BATON ROUGE — Coming off its first victory of the 2002 season, the LSU football team continues a stretch of four consecutive home contests with a 7 p.m. match-up with Miami (Ohio) on Saturday in Tiger Stadium.
Live audio of the LSU Sports Network with Jim Hawthorne, Doug Moreau, Kevin Ford and Jordy Hultberg begins at 5:30 p.m. on www.LSUsports.net by clicking the “Audio” link under “Upcoming Events” on the homepage. Click here to watch live stats from the game beginning at kickoff. The game will not be televised by any network.
The weather forecast is partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low 80s at game time and only a 10 percent chance of rain, but high humidity. Sunset is at 7:12 p.m.
| Miami what? |
| Unlike the Florida university with which Miami (Ohio) shares its name, Miami is not named for a city. Rather, the university founded in 1809 in Oxford, Ohio, is named for the Miami Tribe, an Oklahoma-based Indian tribe.
The football team carried the moniker “Redskins” from the early 1930s until, at the request of the Miami Tribe, the school’s board of trustees voted to discontinue to use of the nickname on Sept. 25, 1996. After more than 3,000 suggestions for the new nickname from alumni and friends of the university were reviewed, the board selected the name “RedHawks” from three finalists — RedHawks, Thunderhawks and Miamis. The nickname went into effect on July 1, 1997. “Swoop,” the name of the Miami mascot, made its first appearance on Dec. 9, 1997, before the RedHawks’ men’s basketball game against Xavier (Ohio). |
The Fighting Tigers (1-1, 22nd Coaches’/25th AP) defeated Division I-AA opponent The Citadel, 35-10, on Sept. 7, while an unranked Miami (Ohio) team suffered a 29-24 setback against Iowa in front of 25,934 at their home field, Yager Stadium. Before losing the the Hawkeyes, Miami upset North Carolina on a dreadful day in Chapel Hill, N.C., 27-21. The Tar Heels had nine turnovers in the season opener.
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Roland Barbay |
LSU and Miami have met twice before on the gridiron, with the then-nicknamed Redskins collecting the biggest upset in school history over No. 8-ranked LSU, 21-12, on Sept. 20, 1986 in Tiger Stadium.
Miami quarterback Terry Morris, who led the Redskins to the upset, was inducted into the school’s athletics Hall of Fame last weekend. At the end of the 1986 season, the Mid-American Conference Champions (8-4, 6-2 MAC) had the score of their victory over LSU engraved on their championship rings.
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Marc Boutte was |
The Fighting Tigers earned a measure of revenge four seasons later, beating the Redskins, 35-7, on Sept. 15, 1990. Then LSU head coach Mike Archer would be fired at the end of that season after going 5-6. Miami finished 5-5-1.
Another Miami quarterback leads the RedHawks into action this weekend in the form of 6-5 240-pound sophomore Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger, a native of Findlay, Ohio, redshirted the 2000 season before becoming the 2001 MAC Freshman of the Year and a FWAA Freshman All-American. He re-wrote the Miami single-season record book for passing yards (3,105), completions (241), touchdown passes (25), completion percentage (66.3) and total offense (3,294). The highlight of his freshman season was a 40-of-53 performance with 452 yards against Hawai’i.
Thus far in 2002, Roethlisberger has completed 49-of-84 passes for 547 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. His top targets are 6-6 senior Jason Branch (9 rec., 134 yds., 1 TD), 6-1 junior Korey Kirkpatrick (8 rec., 97 yds.) and 5-8 sophomore Michael Larkin (10rec., 100 yds., 2 TD).
The RedHawks balance their attack with running backs Cal Murray (29 att., 119 yds., 1 TD) and Luke Clemens (24 att., 79 yds., 2 TD).
Most noticeably, Miami has not taken advantage of a plus-7 turnover differential and its opportunities in the red zone in its first two games. With only three scores (all TD’s) off 10 turnovers — including five inside its opponents’ 36-yard line — and 5-of-9 conversions in the red zone, the RedHawks could easily be looking at an 0-2 record.
However, Miami poses a formidable task against the recently untested but experienced LSU secondary. LSU’s first two opponents — Virginia Tech and The Citadel — were both run oriented team and combined to complete only 19-of-45 passes for 169 yards and one interception.
Offensively, LSU worked its way out of its Blacksburg funk last weekend by compiling 293 yards against The Citadel, as three rushers ran past the 80-yard mark in one game for the the first time in school history. Redshirt freshman Joseph Addai led the Tigers with 14 carries for 88 yards, while starters LaBrandon Toefield and Domanick Davis had 85 and 84, respectively.
Defensively, the Tigers held the Bulldogs to 236 yards of total offense, five more than Virginia Tech, including only 104 through the air. Damien James returned an interception for a touchdown, while Bradie James had 18 tackles to increase his season total to 37.