Colonels, Tigers, progress with weekend scrimmages

Saturday was a good day to be a fan of Nicholls State University athletics.

The Colonels held Fan Day this weekend and the nightcap of the day-long event saw Nicholls take part in its second scrimmage of fall camp — an event that was open for the public.

The Colonels played for 90 minutes and both the offense and the defense had its moments throughout the day.

The real winners of the day were fans and supporters of the program, who were treated to a full day of fun.

Before the scrimmage was a Huddle Up on the 50 – 5K run and Tailgate Cook-Off. Fans turned out and showed their support for a Colonels team which is expected to do terrific things on the field this season.

“The fans just turned out and it was tremendous,” Rebowe said. “It was a tremendous success. It was a great atmosphere here today.”

On the playing field, Nicholls had success.

Offensively, quarterback Chase Fourcade had a good day, leading the team down the field for a touchdown on the first drive of the night.

In that possession, Fourcade showcased his newest weapon, Texas A&M transfer running back Kendall Bussey.

With the team in the red zone, Bussey took a pitch from Fourcade, got around the defense and scampered 17 yards into the end zone for the first score of the night.

That drive also featured several big plays from Dai’Jean Dixon, who finsiehd with 6 catches for 98 yards.

On the ground, Nicholls had success, rushing for 124 yards on the night. Bussey had moments, as did Kyran Irvin. Of local interest was the work of Vandebilt Catholic true freshman Brennan Rogers.

The former Terrier had a 17-yard run on the night, as well as a 2-yard touchdown. In both of Nicholls’ scrimmages, Rogers has made big plays.

Defensively, the Colonels didn’t falter much.

Nicholls gave up a touchdown on the opening drive of the scrimmage, but didn’t surrender anything else until the late stages of the scrimmage, dominating play with their aggressiveness and tackling ability.

Ronald Ollie had a sack and Devin Edinburgh and Evan Veron also recorded tackles for losses on the day.

South Terrebonne sophomore Chris Duplantis had one of the biggest plays of the day, picking off a pass from quarterback Nick Conley on the first play of a drive.

On special teams is where Nicholls may need the most work.

All-American senior kicker Lorran Fonseca struggled per his lofty standards. He was 1-of-2 in live action, making a 26-yard field goal, but missing a 45-yarder.

In a field goal drill, Fonseca made four kicks, but missed three. The makes were mostly short, coming from 27-yards, 27-yards, 37-yards and 42-yards. The misses were from 42-yards, 42-yards and 52-yards.

The other Nicholls kickers were a combined 3-of-6 in the drill.

Rebowe said this will be Nicholls’ final scrimmage of camp. The Colonels will now turn their attention to polishing up a few things before focusing on Kansas, the first opponent of the season.

Rebowe said the Colonels got off to a slow start on Saturday, and the players were a little bit distracted by the big crowd and the events going on around them.

But Rebowe said once they settled in, they got good work and made progression, which is the most important thing in these scrimmages.

“I think we got into the flow of it pretty easy,” Rebowe said. “We got some good work, had some good series and made some good plays. … It was a good day.”

LSU defense dominates day

The LSU quarterback chase now has just two candidates.

And both were dominated on Saturday by a ferocious Tigers’ defense that thoroughly controlled the flow of the team’s second preseason scrimmage.

Like Nicholls, LSU also had a preseason scrimmage on Saturday, as the team ascended to Tiger Stadium for a full day of work.

All eyes were on quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Myles Brennan — the two competitors left standing after Lowell Narcisse and Justin McMillan left the team earlier this week.

But the signal callers struggled.

Burrow was 10-of-24 with 124 yards and a touchdown, while Brennan was 5-of-19 with 47 yards.

Coach Ed Orgeron said the quarterbacks were plagued by several drops, but even without them, the coach said the defense dominated the day and made things awfully difficult for LSU’s offense.

“We had a very dominant day again on defense today,” Orgeron said. “Damone Clark had an excellent day and Tyler Shelvin had his best scrimmage, as did Michael Divinity. … Overall, we had a very good day.”

Orgeron said after the scrimmage that LSU still doesn’t have a starting quarterback as the team officially breaks fall camp and turns its focus to Miami.

Burrow had the most success on Saturday — at least statistically, though the coach said several possible big plays were negated by drops.

“I thought they threw the ball well,” Orgeron said of the quarterbacks. “They made some good decisions in two-minute situations. I thought a lot of passes were on the money, but we dropped too many balls.”

In the running game, true freshman Chris Curry rushed 8 times for 35 yards, while Nick Brossette and Lanard Fournette had yardage as well.

But yards were hard to come by all day for the entire offense, which was swallowed up by a defensive group that proved stingy throughout camp.

Orgeron said LSU is beat up, but the injuries are mostly minor. He said before the season opener, the team will be ready for the big game against the Hurricanes.

“We’re banged up a little bit,” Orgeron said. “Most of the things are just camp injuries and most of the guys I expect to get back for the Miami game. I think they need to get their legs back, get back fresh. We did a lot of banging and a lot of hitting.”

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