After hitting a rock, the Cowboys are ready to move into a hard place.

McNeese State began Monday to pick up the pieces of a poor opener while getting preparing for an even tougher test this weekend.

Coming off a 52-34 home loss to Tarleton State on Saturday night, head coach Gary Goff said the Cowboys are going to learn from a tough lesson as they prepare for this week’s showdown against Florida.

For the first time in program history, McNeese will play in “The Swap.”

“It was a little shocking,” Goff said of the loss. “That was not how we had practiced.”

After watching the film, Goff said there were chances for the Cowboys (0-1) to make plays but did not.

“The plays were there and we didn’t execute them,” Goff said. “They made big plays and we didn’t. We had too many mistakes from all three aspects of the game.”

Now comes the tough part: McNeese will have to try and get better against a much better opponent. The Gators (0-1) are also licking their wounds after losing their opener 24-11 at No. 14 Utah.

However, the Southeastern Conference team’s problems are not Goff’s. He has his own to worry about.

“We have to worry about the Cowboys,” he said. “We have to learn how to play as a team. We will grow from this.”

Twelve of the 22 Cowboys were first-time starters, but the head coach said there are “no excuses”.

“We have to get better, and I think we will be better,” Goff said. “I think we are going to still be a good football team.”

The Cowboys have a lot of cleaning up to do to get there. They allowed far too many big gains and didn’t create nearly enough.

Tarleton finished with six plays 20 yards or longer while McNeese had one that went for exactly 20, and that came in the game’s final 5 minutes when the outcome had been decided.

Then there was a lack of urgency the Cowboys came out with.

“We did not play great from the start,” Goff said. “I didn’t like a lot of the effort for all four quarters. We were not locked in.”

The head coach didn’t call out any specific players or group, saying improvement was needed across the board. He did say he remains confident in new quarterback Nate Glantz.

The transfer from Iowa State had a slow start, missing his first four passes, one when the receiver was wide open on the first offensive play. That could have led to a long gain if not a touchdown.

Glantz finished 15 of 35 for 166 yards. He also ran 18 times and gained 82 yards, scoring a pair of touchdowns.

However, he was sacked six times which limited his rush total to 34.

“I’ve got full confidence in Nate,” Goff said. “Nate will be a great player. I really think he is going to be a star of a quarterback. We have to get Nate to relax and try not to do too much. He has to take what the defense is giving him.”

Despite all the issues the Cowboys owned a 24-17 lead and the ball midway through the third quarter. A scoring drive could have flipped the script. Instead, they went three-and-out.

Tarleton followed by scoring 35 points over the next 16 minutes to put the game away.

McNeese did earn one honor from the game. Cam Thomas returned a kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. It was the first time Thomas touched the ball as a Cowboy.

For that play, Thomas was named the Southland Conference’s Special Teams Player of the Week.

Thomas is a junior transfer running back out of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. The TD return was the first by the Cowboys since 2021 and the 14th kickoff return for a score in school history.