But the bottom line is an explosive half.
For maybe the first time in 101 years of Demon football, two brothers have scored in the same game for NSU. Senior Justin Perry ran back the opening kickoff 95 yards, the first KO return TD for the Demons since Darius Adams went 92 yards against Troy State on Oct. 10, 1992. Later, sophomore Kevin Perry scooped up a punt blocked by Adam Varnado and scampered 17 yards for a touchdown.
They each scored on the first play in the first two quarters.
The 49 points at halftime may be the most by the Demons in a half in a long time. We'll have to check on that later; we know that when NSU put 87 up on Southeastern in that freaky 2003 game, it was a 45-point first half including 14 points in the final two minutes.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Pinch-hitting in the press box
It's a new experience for us in the press box tonight as Matt Bonnette has the night off.
Matt is in Lake Charles to see the dedication of Louis Bonnette Field at Cowboy Stadium. About right now I am sure son is bursting with pride at a wonderful honor for his father, in his 44th year as SID at McNeese.
The pinch-hitter for Matt, who runs our statistics operation, is student assistant Matt English, who has been running the stat computer all season long. Matt won the Ace Higgins Award from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association this summer for being the outstanding student assistanst SID in the state last year.
All this means blog updates may be few and far between tonight as I may be pressed into some work next door in the stat area, helping out (or staying out of the way).
Matt is in Lake Charles to see the dedication of Louis Bonnette Field at Cowboy Stadium. About right now I am sure son is bursting with pride at a wonderful honor for his father, in his 44th year as SID at McNeese.
The pinch-hitter for Matt, who runs our statistics operation, is student assistant Matt English, who has been running the stat computer all season long. Matt won the Ace Higgins Award from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association this summer for being the outstanding student assistanst SID in the state last year.
All this means blog updates may be few and far between tonight as I may be pressed into some work next door in the stat area, helping out (or staying out of the way).
Hard to conjure up a more perfect day
As the purple-clad Demons (white pants) and the all white (reminscent of Penn State) Southeastern Oklahoma Savage Storm begin their pregame routines, the Spirit of Northwestern marching band is beginning its procession down to Tuprin Stadium.
The skies are a soft blue and the weather is absolutely ideal.
Demon Sports Network play by play man Patrick Netherton reports that tailgating is at a gourmet-level. He hung out with David and Stuart Wright for a while, sampling their grilled fare, then went to interview Demon coach Scott Stoker for the pregame show. Afterwards, it was off to join the Lady Demon basketball team with chef extraordinare Layne Miller.
If you've never had Layne's "pastalaya" it is imperitive for your taste buds to correct that this fall.
Interesting scores across the FCS nation so far -- Montana is tied with Division II Central Washington 35-35 with under four minutes left to play. Across the country, in Boston, Northeastern surrendered 10 first quarter points and then rallied to whip UC Davis 27-10 in a game that had a very familiar tone -- it was raining at Parsons Field, there were dozens of fans there and the home team played tremendous defense and displayed a physical running game.
All of the SLC action is at night.
Tonight on the Demon Sports Network, look forward to a halftime interview with Demon legend Walter Ledet. It's been 70 years since his senior sesaon wearing No. 61 for NSU.
The skies are a soft blue and the weather is absolutely ideal.
Demon Sports Network play by play man Patrick Netherton reports that tailgating is at a gourmet-level. He hung out with David and Stuart Wright for a while, sampling their grilled fare, then went to interview Demon coach Scott Stoker for the pregame show. Afterwards, it was off to join the Lady Demon basketball team with chef extraordinare Layne Miller.
If you've never had Layne's "pastalaya" it is imperitive for your taste buds to correct that this fall.
Interesting scores across the FCS nation so far -- Montana is tied with Division II Central Washington 35-35 with under four minutes left to play. Across the country, in Boston, Northeastern surrendered 10 first quarter points and then rallied to whip UC Davis 27-10 in a game that had a very familiar tone -- it was raining at Parsons Field, there were dozens of fans there and the home team played tremendous defense and displayed a physical running game.
All of the SLC action is at night.
Tonight on the Demon Sports Network, look forward to a halftime interview with Demon legend Walter Ledet. It's been 70 years since his senior sesaon wearing No. 61 for NSU.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Inspiration from outside the inner circle
Lady Demon volleyball coach Brittany Uffelman believes in seeking outside sources for motivating her players.
