Promising he was going to play those who wanted to be Cowboys, Gary Goff took 20 freshmen on the road with him last weekend.

The second-year McNeese State head coach even gave a couple of them starts. He also began the process of letting guys go who didn’t fit into the team concept.

A total of three players have been removed from the program, none of them made the trip to Eastern Illinois.

Wide receiver Jalen Johnson, a former starter, Cam Thomas, who scored the first touchdown of the season, and linebacker Kaylen Armstead have all been let go by Goff.

“We are going to be a team, no question about it,” said Goff. “We have to be a team.”

Goff reiterated that he was looking for “team guys” and those who “wanted to be here.”

Johnson had eight catches for 62 yards over the first three games. Thomas had a 91-yard kick return for a touchdown in the season opener against Tarleton State.

Armstead collected 14 tackles, including eight solo, during the first three games. Goff would not elaborate on any specifics on any of the dismissals.

Goff said the Cowboys had “more energy and excitement on the sidelines” last week in a 31-28 loss to EIU. The defeat left McNeese 0-4 for the first time since 1954.

The Cowboys Monday turned their attention to another winless team, Nicholls. The Colonels (0-3) come to Lake Charles this weekend to open play in the Southland Conference.

It is a chance for a fresh start for the Pokes, who hope their improved play against Eastern can lead to better times ahead.

“We still got a lot of our season ahead of us,” said Goff. “We are like a lot of teams in our conference right now.”

Five of the eight Southland teams have yet to win a game, including all four from Louisiana.

With a turn toward youth, freshman tight end Reed Boyd, a Barbe High product, got his first career start. While he didn’t catch a pass Goff praised his play.

“He did some good things out there,” said Goff, who also talked about the play of Makhi Paris.

A true freshman from New Orleans, Paris has 10 catches for 142 yards, both second on the team to Jon McCall. Paris has started the last two games.

“We can’t be scared to play some of these young guys,” said Goff.

One area the Cowboys must address heading into the Nicholls game is their defense against the run. McNeese is giving up 262.3 yards a game after giving up 311 on the ground last week to the Panthers.

“We have to do a better job stopping the run,” said Goff. “We have to sustain some drives and stop the run.”

Goff added that more changes may be coming this week.

“We got guys in position to make plays,” he added. “We might have to make some personnel in places. We might change some things and put guys in better positions.”

Without the ability to stop the run the Cowboy offense is not able to get going either. Last week EIU ran 83 plays to McNeese’s 58, which wore out the defense. Over the last three games, the Pokes have had 230 plays run against them while having just 146 on their own.

That is an average of 28 more plays a game.

“We are going to have to rotate more people in,” said Goff.

That means more young guys will get a look moving forward most likely.