After traveling to face two Division I opponents in consecutive weeks, the Colonels will return home to face the South Dakota State Jackrabbits at 2 p.m. Saturday at John L. Guidry Stadium. This will be the first game played at home since the Colonels defeated Southern Arkansas 35-0 Aug. 31. After the opening week win against the Muleriders, Nicholls had back-to-back road losses against Nebraska 56-7 and Louisiana Tech 31-21.
In the first quarter of the Louisiana Tech game, the Colonels stormed out to a 21-7 lead on touchdown runs by juniors Michael McLendon and Broderick Cole, coupled with a 50-yard touchdown reception by junior Grant Thorne. Defensively in the quarter, the Colonels gave up one touchdown to the Bulldogs on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Tech quarterback Zac Champion to wide receiver Eric Newman.
However, Tech became aware of the Colonels scheme and was able to prevent Nicholls from scoring the rest of the game. Tech went on to score 24 points in the second and third quarters to put the Bulldogs up 31-21 and eventually give them the win.
“The momentum we had in the first quarter shows how dominant our team can be during a game,” Head Coach Jay Thomas said. “I believe we never lost the momentum from the first half, and our players still believed they could win the game.”
The Colonels finished the game with 224 yards of total offense, with 141 on the ground. Cole was the leading rusher, gaining 54 yards on 20 carries with a touchdown, followed by sophomore Zach Morgan with 33 yards.
Nicholls used freshman Vince Montgomery and junior Chris Bunch at the quarterback position with Montgomery completing four passes on 11 attempts for 85 yards and a touchdown, while Bunch had four rushes for 25 yards.
The Bulldogs had the bulk of the offensive stats with 22 first downs and 384 yards of total offense. Champion went 13-22, passing for 203 yards and two touchdowns through the air while running back Patrick Jackson ran for 121 yards and one touchdown averaging 5 yards per carry.
“We put ourselves in the position to win, but we have to do better in finishing games because you can’t expect to keep a good team like Louisiana Tech down for long,” Thomas said.
Now the Colonels will host South Dakota, State who had the same troubles as Nicholls, giving up 24 second-half points to 12-ranked Northern Iowa and losing 27-17.
The Jackrabbits are 0-3 this season, allowing an average of 26.7 points per game along with being outscored in its first three games 80-27. The game against SDSU will be the first I-AA opponent of the season for the Colonels, and Thomas is preparing his team for the task ahead.
“South Dakota isn’t like the teams we faced in the past couple of weeks, but this game is where we find out how much our players have progressed,” Thomas said. “They have a good core of athletes that play at every position, so we have to be ready for everything they are going to throw at us.”
SDSU is averaging 137 yards of offense per game and is led by running back Cory Koenig and quarterback Andy Kardoes. Koenig has two touchdowns for the year and averages 100 yards a game rushing, while Kardoes has an 80 percent passing efficiency and averages 117 yards per game through the air.
“They are very versatile in their offense, and it seems that each week has been a different style of offense,” Thomas said.
After this game against SDSU the Colonels will have an off week before the start of conference play against Southeastern Oct. 7. Thomas said he hopes to use this time before the Southeastern game to prepare the team and work to make them stronger as a unit.
“We need to grow as a team,” Thomas said. “The conference schedule is a war, and the games are the battle, and as a team we need to be ready for the war.
