GamecockSaturdayNite

Irish LSU Fan... check my name. I think you mistook me for an LSU fan. My screen name is GameCockSaturdayNite (reference to an old JSU band tune). I am a JSU fan and former Marching Southerner.

Our band does a ton of recruiting. When we played at Kentucky, the band played an exhibition that night at the KMEA State Championships. We had a table set up with recruiting and band scholarship information. On our way to Michigan two years ago we stopped in Tennessee to do an exhibition for local high schools. They stopped at Satsuma HIgh School on the way to Baton Rouge to play an exhibition for a gathering of local high school bands from the Mobile area who might not normally get to see the Southerners.

Another reason the band is good is that we award something like $700,000 in band scholarships. Our band has an unusually high number of music majors marching.

I know we are very close to 80's DCI. That is what I said. If more than half of LSU shows have been pop, they aren't much like us...unless you consider Shostakovich pop! We do have an affinity for Spanish tunes though...One more time! I have watched LSU shows. From what I have seen you do much simpler musical arrangements, and a combination of block + follow the leader drill. Like most FBS bands, you probably change shows during the year. We don't. Our music is more technically demanding, and our drill has more sets... and we add new wrinkles all year long.

I would say that our staff is phenomenal compared to anyone. Dr. Ken Bodiford was a 20J (tuba) player in the Southerners back in the early 80's, before becoming the drum major. He studied under Dr. David Walters, the Director of over 30 years who built the program. Having that connection is priceless. He understands the history and tradition of the program.

Again, I appreciate the positive comments about our band. We went through a dark period in the early 90's after Dr. Walters retired. We hired an outsider to lead the band program, and he (while very musically talented) almost destroyed the program. Our enrolment was under 200 in 1993, the year before Ken took over. He took us back to our roots, and the program has grown ever since. I am sure LSU can do the same!

Thanks for the compliments.

I was brought to tears when I heard what your band had done for our Ballerinas. As you may know, one of our young ladies was killed in an auto accident this week. Your band made a hand drawn card with her likeness surrounded by roses and they all signed it, and presented it along with flowers to our band. I found that really touching.

You are probably right.

As I said, I don't expect us to have a lot of success.

You guys are hard on your team because you lost, but the reality is that your defense is outstanding. If you shut us down, it is because you have a great defense, not because our offense is bad. You will shut a lot of teams down.

Our offensive deficiency is that we don't have the personnel to line up and smack you in the mouth. That is the formula to have offensive success against LSU. It will be very hard for us to have sustained success. I am hopeful we can possess the ball between the 20's for long enough to rest our defense, and that we can pop off a big play or 3 to keep the pressure on. If the talent gap is so big that schemes are out the window and it turns into a straight-up 11 vs 11, we lose by 30+. We have a lot of talent for a FCS team... equal to most G5 and better than a lot of them... but we aren't SEC level - though I think we would beat the cellar-dwellers more than we would lose to them.

Honestly, I worry that you will be able to line up and mash us. Our DL is very good, but they are FCS good. Your OL is huge and your RB's are monsters. I am hopeful that we can slow you down and our offense can keep yours off of the field.

Yeah... keep telling youself that. I hope your team feels the same way. That is why Eli only had 344 yards of total offense against Auburn last season, playing alongside a roster full of FCS players. If he was behind a FBS line with FBS receivers and backs, he would light it up the same way.

Like I said... if we don't score much, it is the result of LSU having one of the best defenses in the country, not because we don't have a quality offense.

Laugh all you want, but if you had Eli Jenkins at QB, you would be 1-0 and the game against Wisconsin wouldn't have been close. Josh Barge would start at wide receiver for LSU. Our 3 preseason all-conference OL (one AA) are good, but your DL is otherworldly.

We have 4 players on offense who are on the Stats FCS All-America team, with two being first team. Add in that these guys are seniors and have played a lot of football, and saying that they will be one of the best offenses you will face this season is a fair statement.

It all comes down to how we handle the battle in the trenches. Those three OL have the talent and technique to play against LSU, but you can't coach size and speed. You may shut us down, but it isn't because we don't have a quality offense.

A couple of additional facts about our marching band.

They are not part of the athletic department. I don't know how it is at LSU, but at many schools, the marching band falls under the auspices of the AD. At JSU, they are part of the school of music. The band receives a lot of appreciation and support from the football program, and they have a relationship that is probably unique among universities. The head coach was at band practice last week and spoke to the band... the band and football team have an annual bbq mixer and the band performs for the football team (they never get to see the show otherwise). Maybe it is because we have less than 10k students, but it is a big family.

Band - Football Mixer

We wouldn't know what it is like to play in front of largely empty stands, as our band doesn't travel to FCS away games. Our home attendance averaged close to 21,000 last year, and our stadium seats 24,000. The average was pushed down a bit by one or two games.

What hurts our attendance is that FCS fans don't travel well, but most of the 21k are our own fans. If we were FBS we would have to expand the stadium again to accommodate visiting fans and the increase that would come from playing more recognizable names. We don't get as many casual fans coming to see games against Austin Peay as we would if we played Southern Miss type teams - and maybe an occasional 2 for 1 with a P5 school... but we can't seem to get an invite to the FBS. Our attendance now is higher than many if not most Sunbelt / MAC teams. The Sunbelt doesn't want any part of us.

If anyone is interested in watching one of our games from last season, this is a link to our game against SHSU in the playoffs. JSU vs SHSU

Our band will only be marching 450 for the field show. Our band has been invited to perform at the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack in December, so we are doing a patriotic show. I imagine we will be performing the closer in Baton Rouge. Even though it is early in the season, it should be pretty good.

As for the instrumentation, the earlier poster was right that we have a very strong percussion section. The brass section is also quite good, but with our numbers so high we have a lot of woodwinds - 60 saxophones I think. The most interesting section of our band is the tuba line. We march 30 Conn 20J upright recording basses. It is a 50 pound Tuba that has been out of production since the mid 1960's. They are heavily silver plated and produce a tone that is much darker than modern sousaphones... we are kind of famous for marching them.

I am anxious to see this year's show when it is completed. Our 2009 patriotic show was amazing, and last year was just kind of meh. 2014 was pretty good. Here is a link. You guys know how to search youtube so I won't bore you to death with links. Just search Marching Southerners if interested and you will get tons of hits.

Thanks for the hospitality and we look forward to playing in Tiger Stadium.

2014 Marching Southerners

We are probably a few notches better than Eastern Michigan across the board. I doubt it will mean much to the outcome of the game, but EMU was 1-11 last season, with losses to some really bad teams. I don't think it is a stretch to say that we are good enough compete for the MAC Championship.

Win or lose it is always fun to play the big boys. If we can make you guys a little uncomfortable for a while it is a win for the fans. Our players go into every game with the goal of winning, and it shows in how closely we usually play against top teams from the FBS.

Perrilloux was a great player for us... unfortunately we were strapped with a horrible coach who couldn't spell defense, let alone coach it. To make matters worse, we were on APR probation RP's senior year and sat at home during the playoffs - in spite of winning the conference.

We did put the fear of God into Florida State that year though...