When the Colonels face the Southeastern Lions Saturday, it will be the first time the River Bell Classic returns to Thibodaux since Nov. 17, 1984. Southeastern rejoined the Southland Conference last season after a 20-year hiatus. Last season, the Colonels won the renewal of the River Bell Classic 38-28 in Hammond.

Head Football Coach Jay Thomas said this game is for both the University and the community.

“We’re counting on our home crowd big time Saturday,” Thomas said. “Our student body has been awesome for us, and we need their support. Last year we went over there, and they had a huge crowd, so we need to do the same thing over here.”

One factor that makes this game so big is both schools are not far from each other, Thomas said.

“Only 94 miles separates the two schools, so we both recruit from the same places,” Thomas said. “It will be a good rivalry game from here on.”

The Colonels lead the all-time series between the two teams 8-7 and have won the last six meetings between the two teams. The Lions are 1-3 overall in Guidry Stadium, and their last win against the Colonels was Nov. 15, 1980 in Thibodaux.

Coming off a 24-17 loss to South Dakota State, Thomas said the Colonels’ bye week could not have come at a better time.

“We want to use the open date to get the team better,” Thomas said.”We’ve been playing up and down, but we want to start playing consistently. Hopefully this week, we can get some things ironed out.”

Thomas said it is important for the Colonels to start conference off the right way.

“It’s a whole new season, and that’s how we have to approach it,” Thomas said. “The open date gave us a chance to rest our legs. It’ll be good for us.”

During the loss last week, the Colonels scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter but could not pull out the win. Thomas said an early start is important.

“The personality of the team needs to create more intensity,” Thomas said. “We need to start from the beginning and not wait for the second half to try and get things started.”

Thomas said he also hopes to continue doing is having two quarterbacks play, which he has done for the past three weeks.

Thomas said he has seen a lot of good things from freshman quarterback Vincent Montgomery and junior quarterback Chris Bunch.

“Right now both guys are handling the offense about the same, so we are going to stick with that,” Thomas said. “We have to keep looking at it like that.”

The Lions are 1-4 overall. The Lions defeated Jacksonville University while the losses were to New Mexico State, Southern Miss, Texas Tech and Gardener-Webb.

Thomas is 8-2 lifetime at Guidry Stadium and 1-0 against the Lions, while Southeastern Head Coach Dennis Roland is 5-10 overall and 0-1 against the Colonels.