bluedog
"Leader of Kings"
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Scott Rabalais
Replacements lead way again --- 11/18/01--------------------------------------------------------------------------------LSU faithful need a little Iron in diet --- 11/17/01Turtle jawing about baseball --- 11/14/01Tigers achieve main objective --- 11/11/01Sit back, enjoy Tigers as they are --- 11/10/01Still looking for the real Tigers --- 11/7/01Reed not classic receiver, just close to perfect --- 11/4/01As Tide recedes, high-water mark mere memory --- 11/3/01Finding a gift for Saban at 50 --- 10/31/01If Tigers ignore history, they might repeat it --- 10/29/01Long-dormant LSU-Ole Miss rivalry has returned --- 10/27/01New day dawns in scheduling --- 10/24/01Can you believe it? Tigers dominated --- 10/21/01Seasons ebb and flow, but beating MSU has been ste --- 10/20/01Obstacles fill road to Atlanta --- 10/17/01Respite evolves into ?must-win --- 10/13/01Dominance not overnight feat --- 10/10/01Gator machine matchless one --- 10/7/01Tigers must dust off slingshot, 'create havoc' --- 10/6/01Tougher Tigers prove mettle --- 10/3/01Tigers play like mere mortals --- 9/30/01Tigers? Parker always a Marine --- 9/26/01New schedule means intrigue --- 9/19/01Events change perspective --- 9/16/01News not all good in victory --- 9/9/01LSU needs to get its money worth vs. Utah State --- 9/8/01Coaches already feeling the heat --- 9/5/01What?s learned from easy win? --- 9/2/01Relatively speaking, Tigers should have good seaso --- 9/1/01Tulane-LSU seek ?ragging? rights --- 8/29/01Cure close for football addict --- 8/26/01NASCAR will move slowly --- 8/23/01
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Published on 11/18/01
Scott Rabalais
Replacements lead way again
I didn't see The Replacements, though I'm told it was pretty good as football movies go.
There's a real-time version of The Replacements playing up at Southern, and let me tell you, truth trumps fiction every time.
From an injury perspective, this has been a season of struggle for Southern. The Jaguars have had so many medical problems this year the SU Quarterback Club should pass the hat and endow a wing at the Baton Rouge General Medical Center Mid-City.
For Saturday's game, the Jaguars were missing 10 key offensive players -- including six starters plus linebacker Jabari Green, Southern's leading tackler when he went down with a knee injury five weeks ago at Jackson State.
Southern lost that game, but it hasn't been beaten since. Saturday, the Jaguars made it four in a row, taking a flurry of shots from former tomato can Prairie View before rallying for a 43-28 victory.
How, I wondered, has Southern coach Pete Richardson done it? Does he have a magic wand up the sleeve of his blue windbreaker? Maybe he's having audio-animatronic players built by Disney at some secret plant in Florida.
But a close inspection of Southern players doing what they usually do after a home game -- bask in the afterglow of yet another victory -- proved otherwise. It's all flesh and blood out there in those powder blue jerseys with the squishy, impossible-to-read numbers.
And there's character. Lots of character.
"The guys on this team are fighters," senior linebacker Robert Chapman said. "Even when we're down, when we're injured, we still show the class of this team."
Class is always in at Southern, class of the hard-as-nails, championship kind.
This game didn't really mean a fig to the Jaguars hopes of capturing another Southwestern Athletic Conference championship. Even if it had lost to Prairie View -- a strange concept, I know because PVU has been a doormat for so long -- Southern would have still won the SWAC Western Division by beating Grambling in next Saturday's Bayou Classic. And the winner of that game will play Alabama State on Dec. 1 in Birmingham, Ala., for the SWAC's big enchilada.
But there is the importance of maintaining class, style, keeping up appearances. It would have been bad form for Southern to lose to an outclassed, though improving team like Prairie View the week before the biggest game of the season.
Still, it looked very much like it could happen in the third quarter. Southern squandered a 17-0 halftime lead with turnovers and offensive stagnation, allowing PVU to reel off four touchdowns in a fit of scoring and take a 28-23 lead going into the fourth.
But Southern, with a band of understudies not figured to be making such critical contributions this season, calmly reasserted itself. Three times Prairie View gave the Jaguars the short field and three times Southern made the Panthers pay to the tune of 38-, 40- and 51-yard touchdown drives.
