In his most circulated, notorious speech to date, the effervescent Lance Guidry — then an interim head coach — told his Western Kentucky team before the 2012 Little Caesar’s Bowl that departed coach Willie Taggart’s mission was to “build a bully.”
“We are that bully,” Guidry yells to the team in the locker room before its 24-21 loss to Central Michigan. “We’re standing on top of that damn hill. We are that badass dude.”
Four years and two jobs later, the McNeese head coach has neglected to deviate from Taggart’s mentality five days ahead of the Cowboys’ meeting with No. 1 Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Texas.
The Bearkats average 89.4 penalty yards per game. They’ve been penalized 64 times through eight games — the most in the Southland Conference at an even eight per game.
The trend, on paper, is unbecoming of the nation’s consensus No. 1 team.
“Teams that are physical are usually the most penalized,” Guidry said Monday at his weekly press luncheon. “You go back and look in time, the Chicago Bears and all them, they were probably the most penalized football team because they imposed their will and they were going to try to make you cowards. And that’s what they’re going to try to do.”
That physicality and intimidation, Guidry said, often leads to dead-ball fouls. He expects trash talking “from the moment we get out there,” taunting penalties and maybe some late hits — posing a predicament to the first-year head coach.
Guidry expects his team to never cower. He’s even chided it this season for not matching an opponent’s physicality, primarily after a 30-22 loss to UL-Lafayette.
But how will he mitigate that tenacity while warning against engaging in dead-ball acts — especially in a game where the underdog Cowboys have little margin for tomfoolery or error.
“I’m going to turn them loose,” Guidry said bluntly. “If (Sam Houston State)’s going to be a bully we’re going to be a bully. Definitely not going to put a chain on them and say ‘Hey, watch it now.’ I don’t have to worry about our guys. When they taunt us, our kids are going to react. And I can tell them all I want, but when you get out on the field, you have to do it the right way. You can’t hit late, you can’t do those things, you can’t be cheap, but I don’t expect our guys to back down.”
Such liveliness, Guidry said, is imperative if an upset will take place.
“We’re not going to win this game unless we have a lot of emotion,” Guidry said. “ If we go in there with a tight butt, we’re going to play that way. That’s the bottom line. We’re going to have to play loose.”
Though devoid of any other anatomical analysis, Guidry maintained a similar tone and plan for the duration of his 24-minute meeting with reporters.
Already with a week of game plan down and another still to go, Guidry heaped praise on the Bearkats offense — that 600 yards-per-game machine guided by quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe. It is a scheme and he is a player no opponent has been able to slow.
“They’re playing better than they have and we haven’t played the best of our abilities,” Guidry said. “Right now, if you’re a betting man, you have to bet on Sam (Houston) … And that’s OK. That’s all right with us. We don’t have to be better than Sam (Houston) 365 days out of the year, just one day. One day, for about three hours, we have to be better than them.”
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