HAS COMPILED A 4-2 RECORD IN BOWL GAMES.
DIVE BARS, OYSTER BARS, TIME BEHIND BARS, WHERE DOES IT ALL END IN NEW ORLEANS …
NEW ORLEANS — I’ve covered a bunch of these, approaching double digits, on account of the fact that I logged 18 years in the newspaper business, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and another six years, back in the ’80s, down Interstate 10 the other way, in Baton Rouge.
It’s called the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, to be official, and it’s always been an appetizer on ESPN’s televised bowl schedule, dating back to the Y2K, the Iraq War and ultimately, Hurricane Katrina.
(They didn’t play this college bowl game in N’Awlins that year, after Katrina destroyed New Orleans, the vast majority of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and ultimately my hopes of an early retirement in the French Quarter, after decades of chasing stories, athletes and who knows what else as the newspaper industry started its one-way plunge into the abyss …)
No, that year, the massive, golden structure on Poydras Street, the building then known as the Louisiana Superdome, was obliterated from 140-mph winds and a storm surge of 25 feet. The Southern Miss football team staggered down the stretch of the 2005 season, losing three of four games to North Carolina State, the University of Houston and Memphis, by a combined nine points.
Southern Miss landed a berth in the New Orleans Bowl that year, finishing 5-3 in Conference USA play before being paired with Arkansas State, which finished in a three-way tie atop the Sun Belt Conference standings. With the Superdome undergoing a massive overhaul for the 2006 football season, bowl officials moved the game two hours westward, to Louisiana-Lafayette’s Cajun Field.
I’d been on vacation, in Tennessee, before it was time to boogie back to Mississippi Gulf Coast, and then Lafayette, during that holiday season. It was a brutally cold night, in Lafayette, and Southern Miss quarterback Dustin Almond guided his team to a 31-19 victory over the Arkansas State Indians, as the team was then known.
Little did I know, that two decades later, I’d be coming back to the New Orleans Bowl, to cover Tuesday evening’s game between Western Kentucky (8-4 overall) and Southern Miss (7-5) in what is now known as the Caesars Superdome.
LARRY HOLDER, A STAFF WRITER WITH THE ATHLETIC,
ON MONDAY AFTERNOON IN NEW ORLEANS.
A FREAKIN’ TAROT CARD READING, HEY,
I’M DEFINITELY NOT GONNA STOP YOU.
(My hotel is a block or so from the Caesars casino, where the French Quarter stretches into the Warehouse District, where men are men and the women know the difference between Jackson Square and square dancin’, slam dancin’ or Dancin’ With The Devils that sashay their way onto Bourbon Street an hour or so before dawn’s early light …)
In any given year, the New Orleans Bowl is just a sideshow in a city that knows how to play host to big events. The Super Bowl has come to N’Awlins 11 times, including February’s game that saw Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles pummel Kansas City, 40-22. They’ve had Final Fours, and Sugar Bowls, and on January 1, 2026, the Sugar Bowl will play host to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals matchup, pitting two SEC teams, Georgia and Ole Miss.
So while I wandered around the French Quarter on Monday, catching up with journo pal Larry Holder of The Athletic and looking for the best dozen raw oysters on the planet, I bumped into only a handful of fans sporting red WKU gear or the familiar black-and-gold color scheme favored by Southern Miss, a former teacher’s college in nearby Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
That’ll likely change on Tuesday, or even Monday night, on the eve of the New Orleans Bowl, when folks make their way to Bourbon Street to do things they wouldn’t even CONSIDER doing back home, with the neighbors bein’ gossipy and all …
I’ll try to take an analytical look at the game on Tuesday morning, before I decide to mosey over to Cafe du Monde, over by Jackson Square, or one of dozens of eateries that have made New Orleans synonymous with healthy appetites, spicy seafood and monster hangovers.
Western Kentucky seemed poised to contend for a Conference USA championship this season, but the Hilltoppers stumbled in the second half of their regular-season finale at Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks overcame a two-touchdown deficit to knock off the Tops, 37-35, sending WKU to its second Conference USA loss in eight league games.
PUT UP SOME IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS IN
THE FIRST FIVE, SIX WEEKS OF THE SEASON …
RODNEY TISDALE, Jr., WHO WILL BE
A TARGET IN THE NCAA TRANSFER PORTAL.
IN C-USA LOSSES TO FIU AND JACKSONVILLE STATE.
College football is as fluid as ever, with the Name/Image/Likeness guidelines, the NCAA Transfer Portal and now a 12-team College Football Playoff, which has been winnowed to eight squads with New Year’s Day glimmering on the horizon.
WKU head coach Tyson Helton has proven to be an adept manager of the Transfer Portal, bringing in skill position players such as senior quarterback Maverick McIvor (formerly of FCS school Abilene Christian) and senior wide receiver Matthew Henry (Western Illinois), along with defenders such as senior defensive tackle Mackavelli Malotamau (Nevada) and junior defensive back Jaylen Lewis, who logged time at both Arkansas and Temple.
The Western narrative changed in mid-October, at Louisiana Tech, when redshirt freshman Anthony Tisdale, Jr., stepped in for McIvor, before guiding the Hilltoppers to a dramatic 28-27 overtime victory over the Bulldogs. McIvor had been diagnosed with a pectoral injury, and he was soon ready to step back in under center, but Tisdale proved to be a quick study.
Tisdale has completed 67.7 percent of his passes for 1,367 yards and nine touchdowns, while throwing six interceptions. His numbers are similar to those of McIvor, who has completed 67.3 percent of his passes, for 1,863 yards and 12 touchdowns. McIvor has been intercepted five times.
The Hilltoppers were here, for the New Orleans Bowl, in 2022. That’s when Austin Reed and the WKU offense lit up South Alabama, claiming a 44-23 victory on the Superdome floor.
Western Kentucky is favored by a field goal, more or less, in Tuesday evening’s game against Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles will be without first-year head coach Charles Huff, who left for the University of Memphis after the regular season. Instead, Southern Miss will be coached by Blake Anderson, the former Arkansas State head coach who previously had served as the Golden Eagles’ offensive coordinator.
Tyson Helton is in his seventh season as the Hilltoppers’ head coach, and he’s compiled a respectable 56-36 record. We’re still waiting on that breakthrough season, the conference championship that has eluded the Tops since their back-to-back C-USA titles in 2015 and ’16. Helton understands that perception is reality, even if, in New Orleans, reality is often a matter of perception.
“We’re going to have a championship mentality, going into this game,” Helton told the handful of media types who turned out last week for a press conference at WKU’s Houchens-Smith Stadium. “We’re going to try to go out there, and go win it … and have a big win, to ride off into the sunset for the 2025 season …”
Personally, I like the Hilltoppers’ chances.
My prediction?
Western Kentucky 36, Southern Miss 24.
You heard it here first.
ARE FAVORED BY A FIELD GOAL
ON TUESDAY AGAINST SOUTHERN MISS.
WOULD INTONE, ‘OH, THE STORIES I COULD TELL …’
IS THAT PIPER’s BEING A GOOD DOG.