Football Season Outlook: McNeese State
McNeese State, which has not finished lower than second in
the conference standings since Matt Viator took over as coach six years ago,
has eyes set at returning to the league trophy room this year.
The Cowboys return 48 lettermen, including all-conference
performers: senior tailback Andre Anderson, defensive tackle-turned defensive
end Desmund Lighten, free safety Malcolm Bronson, place kicker Josh Lewis,
offensive guard Miguel Gauthreaux and safety Darrell Jenkins.
In five seasons under Viator's guidance, the Cowboys are
27-7 in conference play and 39-15 overall.
The team is coming off a 6-5 season and a second-place
showing in the league standings. Four starters are back on offense and four on
defense with both the place kicker and punter returning.
Defense is expected to be a big key on the squad this
season with Lighten, Bronson and Jenkins leading the way but the team could
also have four of the top running backs in the nation in Anderson, Champlain
Babin, Marcus Wiltz and Javaris Murray.
Lighten was named one of the top 10 defensive linemen in
the nation by The Sports Network. The senior was shifted to end during
the spring to take advantage of his quickness. Lighten has 168 career tackles
to his credit along with 16.5 tackles for a loss and eight sacks. Bronson, a
junior, has been a first team all-Southland pick the past two seasons and will
go into the year with 147 tackles and seven interceptions, five coming a year
ago. He and Jenkins head up the secondary. Jenkins has also earned all-league
honors the past two seasons and the senior was the team's second leading tackle
last year with 78 stops. He has 193 career tackles to his credit.
Junior Seth Thomas is the other returning starter on
defense, holding down a cornerback post from which he had 35 tackles in 2010.
During his rookie year he earned a national player of the week honor for two
pass interceptions against Tulane.
New in the starting lineup on defense will be Pat Williams
and Michael Ware at tackle, Chris Loveless at end, Hayden Dobbs and junior Joe
Narcisse at linebacker and senior London Durham and junior Ford Smesny in the
backfield. Narcisse also started two games and finished the year as the team's
sixth leading tackler with 48 that included 7.5 tackles for a loss and 2.5
sacks as well as a team high eight quarterback hurries. Durham started six
games before an injury sidelined him. He finished with 31 tackles. Smesny
started three games and produced 47 tackles.
Offensively, the Cowboys may have the best running corps
in the league. Besides Anderson, a tailback who ran for 855 yards and led the
conference in rushing in league games last year (713 yards), also listed at
tailback are lettermen Babin, Wiltz and Murray. Anderson took over against LSU
in the sixth game of the season and became a solid offensive threat. He had a
single game high of 171 yards against Nicholls State, 170 vs. Texas State and
101 against Central Arkansas. Wiltz only played in four games but rushed for
317 yards including a 160 yard effort against Lamar, while Babin had 280 yards.
The year before, Murray had made his debut with 251 yards, including a 78-yard
effort against Savannah State.
At quarterback, sophomore Cody Stroud will go in as the
starter with Riley Dodge, a transfer from the University of North Texas, as the
backup. Stroud stepped in as a starter in two games last season and had a total
of 586 yards passing (63-of-110) while hitting on 57.3 percent of his tosses.
Dodge saw action as a starter in his two seasons at North Texas.
Gauthreaux, Jonathan Landry and Alec Savoie are returning
starters in the offensive line but four could be listed there as Jonathan
Landry is also back after starting the first three games and missing the
remainder due to an injury. Carson Chaisson goes in as the starter at center.
In
Lewis, the Cowboys have one of the top place kickers in the nation. He led the
team in scoring with 65 points (13-of-16 FG and 26-of-29 PAT). He booted a game
winning field goal against Southeastern as time expired and his kick with 1:30
left gave the team a win over Texas State. Ben Bourgeois returns to handle
punting chores for the second consecutive year.
Outlook provided by McNeese State sports information.