BEAUMONT — Well, intercepting three passes deserved some kind of recognition.

Lamar senior cornerback Brendan Langley received just that from the Southland Conference on Monday, as the league named him its defensive player of the week.

Langley’s performance in Saturday’s 38-14 home win over Southeastern Louisiana tied a school record. Donald Rawls picked off three passes against Louisiana Tech in 1983 and Pat Gibbs reached that mark first against Arkansas State in 1971.

“Coaches put us in a great position and a great game plan,” said the former Georgia player, who once made seven tackles as a freshman against Clemson. “My Lord and savior Jesus Christ, that’s all that goes into it. It’s not all that huge to me, but listen to your coaches, pray and you’ll be fine.”

Lamar coach Ray Woodard said Langley did a great job of recognizing receiver routes, putting him in position to make the picks.

“Two of his picks came off the same play,” Woodard said. “Brandon has a lot of God-given tools — good height, range, quick feet to go with his speed. A lot of times you see guys with great straight-line speed but can’t change directions, or guys who are quick but not great straight-line speed. Brendan has both — great speed and he can change directions. He is also a very smart player to go along with his athleticism.

Langley has four interceptions and three broken-up passes on the season. He has recorded 13 solo stops.

 

PUTTING TOGETHER A FULL GAME

Woodard said Saturday he thought about reminding his players about the season opener against Coastal Carolina, when Lamar blew a 14-3 halftime lead and lost 38-14. He ultimately decided against doing it.

Lamar had not shown the ability to play a solid, full game after blowing that halftime lead and failing to dig out of a 30-3 halftime against Sam Houston State.

“We just got a bad reputation of coming out the second half, so we knew if we wanted to win like we did, we needed to come out there and perform on all cylinders, from offense to defense,” said senior linebacker Eddie McGill, who also intercepted a pass.

 

ENJOYING THIS ONE

Lamar’s 0-3 start before Saturday apparently weighed heavily on the team. The win gave Woodard a reason to deliver his first closing statement in a postgame conference this season:

“The lows have been lower than the highs have been on the win. The wins haven’t offset the losses. The coaches and the players, especially me, have taken the losses a lot harder than we’ve taken than on the other side of enjoying the win. I told the staff, we’re going to enjoy the win. We’ve got to get back to doing that.

“We’ve got 11 opportunities to play football. We put in a lot of work for these 11 games, and we do take each game very seriously. A loss is almost like a death in the family, but we’ve got to get to where we enjoy these games when we win.”

 

BETTER UNDER PRESSURE?

Woodard, asked about why Alex Ball, who missed 2 of 3 field goals Saturday, has struggled this season:

“Coach [Brian] Morgan does a great job. He’s a kicker himself,” Woodard said of the special teams coordinator from Port Arthur, who kicked at Grambling State. “The first one was just a bad hit and the last one, he just pulled it.”

Ball, who is 2 for 5 this season, converted a 38-yard try after the field goal unit rushed to the field in the final seconds of the first half.

“Maybe we should start just running him out when he doesn’t have time to think and he has to kick in a hurry, because he hit that one pretty good,” Woodard said.

I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews