Gary Goff’s teams at McNeese State have never been above .500.

His Cowboy teams have never beaten Alcorn State either.

Goff and the Cowboys look to end both those skids Saturday night when they host the Braves at 7 p.m.

“It would be great for our program and confidence,” Goff said of getting above the .500 mark. “For us to have a little bit of success, it is a great thing.”

McNeese enters the game with momentum after rallying to beat Stephen F. Austin last week 28-24 with a pair of Clifton McDowell touchdown runs in the final eight minutes. 

The Cowboys find themselves alone atop the Southland Conference at 1-0 thanks to that victory, the first time they have been in that position since 2015. At 2-2 overall, they look to have their first winning record since being 1-0 after the opener of the 2021 spring season.

“It has been tough the last two years,” said Goff. “For us to have early success, it shows we are obviously on the right track now.”

Alcorn enters on a fresh track itself. The Braves picked up their first win of the season last week when they beat Division II Edward Waters University 38-7.

Before that, the 1-2 Braves had been spanked by FBS programs Alabama-Birmingham  (41-3) and Vanderbilt (55-0).

Still, Goff knows not to take Alcorn lightly.

“Who are we to overlook anybody,” said Goff. “We expect it to be a backyard brawl. This will not be a cakewalk.”

The last two meetings haven’t been for McNeese. Two years ago the Braves won 30-19 in Cowboy Stadium and last year, they defeated McNeese at their place, 17-3.

“They have our attention,” said sophomore receiver Jer’Michael Carter, who leads McNeese in receptions (12) and yards (142). “We remember they beat us last year.”

The Cowboys are coming off their best offensive game behind quarterback Clifton McDowell. The transfer threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more while finishing with 313 yards of passing. It was McNeese’s first 300-yard passing game since 2021.

“We will have to have some guys spying him,” Thomas said. “We don’t want him to take off and run on us.”

Of McNeese’s 11 touchdowns, McDowell has either thrown or run for eight of them.

The Braves have their own threat at quarterback. Xzavier Vaughn accounted for 228 yards and three touchdowns in last week’s victory.

“Our quarterback is a triple threat,” said Thomas. “What we want to do is take last week and see what we can do moving forward.”

McNeese will again be without All-American linebacker Micah Davey this week. They hope to have him back from a rib injury the following week at Weber State. 

Sophomore Peyton Lemarie will again be in his spot. Also missing is tackle Elijah Melendez, who is out for the season with a knee injury. Redshirt freshman Greg Knox replaced Melendez last week.

One hard thing for the McNeese coaching staff is getting a read on the Braves. With three blowout games, they have had to look hard to find any relative film that could help. 

The Cowboys are hoping to avoid having to make a big comeback in this one with a better start. They have been outscored 81-14 in the first half of games. They are up 78-28 after intermissions.

“We want to do a better job starting quicker,” said Goff. “We have to improve in that area. We are going to do some things differently as we build confidence.”

McNeese also needs to clean up turnovers and big penalties moving forward as well.

If they can do that, then maybe they can get about .500 and finally beat Alcon.