Okay guys, like all of you I am really board with no sports to watch right now. So I decided to take a look at McNeese State and see what I thought.
This is a team that went 7-5 last year overall and 5-4 in the Southland Conference. They had wins over Southern and Alcorn State out of conference and lost to Oklahoma State. In the Southland they defeated Lamar, Northwestern, Stephen F. Austin, SLU and Houston Baptist. Their losses were to Sam Houston, Central Arkansas, Nicholls and Abilene Christian. Their best wins in conference were vs SLU and Sam Houston, who both finished 6-3 in the Southland. Also the win vs Southern and Alcorn were pretty good ones as both of those teams were the respective winners of the SWAC West and SWAC East.
This team returns allot of good players on both offense and defense and while we should be able to handle them easily, they are not going to be a pushover. Offensively they were very balanced last year rushing for 2353 yards while passing for 2636 yards, defensively they were stout against the run, but awful vs the pass. They gave up almost 300 yards a game passing while holding opponents to under 100 yards rushing per game.
On offense they return most of their weapons, including senior QB Cody Orgeron, yep that Cody Orgeron, son of Ed Orgeron, LSU coach. He put up some really impressive numbers last year, throwing for 2628 yards with 24 TD's and 9 INT's. and he returns most of his weapons to throw to. Cyron Sutton is his #1 receiver, who caught 67 passes for 950 yards and 9 TD's. He also has Trevor Begue from ST Thomas More, who ended up with 55 receptions and 10 TD's. Also he return Draysean Hudson who had 21 catches for 219 yards and 2 TD's. On the ground they lose their leading rusher in Joshua Pratt, but they do return Elijah Mack, a senior from Florida that started his career with USF. Mack ran for 558 yards 4 TD's and a 4.2 yard average, but the other concern is that Orgeron can run it as well as pass it. He ran for 715 yards and 3 TD's, so he is a danger in the air and on the ground.
On defense they also return allot of very good players. Like I said, this team was very good vs the run last year. They do lose their leading tackler in Javon Burriss who had 84 tackles and 3 fumble recoveries, but when your leading tackler is a DB that shows teams are throwing allot against you. LB Kody Fulp was 2nd on the team in tackles with 83, but I do not see him on the 2020 roster, which could be a concern losing your #1 and #2 returning tacklers. LB Kordell Williams from Carencro would be next on the list with 63 tackles. Cory Mccoy from Leesville had 3 picks last year and also Darion Dunn from Oakdale, La had 5. They had 2 really disruptive players on defense both with over 9 sacks, Chris Livings was a senior last year so he is gone and Cody Roscoe who was listed as a Junior does not appear on the roster. They both had over 11 TFL and Livings had 9.5 sacks and Roscoe had 9. The next leading sack player for McNeese had 3.5.
As far as Special Teams go, it appears that Baily Raburn did it all and he returns. Raborn a senior from St. Thomas More averaged 41.59 yards per pun with a long of 64. He had 4 Touchbacks and 30 Fair Catches out of 79 punts. He did have 2 of those blocked. He was also 8-10 on FG tries, but 6-6 on FG under 29 yards. He only attempted 3 kicks over 30 yards and only 1 over 40, but did make it. He split time with another player, but his numbers were not good. He was also the kickoff guy and 39 of his 64 kickoffs went for Touchbacks.
As far as returns go, Cyron Sutton their #1 reciever returned all of the punts. He returned 18 for 139 yards with a long of 50, so he is dangerous. He had a 7.72 yard per return average. On kickoffs they had a total of 7 different players return kicks, but the majority of them were handled by D'Andre Hicks (9) who had a 29 yard average and returned one 99 yards for a TD. J'Cobi Skinner (12) only averaged 18 yards per return, the other guys for them were Mason Pierce (4) did return one for 95 yard TD and Andrew Croker (6) for 67 yards. Hicks does not appear on the roster Skinner, Pierce and Croker do appear on it.
McNeese did have a pretty good recruiting year as they signed the #4 ranked Southland Conference class. They had 2 3 star recruits in Raekwon Starks a CB from Harvey, LA and the #56 player in the state and Frank Wilson iV from San Antonio the #292 player from Texas and another CB. More on that in the next paragraph.
McNeese is coached by former UTSA Head Coach Frank Wilson (see above paragraph). Frank Wilson coached UTSA for 4 seasons and had a 19-29 record. Wilson replaced the former McNeese state coach who left to become OC at Syracuse after only 1 season. Also on the staff is a familiar name to Cajun fans, in Blaine Gautier. Blaine comes to McNeese as WR coach after spending 4 seasons at LSU as an Offensive Analyst.
I CAN NOT WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER 5th.
GEAUX CAJUNS!!!!!!!