FOOTBALL: Lamar closer to breaking into STATS Top 25

Published 3:02 pm Monday, November 12, 2018

If Lamar doesn’t make it to the NCAA Division I playoffs, breaking into a top-25 poll wouldn’t be a bad consolation prize.

The latest STATS FCS Top 25 poll showed the Cardinals (6-4, 5-3 Southland) gaining 99 voting points, good for 28th place. The poll was released Monday, two days after the Cardinals achieved a fifth straight victory, knocking off Houston Baptist 38-9. Lamar had last won five straight in 1972.

Lamar already has its first winning season since going 8-4 in 2014.

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“It’s been a slow grind,” said senior linebacker Chaston Brooks, who’ll earn his fourth letter at Lamar at the end of the season. “Since I got here in 2015, all the guys I came in with, it’s been a long journey, but this is what you work for. You keep grinding and grinding, and finally, like coach said, you reap what you sow.”

One thing is in the Cardinals’ control concerning playoff possibilities — damaging McNeese State’s hopes further.

The 22nd-ranked Cowboys (6-4, 5-3) fell out of contention for the Southland Conference championship Saturday with a 37-34 loss at Northwestern State, a team whose 49-48 win at Lamar on Sept. 15 came back to haunt the Cardinals in their title pursuit.

The last time the Cards beat the Cowboys was in 2014, winning 27-24 in Lake Charles. Since then, two of McNeese’s three wins in the Battle of the Border have been decided by 10 or fewer points.

“It’s going to be big,” Brooks said, asked how important beating McNeese for the first time would be to him. “It’s a big thing. It’s going to be really big.”

But one won’t know how beneficial to Lamar’s postseason aspirations until the NCAA playoff committee releases its field at 11:30 a.m. Sunday on ESPNU.

 

THE TIMING IS RIGHT

When Lamar previously won five straight games, the current incarnation of the game show “The Price is Right” had been on the air just two months. Lamar started that season with three straight wins before dropping two.

That’s when the streak started. Lamar defeated Abilene Christian 31-10, Southwest Louisiana (now Louisiana) 3-0, Arkansas State 26-24, New Mexico State 24-19 and Nicholls 22-10. UT Arlington, which disbanded football in 1985, beat Lamar 10-3 in the season finale, and the Cards finished tied for third in the seven-team Southland, one game behind the Mavericks. (Louisiana Tech finished the season unbeaten.)

Forty-six years later, “The Price is Right” still airs, and the Cardinals overcame a four-game losing streak after beating Kentucky Christian 70-7 to start the season. They endured losses to Texas Tech (77-0), Northwestern State (49-48), Southeastern Louisiana (30-24) and Nicholls (50-27) before defeating UIW 27-21, Sam Houston State 41-23, Stephen F. Austin 24-17, Central Arkansas 38-24 and Houston Baptist.

A win over McNeese would be Lamar’s third over a ranked team this season. Sam Houston State was 14th on Oct. 20, and UCA 19th on Nov. 3. Lamar quarterback Darrel Colbert Jr. saw his first action Saturday since sustaining an ankle sprain against SHSU, as junior Jordan Hoy has started in his place since then.

“You’ve just got to prepare like you’re going in every single play,” Hoy said, asked if he thinks he’ll start against McNeese. “If not, you’re on the sidelines supporting your team, hoping you’re going down the field to score a touchdown or kick a field goal. I’m just trying to be a team player about everything and hoping for the best.”

 

CHAMPIONSHIP SCENARIO

Incarnate Word (6-4, 6-2) has completed its Southland slate as the only team to play eight games in the league and currently shares the conference lead with Nicholls State (7-3, 6-2), which has a home game Thursday against Southeastern Louisiana remaining. Presently, all but one of the 11 Southland football schools play nine conference games in a season, and 2018 marked UIW’s last year in the eight-game rotation. Houston Baptist will be the eight-game team for 2019 and 2020.

UIW has earned a share of the Southland title, but Nicholls — which beat UIW 48-21 on Oct. 27 — can win the other share and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs with a victory Thursday.

 

ALSO RANKED

Nicholls is the highest-ranked Southland team in the STATS FCS Top 25 at No. 18, dropping one spot despite beating Stephen F. Austin 47-14. McNeese is ranked 22nd, dropping four spots, and UIW entered the poll at No. 24.

Also receiving votes from the Southland: Abilene Christian, which would be 36th; Sam Houston State (41st) and Central Arkansas (43rd).

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

 

About I.C. Murrell

I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

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