McNeese (2-3, 1-2 SLC) at ^#11/11 LSU (3-1, 1-1 SEC)
Saturday, October 3, 2026 • 6:55 p.m.
Tiger Stadium • Baton Rouge, La.
 
Broadcast Information:
TV: SEC Network (LINK) - Dave Neal (PxP), Cole Cubelic (Analyst), Tori Petry (Sideline Reporter)
Radio: 92.9 The Lake and 929thelake.com (Link) – Tom Hoefer (PxP), Mark Young (Analyst)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast (Link)
Media Central: (Link)
 
BATON ROUGE - McNeese will close out its non-conference part of the schedule on Saturday night when it makes a visit to Tiger Stadium to take on 11th-ranked LSU.
   
Kickoff is scheduled for 6:545. The game will broadcast on the SEC Network.
   
LSU's No. 11 ranking in both the AP and Coaches polls marks the second-highest ranked FBS opponent for McNeese in school history. In 2000, McNeese lost to No. 5 Miami in the Orange Bowl.
   
McNeese snapped a two-game losing streak with Saturday's 27-24 win over East Texas A&M, picking up its first Southland Conference win of the season. LSU whipped Texas A&M 35-6 in Tiger Stadium in its last outing.
 
 
The Matchup
Saturday's game will be the third official meeting between McNeese and LSU with the Tigers holding a 2-0 record.
   
The two teams were scheduled to play in 2015 but that game was canceled after a several hour rain delay. McNeese went on to post a 10-0 regular season record that year thanks to the cancellation against the Tigers.
   
That 2015 season was also the last with head coach Matt Viator, who departed following the year to take the head coaching job at ULM. Viator is now back with McNeese and is in his second season in his return. He's 0-1 vs. the Tigers, that coming in the 2010 season by a 32-10 score.
   
The two last played in the 2021 season with LSU winning by a 34-7 score.
   
McNeese and LSU are scheduled to play again in the 2029 season.
   
McNeese's four previously scheduled matchups are the most by a Southland Conference and in-state FCS school against LSU since the FBS/FCS levels were created.
   
This will be LSU head coach Lane Kiffin's first time to play McNeese in his entire coaching career.
 
Landon Barrett named SLC Defensive Player of the Week; honorable mention for national POW
Senior linebacker Landon Barrett has been named this week's Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week and also honorable mention for the Stats Perform national defensive honor.
   
Barrett recorded his first career pass interception against East Texas A&M on Saturday which led to a McNeese touchdown. He finished the game with a game and season-high 11 tackles.
   
On the season, Barrett tops the team with 31 total tackles and is second with three tackles for a loss.
 
McNeese-LSU Connections
• LSU WR Josh Jackson played at McNeese in 2025 and finished fourth on the team with 20 catches for 258 yards. Jackson has not recorded any stats for the Tigers this season.
• Ed Orgeron, LSU Special Assistant to Recruiting and Defense, was a graduate assistant for McNeese in 1985. His sons Cody (QB) and Parker (WR) played for the Cowboys.
• LSU System President Dr. Wade Rousse left the McNeese president job to take over at LSU.
• Senior Deputy AD/Executive Director of External Relations Heath Schroyer was previously McNeese's AD and prior to that, head men's basketball coach.
• Associate AD for Communications Michael Bonnette is the brother of McNeese Sr. Associate AD for Communications Matthew Bonnette. Their father, Louis Bonnette, was the SID at McNeese for 46 years and is in the McNeese Sports, Louisiana Sports, and CoSIDA (CSC) Halls of Fame. The football field at Navarre Stadium is named in his honor, the only one in the nation named for an SID.
 
McNeese against the FBS
Since playing its first FBS opponent in 2000, McNeese has faced an FBS opponent every season but 2017 and the 2021 spring season.
   
Overall, the Cowboys have posted a 14-39-2 record against the upper division teams, most of those occurring prior to 1990. Since 2000, McNeese is 5-23 against the FBS.
   
The last win over an FBS came in the 2013 season opener when the Cowboys routed South Florida by a 53-21 score. It's the largest win by an FCS over what was then a BCS team in college football history.
   
Saturday's game will mark the 14th against a P4 team (0-13 all-time). The closest game came in 2014 when the Cowboys dropped a 31-24 heartbreaker at Nebraska. The Cornhuskers scored with less than a minute to play to break the tie and escape with the win.
 
Versus the SEC
Saturday's game will be the fifth against an SEC team (0-4). McNeese's last occurred in the 2024 season at Texas A&M (L, 52-10). Also at Florida in 2023 (L, 49-7), at LSU in 2021 (L, 34-7), and at LSU in 2010 (L, 32-10).
   
McNeese played Missouri in 2010 (L, 50-6) when the Tigers were a member of the Big 12 Conference, and in 2001, lost at Texas A&M 38-24 when the Aggies were in the Big 12.
   
Future games against SEC opponents are LSU in 2029 and talks with a different SEC team still in the works.
 
RB Wiggins makes history with long runs
• Omiri Wiggins tied a school record on Saturday with a 74-yard touchdown run against East Texas A&M, his second 70+ yard TD run of the season and tying a single-season record.
• He's the first Cowboy to record multiple 70-plus TD runs in the same season since Kelvin Bennett in 2012, and only the third ever in school history (Theron McClendon in 1980).
• Wiggins had a 75-yard TD run against SFA in the season opener.
• He's one of just two RBs in the FCS this season to have multiple 74-plus yard scores on the season (Charles Kellomo of Eastern Illinois).
 
Last Time Out: McNeese 27, East Texas A&M 24
McNeese scored on its first three drives, built a 27-10 third quarter lead, then held off a late Lions' charge to get a 27-24 win and snapping a two-game losing streak.
   
The win marked the first in Southland Conference play this season.
   
Running back Omiri Wiggins ran for 116 yards, his second 100-yard game of the season, and scored on a 74-yard third quarter jaunt. The Cowboys rushed for 210 yards in the game and 412 total yards of offense.
   
Quarterback Jake Strong, who started in the first game of the season and missed the last few games after suffering a shoulder injury in the opener, threw for 202 yards on 17 of 27 passes with a touchdown and no interceptions. He ran for another 34 yards. Strong started in place of Devin Lippold, who started the previous three games, who has been lost for the season after suffering a hand injury at UTRGV on Sept. 19.
   
Defensively, linebacker Landon Barrett recorded 11 tackles and interception the first pass of his career.