MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / August 5, 2000

METAIRIE – When head coach Kirby Bruchhaus resigned this summer, McNeese State turned to someone who has been a member of the Cowboys for over two decades.

Now, Tommy Tate, the school’s 13th football coach, will try to turn the Cowboys back to where they were in the 1990s when McNeese State was perennially one of the best teams in Division I-AA.

Tate, who was promoted in June from assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, played four years at McNeese State and became an assistant coach in 1979. He has served under six head coaches, during which time theCowboys have won 148 games, six conference championships, played in two Independence Bowls and in seven I-AA playoffs. He was the defensive backscoach in 1997 when McNeese State lost to Youngstown State in the national championship game.

“It’s been exciting,” Tate said. “I’m kind of swamped. I’m really lookingforward to the challenge. I’ll be glad to get the players into camp. It’s kind oflonely without them.”Tate takes over a Cowboy team that went 6-5 in 1999 but which won five of its last six games, including the final three. Included in that streak was avictory over Troy State, at the time ranked No. 1 in the country. “We were a very good football team at the end of the year,” Tate said. “Ithink it’s (the winning streak) going to help tremendously. We have a lot tobuild on and feed off of.

“We went up to Southwest Texas and beat a very good Southwest Texas team that probably had the best defense in the conference last year. Wecame home and beat Troy State which had the best team in the conference last year. We then went to Nicholls and finished the season in fine fashion bybeating them at their place. It was a real positive ending to the season.”Spring was excellent. I really felt like the players got a lot out of it. I Feltlike they wanted some more. The offseason has been real good.”Helping Tate with the transition is the return of six starters on offense, including quarterback Slade Nagle who led the Cowboys to their last five victories. Nagle, a junior, finished the season with 85 completions in 138attempts for 1,095 yards and five touchdowns.

“Slade was a spark to the offense last year,” Tate said. “He came in and dida good job when Blake (Prejean) went down with a broken thumb. The offensehad a great second half of the year.”Also returning is junior tailback Jesse Burton, who has led the team in rushing each of the last two seasons. Burton rushed for 721 yards and fourtouchdowns last season. Two years ago, he rushed for 1,162 yards and 18scores, including seven in one game. Burton will be running behind a line thatremains intact, led by all-American candidate tackle Wes Hines.

“We have the chance to be balanced,” Tate said. “We have four senioroffensive linemen returning that have played since they were redshirt freshmen and sophomores. Jesse had a little bit of a down year due toinjuries and we hope he can rebound with a Jesse Burton-type year.

“We have some depth at the position. We have Marcus Trahan and AaronPierce (second on the team in rushing in 1999). The more players you canplay, the better chance you have of staying healthy and being good.”The concern on offense comes in the receiving corps where no starters return. Jermaine Martin is the leading returning receiver with 27 catches for426 yards and a touchdown last season. Jimmy Redmond had 27 catches for416 yards and four touchdowns. The Cowboys will also be looking forproduction out of newcomers Marcus Turner and Kewand Hall.

“The three receivers we have (Redmond, Martin and Turner) are excellent,” Tate said. “They are as good as we have had. They are three big-playpotential receivers. But we don’t have a lot of depth behind them. We havesome talented freshmen we are bringing in and it’s going to be how fast they can catch on the offense in how much they are going to play. It’s a concernbut it could also be a strong point in that sometimes the older guys feed off the younger guys.”On defense, the biggest concern is how to replace Tarius Davis, the team MVP and an all-conference selection, at free safety. Juniors Arthur Goodlyand Tramaine Harrison, a St. James graduate, will vie for the roll. The teamalso has to replace two starting linebackers. Seven starters do return ondefense, including end Jake Morrison and cornerback Bruce Bolden, an East St. John alum.”Arthur has some big shoes to fill because Tarius was an excellent free safety,” Tate said. “During the spring, we felt we had five, maybe six,linebackers we felt comfortable with, who could get out there and give us good quality snaps. Defensive line is going to be the strength. We feel like wecan play a lot of numbers there. Any time you can play a lot of numbers onthe line, you have to a chance to be good on defense.”David Latta returns as the team’s punter after ranking second in the conference last year with a 41.3-yard average. The Cowboys do have toreplace all-American Shonz LaFrenz at kicker with freshman John Marino out of Covington expected to take over.

The Cowboys face a tough road this year. McNeese opens at Miami (Fla.), aTop 15 pick in Division I-A. The Cowboys are picked third in the SouthlandFootball League behind last year’s co-champions, Troy State and Stephen F.

Austin.

“Stephen F. Austin and Troy State are the defending co-champs and youhave to put them up there as the favorites,” Tate said. “But there are noeasy games in this conference. You have to play each week.”Tate says the fans will have to have patience but he sees the team being in contention this season.

“This team has been through some adversity this past summer and they have handled it in a very mature way. I’d like to believe that something veryspecial is going to happen to this football team before the year is over.”

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