The Colonels football team can accomplish two firsts with a win Saturday against the McNeese State Cowboys. A victory gives the Colonels their first Southland Conference title in school history and their first playoff appearance since a 48-3 loss to Montana in the first round of the 1996 playoffs.

The Colonels have not won a conference title since 1984 when they were a member of the Gulf Star Conference. A win Saturday will secure an at-large bid in the Division I-AA playoffs as the Southland Conference champion.

Colonels head football coach Jay Thomas said the Colonels aren’t treating this game any differently than any other.

“It’s still a day-to-day mind set,” Thomas said. “We’re going to approach this game just like we did the first game against Indiana. It comes down to execution on Saturday.”

The Colonels (5-3, 4-1 SLC) enter Saturday’s game on a four-game winning streak since their last time losing was to Stephen F. Austin on Oct. 8. The Cowboys, however, won the last six in a row against the Colonels, and Cowboys head coach Tommy Tate is undefeated (5-0) against the Colonels.

The last time the Colonels defeated the Cowboys was on Nov. 21, 1998, in Lake Charles.

The Colonels have not defeated the Cowboys in Thibodaux since a 31-24 victory in Sept. 1, 1990.

Senior defensive end Michael Young said the main focus for the seniors is finally beating McNeese.

“The Southland Conference Championship is secondary because all I want to do is beat McNeese,” Young said. “I’ve been here for five years, and we’ve beaten every team in the conference at least once, but we’ve never beaten McNeese. Anything that happens after that is just icing on the cake.”

Thomas agreed that Saturday’s game is all about the seniors.

“A win would be nice for our seniors,” Thomas said. “They have done such an outstanding job of taking over practice and doing what needs to be done.”

Entering the game the Cowboys are 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the SLC scoring wins over then No. 5 Georgia Southern, Texas Southern, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston State and Northwestern State.

The three losses came at the hands of Southern Miss, Southeastern and Texas State.

The Cowboys return 49 lettermen from a year ago, 10 of which are starters.

Offensively, the Cowboys are led by running back Kris Bush with 421 rushing yards and one touchdown. The Cowboys have two quarterbacks who have played this season. Chris Jones, an H.L. Bourgeois product, is 56-115, with 822 yards and five touchdowns. The second quarterback, Mark Fontenot, is 53-109, throwing for 752 yards and five touchdowns.

The Cowboys Pro-I offense ranks sixth out of seven teams in the conference in scoring, while the Colonels defense ranks No. 2 overall.

The pro-I offense is generally run with the quarterback, fullback and half back lined up in a straight line resembling an “I” formation.

Sophomore fullback Broderick Cole leads the charge for the Colonels offense with 628 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. The Colonels lead all teams in the Southland Conference with 2,991 total yards of offense.

“I expect the game to be fast, furious and really exciting,” Thomas said. “We’re going to need all of the support we can get. We need everyone to come out wearing red and outnumber their fans three-to-one in the stands.”

Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. Saturday in Guidry Stadium.