When it was done, Southern was on the brink of 400 yards total offense and had tallied its second-highest point total of the season. This with an offense operating with its third and fourth quarterbacks. Without its top three running backs. Lacking what were a pair of its top receivers including Michael Hayes, the best player Southern had before tearing up his knee in the season opener.
The Jaguars have left comrades behind along the way, but they have kept their objectives in sight. To watch Quincy Richard -- the backup's backup, the off-off-Broadway of Southern signal callers -- connect with wide receiver Devin Lewis like it had been scripted for them to do this all season was simply a marvel. Richard threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more like he was supposed to be "the man" all along.
"We have a lot of confidence in our backups," Lewis said.
"We know what we're going to do in each situation. That's why we don't miss a beat."
The beat goes on in New Orleans next week at the Bayou Classic, where Southern and Richardson have taken the measure of Grambling eight straight times.
"At the beginning of the season, we knew what kind of team we had," Chapman said. "Grambling is the next step in our trying to get to Birmingham."
Four straight wins, even one that was such an effort as the Prairie View game was, has forged a confidence, a cockiness in this Jaguar team that surges just below the surface.
And why shouldn't it? After all they've been through, after all the medical bills and adversity and even a few defeats, the Jaguars are still here where they always seem to be: playing for a championship.
I think Grambling and Alabama State are in trouble.
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Scott Rabalais
Replacements lead way again --- 11/18/01--------------------------------------------------------------------------------LSU faithful need a little Iron in diet --- 11/17/01Turtle jawing about baseball --- 11/14/01Tigers achieve main objective --- 11/11/01Sit back, enjoy Tigers as they are --- 11/10/01Still looking for the real Tigers --- 11/7/01Reed not classic receiver, just close to perfect --- 11/4/01As Tide recedes, high-water mark mere memory --- 11/3/01Finding a gift for Saban at 50 --- 10/31/01If Tigers ignore history, they might repeat it --- 10/29/01Long-dormant LSU-Ole Miss rivalry has returned --- 10/27/01New day dawns in scheduling --- 10/24/01Can you believe it? Tigers dominated --- 10/21/01Seasons ebb and flow, but beating MSU has been ste --- 10/20/01Obstacles fill road to Atlanta --- 10/17/01Respite evolves into ?must-win --- 10/13/01Dominance not overnight feat --- 10/10/01Gator machine matchless one --- 10/7/01Tigers must dust off slingshot, 'create havoc' --- 10/6/01Tougher Tigers prove mettle --- 10/3/01Tigers play like mere mortals --- 9/30/01Tigers? Parker always a Marine --- 9/26/01New schedule means intrigue --- 9/19/01Events change perspective --- 9/16/01News not all good in victory --- 9/9/01LSU needs to get its money worth vs. Utah State --- 9/8/01Coaches already feeling the heat --- 9/5/01What?s learned from easy win? --- 9/2/01Relatively speaking, Tigers should have good seaso --- 9/1/01Tulane-LSU seek ?ragging? rights --- 8/29/01Cure close for football addict --- 8/26/01NASCAR will move slowly --- 8/23/01
E-mail this story to a friend
Published on 11/18/01
Scott Rabalais
Replacements lead way again
I didn't see The Replacements, though I'm told it was pretty good as football movies go.
There's a real-time version of The Replacements playing up at Southern, and let me tell you, truth trumps fiction every time.
From an injury perspective, this has been a season of struggle for Southern. The Jaguars have had so many medical problems this year the SU Quarterback Club should pass the hat and endow a wing at the Baton Rouge General Medical Center Mid-City.
For Saturday's game, the Jaguars were missing 10 key offensive players -- including six starters plus linebacker Jabari Green, Southern's leading tackler when he went down with a knee injury five weeks ago at Jackson State.
Southern lost that game, but it hasn't been beaten since. Saturday, the Jaguars made it four in a row, taking a flurry of shots from former tomato can Prairie View before rallying for a 43-28 victory.
How, I wondered, has Southern coach Pete Richardson done it? Does he have a magic wand up the sleeve of his blue windbreaker? Maybe he's having audio-animatronic players built by Disney at some secret plant in Florida.
