Lake Charles, the current outside temp is 83 and the humidity is down to a comfortable 74% . High today was 93 but the heat index was around 100 degrees. (And it is not even Summer) The Temps will be in the 96 to 98 degree range in late August and of course the heat index will be higher as well.

Gonna be smokin in September guys /users/31/07/37/smiles/793277.gif

Current Temp in Portland is 61 with 55% humidity /users/31/07/37/smiles/595146.gif

 

[PSUVikings2]

Well, it is 10:20 PM here in Lake Charles, the current outside temp is 83 and the humidity is down to a comfortable 74% . High today was 93 but the heat index was around 100 degrees. (And it is not even Summer) The Temps will be in the 96 to 98 degree range in late August and of course the heat index will be higher as well.

Gonna be smokin in September guys /users/31/07/37/smiles/793277.gif

Current Temp in Portland is 61 with 55% humidity /users/31/07/37/smiles/595146.gif

if temperature were that big of an advantage you guys would be champions ever year, I'm sure our Georgian(Glavnville) will have the boys hydrated and ready.

 

[McNeese75]

Well, it is 10:20 PM here in Lake Charles, the current outside temp is 83 and the humidity is down to a comfortable 74% . High today was 93 but the heat index was around 100 degrees. (And it is not even Summer) The Temps will be in the 96 to 98 degree range in late August and of course the heat index will be higher as well.

Gonna be smokin in September guys /users/31/07/37/smiles/793277.gif

Current Temp in Portland is 61 with 55% humidity /users/31/07/37/smiles/595146.gif

if temperature were that big of an advantage you guys would be champions ever year, I'm sure our Georgian(Glavnville) will have the boys hydrated and ready.

Well, if we played every game at home and they were all played in August and September maybe so but of course that is not the case. However, our showdown is right square in the middle of the heat. I am sure your staff will take as many precautions as possible but believe me, it will be a shock to your players system (unless you somehow find a way to simulate the heat and humidity for practice.) (See Montana vs SHSU in Huntsville in the early 2004 season).

We can debate until we are blue in the face about the home field advantage but the heat and humidity will play a factor in this game. Who knows, it might be the Cowboys that melt but I'm betting they will hold up better than the Vikes.

 

[McBeat]

Georgia, isn't that a yankee state ;-).

Seriously, you guys need to get together with McNeese and do another home-and-home. I love the pacific northwest and need an excuse for another trip up there.

By the way, how's the Sky looking this year? Montana again?