A little preview for little Lamar...

After a week totally wasted by Sports Illustrated and their band of clowns (Dohrmann, Evans, SI's legal team, and the editors of the editors), we are now faced with a football game.

The following info is courtesy of Wikipedia...

FCS (Div II) member Lamar University Cardinals began as South Park Junior College in 1923 (have fun with that).

After a brief hiatus from football (1928-31), the program was revived by the renamed Lamar College. The team recorded several winning records before again taking a break during WWII (1942-45). Resuming operations in 1946, the first football scholarships were offered. The team continued their winning ways.

In the 1950, Lamar made the transition to a 4 year instituion and joined the NAIA. It would take 7 years to record a winning record, but the Cardinals would then go on an 11 year winning streak with the highlight being 1961 and a Tangerine Bowl victory over Middle Tennessee State.

Impressively, Lamar joined the NCAA's College Division in 1963 (Southland Conf) and continued winning, posting 3 straight conference titles. The Cardinals lost to Northern Iowa in the 1964 Pecan Bowl.

After their 11th consecutive winning season, in 1968 Lamar made another move up in the NCAA as they became a Div I member.

After a brief downturn in the mid-late '70's, 1979 began a new era of quality football and led to the school's most famous win in 1980, an 18-17 victory at home over #20 BAYLOR BEARS. I think I like Lamar...

In 1987 Lamar went independent in football to join the "basketball flavored" conference American South.

With the football program and university experiencing financial issues, the Board of Regents discontinued the football activities in 1989.

The Cardinals revived football in 2009 and fielded a team in 2010. They have posted records of 5-6, 4-7, and 4-8 in 2012. They actually have a "trophy" rivalry with UL-Lafayette (the Sabine Shoe), but did not have a scheduled game in 2013.

Since reinstating the program, Lamar has only played three Div I FBS opponents, all losses (UL-L 40-0 & Hawaii 54-2 in 2012, and Louisiana Tech 27-14 last week).

Caleb Berry (#12, Jr, Needville, Tx) is the Cardinals QB, throwing for 272 yards on 23-37 attempts against LT, recording 1 TD and 1 INT.

The running game totaled 90 yards last week (avg 2.5/carry), and was generally split between #23, Payton Ploch (6-2, 215, Dayton Tx) with 10 carries for 46 yds (1 TD, long 14), and #8 Kade Harrington (5-9, 185, Kingwood Tx) with 12 carries for 42 yards (long 15).

Ten different players caught passes for Lamar, but the "threat" is #86 Jordan Edwards (5-11, 180, Sr, Houston Tx) who put up 119 yds and a TD on 5 catches against LT (23.8 avg, long 62). As a team, the Cardinals averaged 11.8 yds/comp.

Tech did not challenge the Cardinals defense through the air, posting 166 yards on 22-32 passing with 2 TD's. Lamar was gouged on the ground, however, giving up 273 yds on 38 rushing attempts (avg 7.2/carry). Five players for Tech had runs of 15 yds or longer.

The Cardinals bring a couple of former Cowboys to Stillwater...defensive lineman Joe Okafor (#35?) and wide receiver Kevin Johnson (#11). Johnson has 4 receptions for 74 yds and 2 TD's in 2013, with 2 catches and 20 yds coming last week vs La Tech.

This will be a question of how long and how much...for the OSU starters. I fully expect no more than 1 half of work for the 1's, with anyone nursing minor injuries getting less, or no work at all. The Cowboys have a bye week on the way before heading to Morgantown for their Big 12 opener against West Virginia, so I doubt Gundy wants to take too many chances with a team that the 2nd and/or 3rd squads could likely handle.

Fully expect to see Daxx make an appearance tonight.

That's about it for this preview. Thank heavens football has finally arrived to distract us from the disaster that is Sports Illustrated.

Oh, and here's hoping Bama drills a hole in the ground with the autograph king...

GO POKES!!!