But a close inspection of Southern players doing what they usually do after a home game -- bask in the afterglow of yet another victory -- proved otherwise. It's all flesh and blood out there in those powder blue jerseys with the squishy, impossible-to-read numbers.
And there's character. Lots of character.
"The guys on this team are fighters," senior linebacker Robert Chapman said. "Even when we're down, when we're injured, we still show the class of this team."
Class is always in at Southern, class of the hard-as-nails, championship kind.
This game didn't really mean a fig to the Jaguars hopes of capturing another Southwestern Athletic Conference championship. Even if it had lost to Prairie View -- a strange concept, I know because PVU has been a doormat for so long -- Southern would have still won the SWAC Western Division by beating Grambling in next Saturday's Bayou Classic. And the winner of that game will play Alabama State on Dec. 1 in Birmingham, Ala., for the SWAC's big enchilada.
But there is the importance of maintaining class, style, keeping up appearances. It would have been bad form for Southern to lose to an outclassed, though improving team like Prairie View the week before the biggest game of the season.
Still, it looked very much like it could happen in the third quarter. Southern squandered a 17-0 halftime lead with turnovers and offensive stagnation, allowing PVU to reel off four touchdowns in a fit of scoring and take a 28-23 lead going into the fourth.
But Southern, with a band of understudies not figured to be making such critical contributions this season, calmly reasserted itself. Three times Prairie View gave the Jaguars the short field and three times Southern made the Panthers pay to the tune of 38-, 40- and 51-yard touchdown drives.
When it was done, Southern was on the brink of 400 yards total offense and had tallied its second-highest point total of the season. This with an offense operating with its third and fourth quarterbacks. Without its top three running backs. Lacking what were a pair of its top receivers including Michael Hayes, the best player Southern had before tearing up his knee in the season opener.
The Jaguars have left comrades behind along the way, but they have kept their objectives in sight. To watch Quincy Richard -- the backup's backup, the off-off-Broadway of Southern signal callers -- connect with wide receiver Devin Lewis like it had been scripted for them to do this all season was simply a marvel. Richard threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more like he was supposed to be "the man" all along.
"We have a lot of confidence in our backups," Lewis said.
"We know what we're going to do in each situation. That's why we don't miss a beat."
The beat goes on in New Orleans next week at the Bayou Classic, where Southern and Richardson have taken the measure of Grambling eight straight times.
"At the beginning of the season, we knew what kind of team we had," Chapman said. "Grambling is the next step in our trying to get to Birmingham."
Four straight wins, even one that was such an effort as the Prairie View game was, has forged a confidence, a cockiness in this Jaguar team that surges just below the surface.
And why shouldn't it? After all they've been through, after all the medical bills and adversity and even a few defeats, the Jaguars are still here where they always seem to be: playing for a championship.
I think Grambling and Alabama State are in trouble.
Top of page
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SITE INDEX
HOME: About Us | Archives | Help | Search | Site Map | Subscribe
NEWS: AP Wire | Elections | Health news | Legislature | Photo Gallery | Police Briefs | Religion | School News | Schools: Desegregation | Science | Smiley
SUBURBAN
NEWS: Acadiana | Baker, Zachary, Felicianas | Florida parishes |
River parishes | Westside
WEATHER: Current Weather
SPORTS: ECHL hockey | High school sports | LSU sports | Outdoors |
New Orleans Saints | SEC FanaticZone | Southern University |
Team Schedules
PEOPLE: Obituaries | Food | Teen Stuff
ENTERTAINMENT: Movies | TV Listings | Music | Books | Comics | Horoscopes | Crossword | Wordsearch | Software Reviews | Travel | Personals
BUSINESS: Briefs | Technobabble | Motley Fool
OPINION: Inside Report | Joan McKinney | Milford Fryer | Our Views | Perspective | Political Horizons
ADVERTISING: Advertise with Us | ADvocate ADvantages | Apartment Directory | Classifieds | Display (Graphical) Ads | Employment Classifieds | La Job Market | Marketplace | Real Estate Classifieds | Wheels (Automotive) Section | Yellow Pages
SPECIAL
SECTIONS: Millennium | Vacation | Weddings |
World Wide Wanderers | Other Special Sections
Copyright ? 1995-2001, The Advocate, Capital City Press, All Rights Reserved.
Comments about our site, write: [email protected]
Advertise with us
For information about newspaper jobs @ The Advocate - click here