<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3FuAjB_0w0wvV5O00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3FuAjB_0w0wvV5O00" width="1200" height="600" ><p>LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - At 4-3 entering their bye week, the McNeese Cowboys have their best seven game start to a season in six years. However, they’ve sustained injuries along the way and after a grueling schedule that included a week zero game at Tarleton State, the bye week couldn’t have come at a better time.</p><p>“Yeah, it’s a very much needed bye, we’re a tired and beat up team right now. But, you know, this is almost like the 12th week we’ve been going since the week zero plus camp, so it’s a very much needed bye week," said Head Coach Gary Goff.</p><p>The Cowboys have suffered a plethora of injuries through seven games including to key players such as quarterback Clifton McDowell, linebackers Micah Davey, Tristan Driggers, defensive back Boogsie Silvera, and others.</p><p>“Our athletic trainer, his staff’s done a great job and he gave me a report yesterday, and I count 27 people in this injury report. A lot of it is just bumps and bruises. There’s very few major injuries but still, they add up. It’s part of the game, right? It’s as expected in the football season, especially at this juncture of the season but, you know, we need to get healthy this week and we’ve got a very difficult schedule ahead of us still. We’re halfway through a long road warrior trip, as you can say but, we’re still excited and I’m anxious to get these guys back in two weeks and start playing again."</p><p>McNeese’s final game before the bye was their second consecutive road game, a matchup in Houston against Houston Christian, a game Goff referred to as a trap game earlier in the week following the Cowboys' win over 25th-ranked Weber State in Ogden the week prior. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, Goff was correct as McNeese fell 43-22 to the 2-3 Huskies in McNeese’s first game as a ranked team in six years.</p><p>“Yeah, it’s something we talked about from day one with the guys and we talked about it every single day. I’ve done this long enough to know, you have a big emotional win like that (over Weber State) and that kind of a breakthrough win for our program and it’s sometimes easy to relax and think we got this figured out. We thought that from a coaching standpoint all week that ‘hey, this is going to be their Super Bowl.’ They’re going to play us extremely hard and, you know, they just won a big road game themselves and, unfortunately, that’s exactly what caught us, a trap game. We had six starters not playing but, I don’t want to use that excuse at all because, you know, we had five starters not play the week before at Weber State and we did a very good job with that game. So, we had some conversations yesterday with the team about that and a lot of them fessed up. ‘Coach, you were right we kind of didn’t listen.' But still, it kind of falls on us coaches because we’ve got to do a better job than that. Hopefully we learned that and we get better because of it."</p><p>McNeese’s 2024 season has been night-and-day different than their 2023 season, having not won a game on the field last year. This season the Pokes have gotten off to their best seven-game start since 2018, and going into last week’s game against Houston Christian they were ranked for the first time in six years as well.</p><p>Goff attributes the change in success to the changes they implemented during the offseason.</p><p>“We changed a lot in the offseason, I’m big on leadership development, I felt like we were good there so we didn’t change anything in that aspect, but obviously coming off of last year, there were a lot of things that did need to be changed. We forced the guys to be together a lot more, throughout the summer we had a cookout every Wednesday, the team had to be there, throughout camp we had team functions where the team had to be there and mingle with players from the opposite side of the ball, things like that that go a long way for team chemistry. But, at the end of the day I think a lot of it has to do with our guys maturing a bit, we were a young team last year, but it also has to do with the character of our players. We were picky with who we recruited because being talented is one thing, but are you going to fit in with the dynamic of our team, and I think we did a good job of that."</p><p>Following all four of McNeese’s wins, the Pokes have celebrated by lifting Coach Goff in the air, and celebrating in the locker room, a testament to how far they have come since a season ago, something Goff believes is good for the team because ‘winning is supposed to be fun’ and should be celebrated.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WHAT. A. NIGHT🤠<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeauxPokes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GeauxPokes</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeDat?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeDat</a><a href="https://t.co/xa1Fiwetus">pic.twitter.com/xa1Fiwetus</a></p>— McNeese Football (@McNeeseFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/McNeeseFB/status/1835177650089783782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2024</a><input type="image" src="empty.gif" style="opacity:0" onerror="s=document.createElement(&quot;script&quot;);s.src=&quot;https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js&quot;;document.body.appendChild(s);"></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Victory Sunday🕺<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeauxPokes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GeauxPokes</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeDat?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeDat</a><a href="https://t.co/o96sRB8ZuI">pic.twitter.com/o96sRB8ZuI</a></p>— McNeese Football (@McNeeseFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/McNeeseFB/status/1840381388870082702?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2024</a><input type="image" src="empty.gif" style="opacity:0" onerror="s=document.createElement(&quot;script&quot;);s.src=&quot;https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js&quot;;document.body.appendChild(s);"></blockquote><p>“Seeing these young men grow, come together, and have a bit of a reward after all of their hard work means the world to me and the coaching staff. Just seeing all of them take the joy and excitement, and celebrate together means everything, to some it might seem silly, and they’ll say they didn’t win the Super Bowl, but it is a big deal. These young men have put a lot of hard work into this, so have their families, the coaching staff, the administration, everyone has put a lot of hard work into this, so they should be celebrated when we have those victories, and nothing else really matters."</p><p>Micah Davey was a player the Cowboys' defense was centered around in 2023, and entering the 2024 season it was no different as Davey was named a preseason FCS All-American. Unfortunately for McNeese and for Davey, their star linebacker has been absent for the past month as he continues to recover from an injury sustained at Texas A&amp;M, but according to Goff, he is on the verge of returning to the field.</p><p>“I expect him to be fully cleared by next week’s game at Incarnate Word, absolutely, I’m pretty excited about having him back. He’s been chomping at the bit for the past two weeks to get back out there, he really wanted to play up there at Weber State, but it just wasn’t in the cards. We have to listen to the doctors, and we want to be very smart and careful about it because we still have a lot of football ahead of us and I’m 100% confident that he will be ready for next week’s game."</p><p>For the full conversation with Coach Goff, click below.</p><div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_-NeRh191vU?feature=oembed" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div></div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Gary Goff Discusses McNeese’s 2024 Season In-Studio with Matthew Travis

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - At 4-3 entering their bye week, the McNeese Cowboys have their best seven game start to a season in six years. However, they’ve sustained injuries along the way and after a grueling schedule that included a week zero game at Tarleton State, the bye week couldn’t have come at a better time.

Gary Goff Discusses McNeese’s 2024 Season In-Studio with Matthew Travis

Comments / 0