After a three-hour, 46-minute weather delay, LSU and McNeese State University agreed to cancel their respective opening games — an encounter that still cost LSU $500,000.
As all home teams do, LSU is scheduled to pay McNeese its $500,000 for the game and will uphold its end of the deal, even though there were only 4 minutes and 52 seconds of play.
As the NCAA mandates, if lightning strikes within eight miles of the stadium, play must be suspended for 30 minutes. The clock restarts each time there is another strike.
On Saturday night, that clock never stopped restarting. Meanwhile, players from both teams needed to stay fresh in the locker room.
“They stretched and relaxed,” said LSU football coach Les Miles. “First of all, we brought them in, and we went over football. We went over football twice, maybe three times. We went over the plays we needed to go over.”
LSU and McNeese competed for 11 total plays before play was subdued. No stats from the game will be kept, counting as a “no game” for both universities.
“We just felt that it was not in the best interest of our players to go out and play this game,” said LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva. “I apologize, but we cannot control the weather, and I’m sorry.”
Why not play on Sunday?
“Tomorrow is really not an option,” Alleva said. “McNeese had to go home. They didn’t have a hotel. It would be logistically almost impossible for our staff to get the stadium ready to play.”
McNeese, which is located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, traveled as a team on buses to LSU and planned to travel back home directly after the game.
Vacant hotel rooms are hard to find in Baton Rouge on any football gameday. It would have been difficult to pack an entire team, staff and coaches into a hotel on such short notice.
Why not reschedule the game for later this season?
If the game were to be rescheduled for later this season, it would have to be on open days for both of the teams, which is nearly impossible to coordinate.
LSU has one bye week — the week before it faces Alabama. Miles wouldn’t give that date up, considering the extreme focus that goes into preparing for the Crimson Tide.
McNeese, with one bye week not in line with LSU’s schedule, didn’t want to force a game on any other date. If it did, then it would lose preparation days for an in-conference opponent, which is the same predicament LSU faces with Alabama.
LSU offense
Sophomore quarterback Brandon Harris played a total of five plays in Saturday’s affair, which isn’t what Miles hoped for before diving into Southeastern Conference play next weekend. Harris and the Tigers head to Mississippi State University next weekend and needed the reps from the game this weekend, Miles said.
“This is his first start [this season],” Miles said. “I would have loved to have had him have it, but that’s impossible. We can’t go back.”
Harris went onto the field for his second-career start after the Tigers lost the coin toss, receiving the opening kickoff. Offense is on first.
In the first two plays, sophomore running back Leonard Fournette was handed the ball from Harris. One, a toss dive to the right side and the next a read-option to the left of the center out of the shotgun formation. The two plays combined for 11 yards. First down LSU.
On first and 10, Harris handed the ball off on an end around to freshman Donte Jackson. Jackson, who received the opening kickoff and is listed on the depth chart as the No. 2 cornerback behind junior Tre’Davious White, was involved with the LSU offense early on, showing signs of what is to come this season.
“He is a corner,” Miles said of Jackson. “He is a good guy with the ball in his hands. He can be a receiver in some packages.”
Next up was Harris. On his first drop-back pass of the season, he dumped the ball off to freshman running back Derrius Guice. Guice was submitted four yards behind the line of scrimmage because of a missed block by freshman wide receiver Jazz Ferguson, leading into a long third down for LSU.
LSU posted in shotgun formation once again. Harris scanned the field and took one of the last options as he was forced into an attempted deep ball to sophomore wide receiver Malachi Dupre. The McNeese pass rush closed in on Harris, who underthrew Dupre by a couple yards. Luckily for him, it didn’t result in an interception. LSU was forced into a fourth-and-long and had to punt.
Twelve minutes left in the first quarter.
“What we will take from this week is that we prepared,” Miles said. “We kicked it off and had a couple of plays, and we will correct those plays. I think our guys will enjoy the freshness and the weekend off.”
LSU defense
After a touchback by LSU senior punter Jamie Keehn, the LSU defense stepped on the field for its first time this season. After two consecutive tackles for loss by freshman cornerback Kevin Toliver II, junior safety Rickey Jefferson and junior defensive lineman Tashawn Bower, McNeese was backed into a third-and-long.
Senior quarterback Daniel Sams completed a dump-off pass to junior tight end Zach Hetrick, but Hetrick came up short of the first down after being forced out of bounds by White and junior linebacker Kendell Beckwith.
McNeese punted. It fell short. LSU’s ball was on the McNeese 49-yard line.
Ten minutes, eight seconds left in the first quarter. Ball game.
What about the tickets?
The LSU athletic administration and football program issued a statement saying they, as a group, will have more details on “ticket refunds/other options” from the McNeese game by Wednesday.
Miles said he couldn’t have been more appreciative for the support and effort the fans showed during the dreary evening.
“To the fans, thanks for coming,” Miles said. “Thanks for being a part of this. We tried. We gave [playing this game] every consideration that we could to be on the field and playing that game.”
You can reach Christian Boutwell on Twitter @CBoutwell_TDR.