What has been talked about for months is now less than a week away.

McNeese State and quarterback Cody Orgeron is getting ready to travel to Baton Rouge to play LSU and head coach Ed Orgeron.

It is believed to be just the second time this has happened on the Division I level. The only other time it’s been reported was when coach Jack Elway of San Jose State beat his son John and the Stanford Cardinal in 1982. It should be noted that was considered an upset so McNeese hopes history can repeat perhaps.

Add the extra spice of both LSU and Mc-Neese are coming off season-opening losses and you can start feeling the drama build.

“It’s going to be fun, but I’m going to treat it like any other game,” said Cody.

But it’s not.

While it is a must win for LSU, for Mc-Neese it’s more about seeing where the Cowboys compare to one of college football’s elite programs.

“This is a big deal,” said McNeese head coach Frank Wilson, who has his own ties to the LSU program having coached there. “We get to go into Death Valley and play an elite national team. That is great for our program, players and fans.”

Be careful what you wish for coach. The Tigers figure to be one angry group after they lost their opener to UCLA, 38-27 last week.

As for McNeese, the Cowboys are hoping to rebound from a 42-36 disappointing home loss to Division II power West Florida.

“We did some good things, but we had opportunities the we squandered away,” said Wilson.

The Cowboys also saw at least one if not two big calls go against them. The biggest of those was a fourth-and-four completion which was incorrectly ruled an illegal touching on Walker Wood, who was forced out of bounds but immediately returned to the playing field before making a reception.

Wilson was told Wood had to come back at the exact spot he left, which is not correct. The play is not reviewable.

“A huge momentum swing,” said Wilson. “I have no doubt that if we get that play we go right in and score to take the lead.”

The play would have given McNeese the ball first-and-goal at the six down just 21-16 early in he third quarter.

“We have put that one behind us,” said Wilson.

The Cowboys do have a lot to build on heading into Tiger Stadium. Orgeron, the quarterback, threw for a career-high 361 yards in the loss.

“The sky is the limit for this offense,” said Cody, who threw to 10 different receivers and a pair of touchdowns. He also had 46 attempts without an interception.

“We have a lot of things we have to clean up to be better, me included. We are looking forward to our next chance to play.”

One major area of concern for McNeese is at kicker. Both Jacob Abel and Grayson Kennedy struggled and Wilson said the spot at kicker is now wide open. He said starting today at practice the four kickers on team will all get their chance.

“We will do everything in our power to fix it,” said Wilson. “We will use every resource to fix it. That does not exclude the two who kicked for us Saturday.”

Both Cody and Wilson said they are not fearing the Tigers but rather looking forward to the opportunity to play such a program. They also know this week will be crazy.

“I just have to block out all the noise and play football,” said Cody.

He also said he learned that from his father.