While fans of the schools of the second-longest football rivalry in the state were arguing about what to call each other’s university, a wonderful college football game was played Saturday night at Origin Bank Field (which prefers to go by “Origin Bank Field”) at Joe Aillet Stadium (which prefers to go by “Joe Aillet Stadium” or “The Joe” or “Joe Aillet Stadium-Ruston” or, when it’s feeling cocky, “The Stadium” or the even more brash “Stadium,” although that hasn’t caught on and probably won’t).
Anyhow, the game. We forget about the game.
Louisiana Tech (more on that in a second) outscored the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (more on that in a second) 19-7 (or XIX-VII) in the fourth (IVth) quarter to win, 32-31, in what can best be described as a stemwinder of Biblical proportions.
Great game.
Quick wrap: ULL came back from a 13-10 halftime deficit to take a 31-19 lead midway through the fourth quarter. The Ragin’ Cajuns had scored in seven straight second-half drives going back to last week’s win against the University of Arkansas State at Jonesboro until the Tech defense held the visitors to a couple of three-and-out possessions in the fateful fourth, then snatched an interception on a third-down play and knelt on the ball twice to ice the home squad’s victory in its first ever game in the Sun Belt Conference, which sometimes prefers to go by Sun Suspenders Conference or Sun Side Adjusters Conference, depending on its mood.
Who can keep up these days? Everybody wants another jersey number. Wants to be on another team. Wants to be in another conference. Sigh …
But back to the game.
The ending — a win by the Fightin’ Tech Peaches — was somewhat a surprise for a couple of reasons.
One, Tech spent most of Saturday night’s fray/sheepshearin’/tustle doing little more than fluffing pillows on the devil’s bed, as grandmomma used to say. Playing with fire, in other words. Shooting its ownself in the foot. That is, if your definition of self-destruction is a missed field goal, missed PAT, failed two-point conversion try, two fumbles lost, mishandled snap, and a miss-snapped snap. Tech gave up so many Big Plays, some of the 20,000-plus fans must have thought they were in the Gershwin Theater.
The Dogs didn’t play their best. That was one thing.
Two, we have in our possession a melancholy sheet that charts, in obit fashion, ways in which Tech has lost 21 of 60 games by one score since 2021. A couple in OT. (Cute the bittersweet piano.) A couple of Hail Marys. (Cue the mournful violin.) Late fumble on the bad guys’ 25. Blocked FG. Only three points after four drives inside the 6 in a six-point loss. A 20-point lead late in the third quarter, turned to ashes. A Pick 6 negated by a penalty and two enemy drives kept alive by unsportsmanlike penalties in a seven-point loss. Twice, Tech could have won games by recovering its opponent’s onside kick but …
Neg.
Like watching a blindfolded man walk off a cliff, over and over, and over…
But last week, Tech held on to beat a good Army team, 31-29. And Saturday against ULL, a fourth-down conversion to make it a one-score game, then the winning drive and TD with under a minute, then an interception to end it.
A two-diaper, possibly three-diaper game.
Oh how the turns table. Or something like that. Tech is 3-2, has covered the spread four times, and is 1-0 in the league.
Go back to last season’s November comeback win against Liberty and another comeback win over Coastal Carolina in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl and it’s clear that the Bulldogs are now winning the types of games they’d made an anguished habit of losing.
Next, they play Saturday night on the road against the winless University of Louisiana at Monroe, which brings us to the sordid underbelly of the Tech-ULL game.
In short, ULL wants to go by “Louisiana.” They have talked ESPN into it. They have talked some other schools into it. But they have not and never will talk their old foe Louisiana Tech into it. The rivalry is too deep and the argument against it — ULL is the name of the University — is too strong. In Tech broadcasts and on the scoreboard, ULL will always be ULL or the Ragin’ Cajuns, which is one of the great nicknames in all of sports; why not just hang your hat on that?
(Speaking of, the ULL quarterback, or QBB, is D’Wanye’ “Lunch” Winfield, a nickname his grandfather gave him when as an infant, young D’Wayne’ snatched a chicken wing off his granddad’s plate and started gnawing on it. D’Wayne’ was instantly rebranded “Lunch.” How beautiful is that? If rebranding were only that easy all the time.)
Lest we forget, ULL is the artist formerly known as Southwestern Louisiana, or USL, and Tech is the artist formerly known as Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, eventually LA Tech. The LA is supposed to be pronounced “lah” like in the Christmas song but often is called “El Ay” Tech, which is incorrect in newfangled branding parlance — but what are you gonna do except fight for your right to party and call your school by the “right” name, amirite?
The whole mess is profoundly annoying, to be frank, EXCEPT that it underlines the competitive hate upon which the best rivalries run. And that’s a beautiful thing.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones…” works on the playground but when you get grown and become a FAN, them there’s fightin’ words!
This bureau would argue with Juliet that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, that not so much is in a name, that it doesn’t matter what you call me, just don’t call me late for supper. But then, it matters not that, aglow and lovely on a moonlit balcony, Juliet, forthwith, be right: I forswear, she’d still get booed out of every stadium in the country.
This is why it’s fabulous that the Fightin’ Ruston Peaches and the University of Louisiana-Near Opelousas More Or Less are in the same conference again. We’ve still got basketball and baseball and softball and tennis and track and field and so much more to go. It’s only October! Episode after episode of “Let’s Play Name That Team.”
Next stop for ULL: the Troy Wooden Horses. And for Tech: the other UL, this time, the one in Monroe. We think. At least that’s their name right now. Maybe names can enter the transfer portal too.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu
