LSU 11/14/09

It's finally here! The big game in Red Stick against the Tiggers is now here upon us! I originally was going to the game, but unforeseen circumstances kept me from attending. I had two things to research this week. I need to find out what the real definition of a Tigger is and what did Red Stick mean. It looks like to me a Tigger is a fictional tiger like character introduced in the book, "The House at Pooh Corner". Tigger never refers to himself as a tiger, just as a "Tigger". When Tigger introduces himself, he often says the proper way to spell his name is: "T-I-double-guh-err (T,i,gg,er), which spells Tigger." There you have it, a LSU Tigger. What intrigues me even more is why in the heck is Baton Rouge called Red Stick? According to legend, Baton Rouge’s name came from a notation on a map used by French explorer Pierre le Moyne, sieur d’Iberville, and his brother, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, who led an expedition up the Mississippi River in 1699. Iberville spotted a tall cypress pole smeared with animals’ blood, which apparently marked the dividing line between the hunting grounds of the Bayou Goula and Houmas Native American tribes who shared this area. When Iberville jotted “le bâton rouge” (French for “red stick”) on his map, little did he know that he had named what would become Louisiana’s capital city. Wow that is all a mouthful. Ok, that is enough about the tggers and Tiggerville! Holiday travel and interest for Spring Break travel were in the forefront for the travel business. Right now cruise travel is ridiculously crazy with some of these deals from the cruise lines. Matt’s week would start off the same with stretch and stride and film breakdown. The crazy surprise on sides was still a topic at start the week. This week as they prepare for the tiggers they are working on several different kickoffs as placement would be key to keep the ball away from Holliday. Ball placement would be RR or RL and could be anywhere from the 30 to the 25 depending on who was where. It seems like to me that kicking to all of these different spots is a very difficult task with no warm ups for it. I guess it would be like hitting your driver on the driving range for warm-ups and then game time comes and they want you to pull your wedge out and use it for all 18 holes. How do you develop consistency? I know our kick coverage team is the walking wounded, but let’s kick the ball deep sometimes and quit playing keep away. Enough of my venting for now! I cannot do anything about it except watch. CD sure does like to keep the opposing teams and myself guessing as to where and how deep he is going to kick the ball. Enough venting! Just move on! I talked to Matt Friday around noon and they were getting ready to load the bus and head to tigger town. His morning had started off with is bi-weekly ice bath and he felt good. He said they arrived at the hotel around 5:30 and that the ULM basketball team was staying at the same hotel. After a team dinner the team’s bus was police escorted to the movie theater and when they returned they were police escorted back to the hotel where the police had move out of the way some elderly tigger fans who were blocking the entrance chanting the infamous words “Tigger Bait” That is just bizarre that the team gets stalked at 10:00PM at the hotel the night before the game. Game day is here and my wife is headed back from Dallas for a weekend visit. This will be the first time we have watched the game together without actually being at the game. I am not sure what to expect. Does she have superstitions like I have and what are they? Will I end up in the kitchen or will I stay in my chair? Game time is here and the tiggers will defer and kickoff to start the game. The team looks like they are jacked up for this game. The tiggers would score first with a field goal. La Tech would march back down the field and Matt kicked a 30 yard field goal. I really wish I could have gone to the game as it is easier for me to watch. I had to grab my red wine and watch for a while from the kitchen. The tiggers would score a TD making the score 10 to 3. We are actually hanging with them better than I had thought. La Tech would move down the field setting up a 33 yard field goal. It was good, but got tipped at the line and knuckle balled across making the score 10 to 6. We would get the ball back with enough time to maybe go into the half with the lead. We get the ball to the 3 yard line, it’s 4th down and a few seconds on the clock. I love the call as they run the Jump play and Daniel fakes the run, jumps in the air and shot puts the ball in the air to Dennis and we SCORE! Are you kidding me? This will be another ESPN top 10 play and we are going into the half with a lead over the tiggers. Tigger nation has to be in a state of shock. Wow! The tiggers would score two touchdowns and make the score 24 to 13. We still had a chance. La Tech would drive the ball down and setup a 36 yard field goal with less than a minute to go. I know the on sides is coming. I saw Matt place the ball in front of the tee so I knew it was on. The on side was executed, it had great height and we had a chance to come down with it but the tiggers recovered. Game over as we lose 24 to 16. I am never OK with a loss, but I was impressed with this team. They had a chance to beat another top 10 team and they never gave up. I cannot believe that Matt scored 10 points at LSU! It’s like I am in another one of my College Football dreams again. Matt called before they boarded the bus for the return trip to Ruston. As usual he was disappointed with the loss but the experience to kick in front of 90K people was incredible. He was ok with his kicks and hit CD’s numbers and hashes except for one that was a half moon that he did not get under the ball enough. He knew that CD and film would be brutal on that one. The team would hit Ruston a little after 2AM. It would be stretch and stride at 3:30 on Sunday and film breakdown later that afternoon. It is time to get ready for the other Bulldogs. I have really been impressed with the team over the last four games. I hate to lose, but I think with the amount of freshman being played that we are laying a good foundation for next year. It is off to Fresno St to play the little Bulldogs. I hope the team that has played the last 4 games is the team we hit the field with. I would love nothing more than to kick their Bulldog butt. If you want some pictures of your favorite kicker check out some of the photos that Mr. Morris took at the game by visiting LaTechSportsPix. There are some pretty incredible shots. Also don’t forget to listen to my friends at BleedTechBlue Radio every Tuesday night. It should be a great show as always. Good luck Bulldogs as you make your way into puppy dog land. Until our paths cross again, have a blessed week! College Football Dad!