Posts Tagged ‘football’

Not one of the lucky 92,000 to have tickets to the biggest college football game of the season? Have no fear, you can still get most of the game day experience by viewing the game for free in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, right across the street from Tiger Stadium. While the game is playing on the enormous high definition screens inside the PMAC, the LSU cheerleaders will be there to lead the crowd in the traditional chants and the LSU concession stands will be open to provide genuine stadium fare.

The PMAC opens at 6 PM and fans can enter through the southwest upper entrance, closest to Mike’s Habitat.

If you’re going to be on campus, be sure to checkout ESPN GameDay, broadcasting live from the LSU Parade Grounds beginning at 9 AM.

ESPN College GameDay, the popular college football sports program, will be broadcasting live from the LSU Parade Grounds beginning at 9 AM October 10. The program broadcasts live from college football’s number one game of the week, and will be in town for the sold out #4 LSU (5-0) vs #1 Florida (4-0) game in Tiger Stadium. The game will be broadcasted on CBS starting at 7 PM. In the sixteen seasons GameDay has broadcasted live from a college campus, LSU has hosted the program seven times. The last time GameDay was on campus was for last year’s highly anticipated Alabama game.

The GameDay set is open to the public, and fans can view the broadcast live on the Parade Grounds. Campus will be insane next week, so I’d recommend getting there as early as possible, even the night before, especially if you plan on catching the broadcast.

The LSU Tigers traveled almost 2,600 miles, across nine states and two time zones, to meet up with the University of Washington Huskies for college football’s season opening weekend. Traveling with almost 10,000 fans, this game was one of firsts for both teams. LSU debuted true sophomore quarterback Jordan Jefferson coming off a stellar performance in last season’s bowl game and for the first time will be donning ‘LSU’ on the chest of their jersey. The Huskies are playing under the leadership of a new head coach as well as celebrating the return of legendary quarterback Jake Locker fresh from injury.

In the first half, the Huskies kept up with the Tigers. In the first score of the game, the Huskies quarterback Locker connected with receiver James Johnson after a 51-yard run by Johri Fogerson. Soon after, LSU put up three points on the board after a 62-yard drive, making the score 7-3. On the very next play, LSU linebacker Jacob Cutera tipped the ball in the air to make a beautiful interception and 29 yard run for LSU’s first touchdown, making the score 10-7. Opening the second quarter, Huskies kicker Erik Folk tied the game 10-10 with a 34-yard field goal after an unsuccessful drive. In the next possession, the Huskies had two consecutive personal fouls which gave LSU an additional 30 yards and a first down. However, during the next play LSU legendary player Charles Scott had his first ever forced fumble, returning the ball to the Huskies’ possession. LSU’s first drive touchdown came late in the half after Jefferson connected with Terrance Toliver for a career long touchdown pass of 45 yards. The Huskies next possession ended in a 37-yard field goal after a 46-yard pass to Devin Aguilar. This ended the half with LSU in the lead 17-13.

At the beginning of the second half, LSU entered with another touchdown play from Jefferson and Toliver. Leading at 24-13, LSU continued to put up points for the remainder of the quarter. The Huskies put up a 32-yard field goal, but LSU immediately answered with yet another touchdown reception by Toliver. This put the Tigers in the lead 31-16 with a minute left on the clock. The Huskies ended the game with a touchdown as time expired, ending the game 31-23.

LSU was a trending topic for most of the evening. College football's best fans in the world in action again.

The game didn’t end in a blow out that most fans had expected, but then again traveling a couple thousand miles and playing after midnight in your home time zone doesn’t really lend towards stellar athletic performance. Notwithstanding these factors, LSU’s opening game went fairly smoothly. Jefferson did well, connecting with his money man Chris Toliver for a few touchdowns. Of course, new defensive coordinator John Chavis leaves a lot to be desired. Coming from nearly two decades of coaching at the University of Tennessee, Chavis, who commands of a salary of nearly half a million dollars a year, was expected to turn the defense that gave up 50+ points to both Florida and Georgia last year completely around. Instead of doing a complete 180, the defense gave up three touchdowns to a team that hits a lot softer than one like Florida, who many expect will continue on to win the national championship.

The Tigers still put a hurting on the Huskies, though, and played with the fierce determination that we expect from our Bayou Bengals. It’s still unclear if this game portends a successful season or not. Really, any accurate prediction can’t be made until the Tigers get back into Death Valley, which they will when they face conference opponent Vanderbilt next week, where they perform much better. If anything, this game really only reaffirmed one thing: LSU really is a second-half ball club.

