McNeese State Preview 2018 Game 4

https://lawlessrepublic.com/2018/07/06/byu-football-scouting-the-schedule-mcneese-state/



They took down FBS opponent South Florida in 2013, then almost knocked off Nebraska in 2014. Their offense has very good RBs. Their D is 4-2-5 so that should be interesting. Also they replaced the whole DL.

Next game up. They won their game today against Nichols st.

I'm nervous we look past this game. Now that we're a " Top 25" team McNeese has some extra motivation to make a statement.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-poll



.ranked #10 in FCS.

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=20406154



One if the best of the Sothland conference teams. They have 14 conference championships since 1976. 3-0 this year and 9-2 last year with a very close loss to their rival. Stadium seats 17,410 with 13k attendance last week against the rival that beat them last year.



Their pride seems to be in their Defense led by all conference LB Blunt who had like 13 tackles and i think 3 sacks last game. They also take pride in causing turnovers and are 2nd in FCS in that category i believe with 10 take aways on the young season. They have a DEnd transfer from The Florida Gators who played his first game for them last week and other transfers from LSU, Alabama, Central Florida. Oklahoma State, and Arkansas state.



The offense seems to pride itself on being efficient. I wasn’t that impressed with what I saw. The main RB had 11 carries for 45 yards but 6 different people carried the ball. Total rushing yards were 147 last game with i think two 20 yard runs as the longest gainers. The QB Tabory was an efficient 14 for 19 for 133 yards and two TDs. QB is a senior at 6’2 215 and WR Sutton 5’10 and 174 seems to be his main target but they like to spread the ball around.



This team has a lot of history and tradition and pride and will no doubt be doing all they can this week to be ready for a top 25 team. I expect them to be methodical with mostly a short passing game mixed with some running plays occasionally taking a shot down field and trying to use their speed in places to make a big play or get a first down. Probably a few wrinkles and a trick play or two here and there as well for a game like this.



Honestly I think they will have a very hard time running the ball against BYUs front 7. Forcing them into more of a throw game. I think they may have some success passing the ball if we do not pressure the QB but not sure it’s something they can sustain for long drives. They also seem to have a good kicker.



This is a game that could be a shutout. I just don’t see McNeese putting up many if any points if BYU plays sound D like they did against WI. If BYU makes coverage mistakes or turnovers, and doesn’t put pressure on the QB it could be a whole lot different. They take pride in their D but I’m not sure it’s strong enough to stop BYUs running game. Expect some disguised blitzes throughout on 2nd and third down.

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=20407538



I am a McNeese State alum and think your observations are generally correct. McNeese lost most of its offensive line from last year and is trying to get new people to gel together. They do have big play capability. One person to watch in that regard is #28. He was a Louisiana class AAA 100 meters champion in high school. He's a guy who showed a lot of promise but had injury issues. Now he is healthy and they will implement certain plays to try to take advantage of his speed. They had one last week that worked well as he got behind the secondary but the QB overthrew him.



Generally the McNeese State "style" is speed. They cannot have both speed and size so they opt for speed. After they played LSU in 2010 then-LSU coach Les Miles said that they were not outclassed against LSU in terms of speed. And of course if you're comparing team speed against LSU and can say you're not outclassed that's saying something.



It's not 2010 now but it's basically the same. It's their philosophy. They have a limited recruiting budget and they mostly hit a corridor down Interstate 10 from the Houston, TX, area through the New Orleans, LA area. They look for speed and there are a lot of speedy athletes in that zone.



The problem is that in games like this is that they are going to be WAY outsized.

They have a good D and team speed. We might not see much of the jet sweep and more running up the middle with our size advantage.

This is a game that we lose if we played them last year. I'm excited to see if our progression is sufficient to get back to back good games