By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – First-year Northwestern State head coach Blaine McCorkle is a believer in the coaching axiom about teams making their largest leaps from Week 1 to Week 2.
For McCorkle, who coaches his first game at Turpin Stadium in Saturday’s 6 p.m. ESPN+ home opener against Prairie View A&M, there is a jumping-off point for that hope.
“The old adage is your most improvement comes from Game 1 to Game 2, and that’s true,” McCorkle said. “Like I told the guys after we the game, we left Tulsa a better football team than we arrived. That’s a good thing. Now we get to keep getting better every week, and this week we have the home opener. I’m excited to be at home for the first time.”
The Demons (0-1) fell to Tulsa, 62-28, in their Aug. 29 season opener, but they played the Golden Hurricane even on the scoreboard in the first and fourth quarters.
A 75-yard touchdown run from Kennieth Lacy on the second play from scrimmage was one of a handful of big plays that allowed Northwestern to start quickly in McCorkle’s Demon coaching debut.
Bookending the season opener was a fourth quarter where the Demons added a pair of touchdowns and produced the game’s only turnover – Isaiah Robinson’s recovery of a muffed punt at Tulsa’s 12-yard line. Two plays later, Myles Kitt-Denton hauled in a 12-yard pass from Quaterius Hawkins for Kitt-Denton’s first career touchdown as a Demon.
The Demons’ final two scores came after Tulsa opened a 27-point halftime lead and extended it with a third-quarter touchdown.
“One thing we took away as a team is we’re willing to fight, grit and grind throughout the game,” said junior safety William White III, who made his first career start. “There were some ups and downs throughout the game, but we responded well – especially compared to last year. The game swung out of our favor with a couple of plays on special teams, but we kept a positive attitude, and I’m sure we’ll be able to bring that into (Prairie View).”
While Northwestern found reasons to be positive, the Panthers (0-1) found themselves in the same situation.
Prairie View dropped its season opener to Texas Southern, 27-9, seeing a nine-game win streak against the Tigers end in the process.
Still, the Panthers’ recent success – Prairie View reached the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game in 2021 and 2023 – is front of mind for McCorkle and his squad.
“We have two FBS teams in the first three games, but the first five non-conference games are brutally tough – probably as tough as anybody’s at our level without playing a Power Four,” McCorkle said. “This team we play this week has played for the SWAC championship two of the past three years. They’re a good football team. They know how to win. They’ve had a lot of recent success. We better be ready to play.
“They have some athletes running around there. They got beat by Texas Southern, which was an upset, so I’m sure they’re going to come in here with a chip on their shoulder, hungry and with something to prove. We’re going to play a very talented and highly motivated team in Prairie View A&M. I fully expect a four-quarter dogfight that will go down to the end.”
If things play out as McCorkle expects, one key difference may be the Demons’ home field advantage at Turpin Stadium, which hosts its first game since October.
“We definitely want to start fast again and establish the run early in this ballgame,” McCorkle said. “We’re going to come out and pound the rock like we tried to do last week and get that established. It will be nice to have the home crowd here. We’ve talked a lot about where this program has come from and how much this program means to the people of Natchitoches, so I would say to people in the surrounding area, ‘If you care about this football team, show up this week.’ This is still a team that has overcome a lot. We played a game last week, which was a big step.
“Now we get the first one at home. We need to fill that stadium and let them know you care about them and you’re excited that Northwestern State football is alive and well.”