So that's why she was giving former Demon football player Matt Slate and Lady Demon basketball assistant coach Mindy Newlee great credit for last night's win over McNeese State.
After a terribly frustrating 4-game loss Tuesday night at Louisiana Tech, Uffelman dialed up Slate, the former Demon linebacker who lives with his wife in Ruston, where he is a regional Fellowship of Christian Athletes director.
He immediately agreed to meet the team on the bus in a parking lot. A few minutes later, there he was, and after a briefing from Coach B, Slate gave a 10-minute talk to the players.
The crux of it: when he reflects back on the magical 1998 football season, with the Southland Conference championship and No. 2 national ranking and three home playoff games, he hardly remembers the details of the games. He remembers the relationships between the players and coaches and the fun they all had.
His advice to the Lady Demons was simple. Have fun. Enjoy your teammates, enjoy each day, treasure the opportunity.
So that made Newlee a perfect followup for Thursday night's pregame talk.
If you've met her, you know her vibrant personality. She completely subscribes to Slate's approach.
She has good cause. When she was 13, she was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. She played her first couple of years of high school basketball in her hometown of Clarksville, Ark., bald from chemotherapy.
The treatment worked.
Her message to the team traced her experience and reinforced the idea that we should maximize the joy in every day.
So during time outs Thursday night, even in the many tense moments, if fans wondered why there were grins from the Lady Demons, now you may understand.
They were having fun.
So that's why she was giving former Demon football player Matt Slate and Lady Demon basketball assistant coach Mindy Newlee great credit for last night's win over McNeese State.
After a terribly frustrating 4-game loss Tuesday night at Louisiana Tech, Uffelman dialed up Slate, the former Demon linebacker who lives with his wife in Ruston, where he is a regional Fellowship of Christian Athletes director.
He immediately agreed to meet the team on the bus in a parking lot. A few minutes later, there he was, and after a briefing from Coach B, Slate gave a 10-minute talk to the players.
The crux of it: when he reflects back on the magical 1998 football season, with the Southland Conference championship and No. 2 national ranking and three home playoff games, he hardly remembers the details of the games. He remembers the relationships between the players and coaches and the fun they all had.
His advice to the Lady Demons was simple. Have fun. Enjoy your teammates, enjoy each day, treasure the opportunity.
So that made Newlee a perfect followup for Thursday night's pregame talk.
If you've met her, you know her vibrant personality. She completely subscribes to Slate's approach.
She has good cause. When she was 13, she was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. She played her first couple of years of high school basketball in her hometown of Clarksville, Ark., bald from chemotherapy.
The treatment worked.
Her message to the team traced her experience and reinforced the idea that we should maximize the joy in every day.
So during time outs Thursday night, even in the many tense moments, if fans wondered why there were grins from the Lady Demons, now you may understand.
They were having fun.
Monday, September 22, 2008
60 years later, still a proud Demon
Hitler, not Hussein, was the world's recently deceased despot.
TV was a novelty, not a necessity. Families gathered around the radio in the evenings.
People wrote letters. They grew their own vegetables behind the house in a garden. Not every home had a telephone. Water came from a well, not in a plastic bottle.
It was 1948, not 2008.
And Monday, Jack Huckaby wanted to be sure we knew that Coach Harry Turpin's 1948 Northwestern State College Demons didn't tie Louisiana College 13-13 as he saw listed in the game program at Saturday night's football game -- played in Turpin Stadium at NSU.
Nor did they finish their 1949 battle against the neighboring Wildcats knotted at 7-7, he added, proudly.
"I had to fight too hard in those games to have them go down as ties," he laughed. "We won those suckers. I want to get this fixed before I'm gone."
He understood that somehow, typographic errors happen. He had a 1985 Demon football media guide with the right score. Somewhere along the way, with computers and typesetters and dozens of different editors, scores which were once correct got twisted around.
"Hey, that was some kind of tough. That little ole Baptist school had some rough customers playing down there," said Huckaby, who was an offensive tackle and nose guard for the Demons.
"I had to deal with the Rudd brothers from over in east Texas in those two games, and I want credit for beating those guys," he said.
The Demons prevailed 13-0 in 1948, and 7-6 a year later.
