Gary Goff discusses McNeese’s Saturday Showdown with Incarnate Word

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - The McNeese Cowboys are fresh off a bye week, but have the tall task of taking on the fifth-ranked Incarnate Word Cardinals on Saturday. The Pokes, who enter Saturday’s game at Cowboy Stadium with a record of 0-6, have struggled in a big way so far this season, something Head Coach Gary Goff discussed on Thursday, saying the Pokes have to stop worrying about the scoreboard, and instead focus on doing their job.

“I have to give my guys a lot of credit, they’ve been coming out here with great attitudes and working hard. We’ve kind of focused on why do we play this sport? Why do we coach this sport? We have to go out there and have fun, and work hard. If we play four quarters where we’re having fun, there’s a lot of energy, and we’re pulling for each other, anything can happen. We have to continue to make steps in that direction right there and become a complete team, and we really haven’t done that a lot. Stop worrying about the scoreboard, just because somebody scored, it doesn’t mean the game is over, and just keep playing one game at a time,” said Goff.

Incarnate Word enters Saturday’s game as the fifth-ranked team in the FCS, and therefore beating them is no easy task, but Coach Goff wants the Pokes to focus on a couple of things, and just see what happens.

“We have to protect the football. We have not done that in the last two weeks, and we have to make sure we do that. The other thing is we have to make sure we keep our offense on the field and keep their high-powered offense off the field. Defensively we have to make sure we eliminate some of their explosive plays, they have a great offense they have a trigger man who if he’s comfortable in the pocket can hurt you, so we have to get him off his mark a little bit. They’re a very good football team that’s why they’re fifth in the country, but it’s college football, crazy things happen, and we just need to go out there and give our best effort.”

As we enter the latter half of the season, McNeese’s playoff hopes are all but dashed, so with it, they’ll begin to examine what they have for the 2024 season, and one name that has stuck out recently is quarterback Kamden Sixkiller.

Sixkiller did not appear in any of McNeese’s first six games, but Goff has made it clear over the past three weeks that that will change as the season comes to an end, but he will only appear in four games so he retains his redshirt going into the 2024 season.

“Yeah I don’t know about that but he will, he’ll play his four games so we don’t burn a redshirt, but he had a really good week of practice last week, he got some reps this week, but I’m excited to see what he could do. He’s a guy that we have high expectations for and I think getting him some in-game action this year is very important. He throws a great ball, he throws a great deep ball and I think every day he’s getting a little more comfortable with the offense, keep in mind when we got into camp this summer he was coming off of a shoulder injury so he didn’t get a whole lot of reps in camp, but each practice this week he’s gotten a little bit better,” said Goff on Sixkiller.

For the entire Thursday press conference, click here.

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