August heat means it’s football time
Published 6:00 pm Thursday, August 2, 2018
Get excited, McNeese State football fans, the day has finally arrived.
The 2018 version of the Cowboys will all be in one place for the first time today as they report to camp today, new players arriving at 8 a.m. and returning athletes joining them at 4 p.m.
That’s right. Football season starts today.
Over the next four weeks the Cowboys will attempt to put everything together ahead of their season opener against Northern Colorado on Sept. 1.
McNeese head coach Lance Guidry has said multiple times that there are no starters going into fall camp, and there won’t be until shortly before their game against the Bears.
Now, that doesn’t mean we can expect anybody to jump James Tabary for the starting quarterback position unless either he forgets how to throw a football or Cody Orgeron suddenly looks NFL ready.
But Guidry says he likes competition in practice, and keeping the depth chart unmarked until the Cowboys are for their first kickoff is his preferred method to keep players on their toes.
The early days will likely be free from hard contact as the Cowboys will spend most of their time running drills and making sure they understand basic schemes and plays.
It won’t take long for things to heat up, however, as they will suit up in full pads for the first time on Tuesday and play their first scrimmage at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 11.
These fall camps are interesting to watch unfold because a month may seem like a long time while waiting for the season to start, but when you’re trying to get a large group of men between the ages of 18 and 23 to perform as one unit, things tend to move a bit quicker.
Time is precious during these weeks leading up to the season, and we saw that play out in real time last season.
Heavy rain and flooding forced the Cowboys to spend their last week of camp commuting to and from Lafayette to practice, and the result was a 37-35 loss to Nicholls State in a game that would have been easily won without unnecessary mistakes that kept the Colonels in the game.
Guidry never would blame that loss on the weather issues because, frankly, the Cowboys had no business losing that game regardless, but it certainly didn’t help matters.
While a season-opening win is important, this year the Cowboys have the benefit of an extra week before the start of Southland Conference play as they will hit the road for Colorado in their opening week.
That means they have an extra week to put things together before they start competing for a SLC championship, which is one of their primary goals every year they take the field.
I don’t expect to hear coaches or players view things that way, however. These practices over the next month will be hot, energetic and sometimes confrontational. Guidry wants his athletes game ready as soon as possible, so the idea of viewing Northern Colorado as anything other than their first of many victims will be out of the question.
This is a big year for Guidry. It’s his third season at the helm of the program he once played for, and the team is beginning to take the shape he’s molded since he took the job.
In the college football coaching world, the third year of a job tends to turn into a defining one. A good season means things are going in the right direction. A less-than-stellar year causes people to wonder if they have the right person for the job.
If all goes Guidry’s way, he and the Cowboys will leave no doubt that McNeese is moving in a positive direction.
Tyler Nunez covers McNeese State athletics. Email him at tnunez@americanpress.com
Football season is right around the corner and McNeese fans have a lot to be excited about.