Huckaby also expressed pride in the three-man coaching staff he played under -- Turpin and his assistant coaches, Walter Ledet and Alvin "Cracker" Brown.
"We didn't have 13 guys coaching us like they do nowadays," he said. "Those fellows did a lot for us. I guess we only had about 40 players at best, 33 one of my years, but our coaches were just great."
He was surprised to learn that today's football staff members -- not all of the 13 folks pictured in the game program fit into the "coach" job title -- are working 12-15 hour days throughout the season.
"It's a whole different world, a whole different game," he said. "I had no idea they put in those kind of hours."
He said one thing hasn't changed in 60 years.
"Our boys play hard," he said. "We did, too. We loved it so."
Doug Ireland, SID
(A reminder - if you see something that needs corrected in an NSU athletic publication, call us at 318-357-6467 or e-mail me at ireland@nsula.edu ... in this case, we will make the correction right away, but it won't show up until next year's media guide is printed. Many of the pages in the game program are printed in bulk before the season begins, including the school records pages.)
TV was a novelty, not a necessity. Families gathered around the radio in the evenings.
People wrote letters. They grew their own vegetables behind the house in a garden. Not every home had a telephone. Water came from a well, not in a plastic bottle.
It was 1948, not 2008.
And Monday, Jack Huckaby wanted to be sure we knew that Coach Harry Turpin's 1948 Northwestern State College Demons didn't tie Louisiana College 13-13 as he saw listed in the game program at Saturday night's football game -- played in Turpin Stadium at NSU.
Nor did they finish their 1949 battle against the neighboring Wildcats knotted at 7-7, he added, proudly.
"I had to fight too hard in those games to have them go down as ties," he laughed. "We won those suckers. I want to get this fixed before I'm gone."
He understood that somehow, typographic errors happen. He had a 1985 Demon football media guide with the right score. Somewhere along the way, with computers and typesetters and dozens of different editors, scores which were once correct got twisted around.
"Hey, that was some kind of tough. That little ole Baptist school had some rough customers playing down there," said Huckaby, who was an offensive tackle and nose guard for the Demons.
"I had to deal with the Rudd brothers from over in east Texas in those two games, and I want credit for beating those guys," he said.
The Demons prevailed 13-0 in 1948, and 7-6 a year later.
Huckaby also expressed pride in the three-man coaching staff he played under -- Turpin and his assistant coaches, Walter Ledet and Alvin "Cracker" Brown.
"We didn't have 13 guys coaching us like they do nowadays," he said. "Those fellows did a lot for us. I guess we only had about 40 players at best, 33 one of my years, but our coaches were just great."
He was surprised to learn that today's football staff members -- not all of the 13 folks pictured in the game program fit into the "coach" job title -- are working 12-15 hour days throughout the season.
"It's a whole different world, a whole different game," he said. "I had no idea they put in those kind of hours."
He said one thing hasn't changed in 60 years.
"Our boys play hard," he said. "We did, too. We loved it so."
Doug Ireland, SID
(A reminder - if you see something that needs corrected in an NSU athletic publication, call us at 318-357-6467 or e-mail me at ireland@nsula.edu ... in this case, we will make the correction right away, but it won't show up until next year's media guide is printed. Many of the pages in the game program are printed in bulk before the season begins, including the school records pages.)
Tough news for softball star Cary Bruno
A knee injury suffered in practice late last week appears likely to sideline All-SLC outfielder Cary Bruno for the 2009 season.
The reigning SLC Softball Student-Athlete of the Year, and the 2007-08 SLC Steve McCarty Citizenship Award winner, Bruno was hurt while running in practice. She was on crutches this weekend and although upbeat, resigned to the probability that she won't be able to play this spring.
Once the diagnosis is made final, we'll update the situation on the website.
We are hearing a great deal of positive buzz from the softball players about new coach Donald Pickett, BTW!
The reigning SLC Softball Student-Athlete of the Year, and the 2007-08 SLC Steve McCarty Citizenship Award winner, Bruno was hurt while running in practice. She was on crutches this weekend and although upbeat, resigned to the probability that she won't be able to play this spring.
Once the diagnosis is made final, we'll update the situation on the website.
We are hearing a great deal of positive buzz from the softball players about new coach Donald Pickett, BTW!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)