My texting friend, Alphonse, was on a roll over the Labor Day Weekend, messaging me about whatever was on his mind.
I met Alphonse several years ago before an LSU game. We hit it off and exchanged phone numbers. He “attended” LSU but never claimed to be from a particular graduating class.
We touch base with each other now and then. He’s passionate about LSU sports but when the majority share similar sentiments about a coach or an athlete or an issue, he sometimes leans in the opposite direction.
Unlike me, he was in Baton Rouge for the much-hyped season opening game Saturday against Clemson. He was there all day, hanging around for ESPN’s College GameDay festivities and all through the night to around midnight. It was that late because the game was postponed about two hours because of a rain and lightning delay.
“Stayed to the bitter end,” he texted after LSU’s blowout 51-10 victory.
“Bitter end?” I responded. “What was the problem?”
“Underwhelmed by the quarterback,” he said. “Except maybe for his footwork.”
Sam Leavitt, the junior LSU transfer with the No. 10 jersey, did showcase fine “footwork,” I agreed. “He sure proved his (previously injured right) ankle was OK with those runs.”
Leavitt injured the ankle last season while playing for Arizona State. He needed season-ending surgery in late 2025, followed by a minor follow-up procedure in April 2026, after transferring to LSU, to remove surgical pins and screws from his right foot. Thus, it was a something of a question mark, despite assurances he was OK. Yet, in his debut for the Tigers he rushed 12 times for 113 yards and two touchdowns. He made a hard cut on that right ankle on that first TD run.
“I’ll give him that,” Sam said. “But his passing left something to be desired.”
“He was 16-of-28 for 230 yards passing with a touchdown,” I said. “But I do recall some opposing linemen getting their hands on a ball or two to disrupt.”
“What about that interception? Awful.”
Leavitt’s first pass of the game was intercepted on a ball that arguably should’ve been caught, bouncing off a receiver, slowing to try to snag it. The turnover led to a Clemson field goal.
“Cher, he didn’t lead him correctly,” snapped Alphonse. “Then he rushed some of his passes. And when he was pressured or his footwork was out of rhythm, he tended to sail his passes too high. He just had some poorly thrown passes.”
“Pretty rough on him,” I said. “He did better in his first start for LSU than either Joe Burrow or Jayden Daniels did in theirs.”
Burrow, in his first start on Sept. 2 in 2018 against Miami in Arlington, Texas, was 11-of-24 for 140 yards with no TDs and no interceptions. He finished with minus-6 yards rushing on 10 carries in a game LSU won, 33-17. Daniels, in his first LSU start in 2022 against Florida State in New Orleans (23-21 loss), was 25-of-34 for 209 yards passing with two TDs and 0 interceptions. He added 114 yards on 16 carries with no touchdowns.
“What about Dilin Jones?” I asked about the sophomore transfer from Wisconsin who rushed for 113 yards and two touchdowns – the first time LSU has had two 100-yard rushing games in one game in three years (Daniels and Logan Diggs in ’23 vs. Missouri).
“Wish he could’ve kept his pants on,” he said, referring to an occasion when a defender pulled down Jones’ pants on one run. “He looked good running the ball, though.”
Charlie Alexander, the former All-American running back and Heisman Trophy finalist for the Tigers whose number 4 was retired last season, described Jones on Facebook during the contest as a “beast,” noting, “He runs angry.”
One thing we agreed on was disapproval of the “Neck” song. It’s a tradition for close to two decades that LSU fans (mostly students) shout a vulgar chant to accompany the song “Neck.” The full title of the song is “Talking Out the Side of Your Neck” by the funk band Cameo, first released in 1984. Texas Southern University’s band started playing it in the 2000s, and the LSU band started playing it around 2006, but it didn’t get vulgar until 2009 or ’10.
“What’s the vulgar part,” I asked Alphonse.
“Mais la, I don’t think you can print it in the Journal,” he said. “It’s not the song as much as the crude lyric that fans later added.”
“So you can’t print it in the Journal, but thousands can shout it at a game or at a rally before a game, and it’s fine?”
“Speaking of fines, they don’t help either,” said Alphonse, “They just happily pay off the fine. Coach Kiffin said he’d pay off any fine relating to the chant. If momma heard me say something like that, she’d have washed my mouth out with soap!”
“What does all this portend for the 2026 season” I asked.
“One thing’s for sure,” he said. “It’s going to be an ongoing soap opera.”