Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Kickoff Week
We'll start today by pausing and remembering for a minute that horrible hurricane season 5 years ago. There are better places to do this of course, and I'll not attempt to imagine the thoughts of those who lost much more than I did those horrible days. As a resident of South Central LA, Rita was a much worse storm for me. But as a fan of LSU and a citizen of Louisiana I am always humbled by the sacrifice and care exhibited by the Tigers for those weeks when they gave all they could for Louisiana. Senior SID Kent Lowe has a wonderful piece on LSUSports about his own memory of those dark days and The Daily Rev has interviews with Les Miles and a bunch of players. I've also included the beginning of that great documentary below. Today's news and links after the break.
The Pick'em Challenge already has 6 contestants. Be sure to sign up and submits picks before Thursday.
There is no further word out of UNC or other sources about who's gonna start/sit on Saturday. Marvin Austin (or at least a facebook page believed to be Marvin Austin) is claiming innocence for his part in both investigations. Due to his involvement in both matters, he is the player most likely to be held out of the game. No matter who starts, Les Miles says he's not changing his strategy.
If you are planning on doing some cross-blog trolling I'll recommend our neighbor Carolina March.
Not much news this weekend as the team prepares for UNC. The Times-Pic finished their position previews with the Special Teams and had a great profile of NOLA native Frank Wilson, our running backs coach and one of the top recruiters in the nation. The Advoc reports that Ruben Randle is ready for his chance to become a leading WR and Chavis is thinking outside the box to work with this year's defensive personnel. Rosetta thinks both the coach and the team are showing signs of enthusiasm we haven't seen for a few seasons.
Buster Davis is still working hard to impress the Chargers.
Campus golfers take note that the University Club reopened Friday after long renovations in preparation for hosting rounds of the NCAA tournament in a few years.
I'm sorry to say I've had to put the rest of the season opponent previews on hold till the bye week. This far out, so much could change that it might be nearly useless (see the preview for UNC to see what I mean, you can pretty much ignore everything I wrote about their Defense) If you were looking for a bama preview, Doc Saturday pretty much summed up my feelings exactly: Bama's D will still be great, just not National Champion great.
Those WVU ticket plans with the great price that went on sale Saturday? Gone in less than 5 minutes.
Thanks to the media deal with CBS, LSU got some free billboards in ATL this week.
Weekend Results
#23 Volleyball destroyed Tx A&M on the road
#18 Soccer dropped a tough one on the road at #23 Memphis, 1-0
Remember that Lunch with Les returns today and will again be carried live on 104.5 fm in BR, online in the Geaux Zone, and posted here as soon as we have the video in the afternoon.
Here's Jerry Stovall being interviewed for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame this year.