For most, Thanksgiving will take place on Thursday with family and a few friends around to taste the delicacies on the table.  Grambling and Southern fans won’t be in that number.  They’ll wait until Saturday where an estimated 70,000 fans will decide whether to give thanks at the precise moment the game clock registers straight zeroes.  Who exactly will be happy depends upon which of the two teams is ahead.  Make no mistake about it there’s no place better for football on Saturday than New Orleans for the 36th Bayou Classic. Laisser les bons temps rouler!

The good times start rolling first thing Friday where volunteers join together for a community playground build with KaBoom! at Mary D. Coghill Elementary School.  Job seekers will toss their hats into the employment ring at the State Farm Bayou Classic Job Fair being held at the Sheraton on Canal Street.  Around seven get ready for a preview of Saturday’s halftime show at the Nerjyzed Entertainment Battle of the Bands and Greek Show.  Of course there will be parties galore that will keep things shaking until game day.

On Saturday, the Fan Festival will welcome fans with and without tickets on the plaza level of the Superdome.   From there it’s just a short hop, skip and a jump into the Dome where the real festivities take place.

Inter-state rivals Southern and Grambling have been playing each other since 1959. Southern won the first of the matchups 12-6. For the next five years the game was played early in the season usually around the second week of the season.  In 1965, the SWAC schedule makers hit upon a stroke of genius and set the northern and southern Louisiana teams on an end of year collision course.   Nine years later the Bayou Classic was born.  Grambling claimed victory in the inaugural game 21-0 to take a 9-6 lead in the series. 

Grambling dominated the Bayou Classic early on. Southern didn’t win its first Bayou Classic until Sony introduced the Walkman and Japan’s NTT launched the first fully automated commercial cellular network in 1979.  Since that time the Jaguars have won more than their fare share of games taking a 18-17 lead into Saturday.  A win by the Tigers would even the series and put a sweet taste in an otherwise bland season.

Neither team has an on-field edge going into the game.  Southern may own a mental edge after last year’s 29-14 beat down.  In that game the Tigers started slow allowing the Jags to grab a 14-0 lead in the first.  The black and gold got rolling in the second quarter and kept it going late into the fourth with a Frank Warren touchdown at the 1:13 mark.  Warren has scored 8 more times over the 365 days that have passed but a slap like that can leave a lasting impression.  An impression like that could give the Jags defense the mental edge.     

Who to Watch:
GSU:  Frank Warren, Cornelius Walker, Greg Dillon, Cliff Exama, Christian Anthony

SU: Andre Coleman, Allan Baugh, Jordan Miller, Jason House, Brian Threatt, Bryant Lee

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