The LSU Tigers are on the road for their season opener against the University of Washington in Seattle. The game is to be broadcasted on ESPN at 9:30 PM local time. It’s the furthest away game LSU has ever played. An estimated 2,550 miles, the Tigers will pass through nine states, two time zones on a trip with an estimated drive time of 44 hours.

I don’t know about you, but that seems an awful long way to drive to win a football game.

Until the start of LSU Football season. First game is on Saturday, September 5 at Washington in Seattle, WA. Kickoff at 9:30 PM CST. Broadcasting on ESPN and the LSU Sports Radio Network.

NFL just announced that it has awarded New Orleans the 2013 Super Bowl. This selection comes after much arduous work and politicking by Benson, the Saints organization, the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and other officials. The selection was made by other NFL franchise owners who voted on New Orleans. This is extremely important to New Orleans for a lot of reasons, including the average $300 million contribution to the surrounding community and unrelenting media coverage before, during and after the event, which will showcase this wonderful state and, undoubtedly, stimulate the New Orleans tourism-centric economy. The selection ties New Orleans as the most popular venue for the Super Bowl with South Florida and marks the tenth Super Bowl hosted at the Superdome (three previously in the 1970s at Tulane Stadium).

Congratulations, New Orleans, and all affiliated parties on this success—this is extremely important to New Orleans. Now, to just get my hands on a couple of those tickets. . .

More information regarding the selection is available at the New Orleans Saints web site.

The annual two-day fan fest generally known as the NFL Draft ended today after a grueling 12 hours of constant coverage by ESPN. I watched bits and pieces of it and covered the LSU draft picks live via Twitter. We had 10 players that went into the draft and six of them were drafted in decent positions. Below is the full rundown. (And before you ask: no, I don’t know what a rundown is. Bonus points to whoever catches that.)

Listed in order of draft pick.

• Tyson Jackson, DE, to the Kansas City Chiefs in Round 1, pick 3; overall pick 3.
• Quinn Johnson, FB, to the Green Bay Packers in Round 5, pick 9; overall pick 145.
• Herman Johnson, OT, to the St. Louis Cardinals in Round 5, pick 31; overall pick 167.
• Curtis Taylor, FS, to the San Francisco 49ers in Round 7, pick 10; overall pick 219.
• Demetrius Byrd, WR, to the San Diego Chargers in Round 7, pick 15; overall pick 224.
• Ricky Jean-Francois, DT, to the San Francisco 49ers in Round 7, pick 31; overall pick 244.

Overall, I’d say LSU had a pretty decent showing considering who we put up for draft. It seems the Chiefs are trying to rebuild our all-star defensive line with their acquisition of Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson. Also, it’s good to see Demetrius drafted despite his recent injuries. It’s likely he would have been drafted a few rounds earlier, but regardless a draft is good. (By the way, if you haven’t written your get well soon wishes to Demetrius, you can do so by signing our community card.) There are four others who weren’t drafted, including Darry Beckwith, ILB; Marlon Favorite, DT; Brett Helms, C; and Kirston Pittman, DE. The next stage is a crucial point for these guys as they seek to be signed as free agents. If not, well, then I guess it’s to the real world doing whatever with their college degrees.

Update
LSUSports.net is reporting that all four of the above players plus Tremaine Johnson, DE, have signed free agent contracts to NFL franchises. They also mention what we published earlier: The Chiefs now have five former LSU players on their roster and have used their first round pick for the last three years to pick up an LSU player. They are the first franchise to do this.

The NFL Draft starts today at 3:00pm. We’ll be covering it live via Twitter, updating in realtime. Follow us @btrblog for all the LSU goodness.

We have a whole bevy of great players in the draft this year, including:

• Beckwith, Darry
• Byrd, Demetrius
• Favorite, Marlon
• Helms, Brett
• Jackson, Tyson
• Jean-Francois, Ricky
• Johnson, Herman
• Johnson, Quinn
• Pittman, Kirston
• Taylor, Curtis

By the way, we hear great reports from Miami concerning Demetrius Byrd’s condition following his accident. They expect full recovery in time for spring training. You can send your get well wishes to him via our community get well soon card animated by our very own Ethan Killett, BTR Toons creator.