The Reveille 10-11-21

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SO LONG, AND GOOD NIGHT. Consistent lack of opportunities in LA pushes LSU grads to settle outside of the state NEWS

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46 years in the making, LSU’s stdio arts building is undergoing drastic renovations.

ENTERTAINMENT

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Stripe Hype delivers a different gameday button option for LSU fans who want to get a little disrespectful.

SPORTS

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Kentucky dominated LSU, leaving the Tiger program in a perilous position, with its head coach on the hot seat

OPINION

Read on

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“...no matter how many times people unnecessarily put ‘-eaux’ on billboards, it’s impossible to deny that Louisiana is detestable.”

L SU Re ve i l le.co m @l s u r e ve i l le

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‘THEY’RE GOING TO BE HELD BACK HERE’

BY JOSH ARCHOTE @JArchote

Before Alexandria native Dylan Govender took his TOPSfunded computer engineering degree from LSU to Washington D.C., his professors, parents and friends encouraged him to do so, or risk getting stuck in Louisiana.

“Pretty much no one recommended staying,” Govender said.

He took their advice, moving two days after graduating in May and starting a job with a consumer goods company based in Ohio.

Govender misses what most Louisianans would: the food, culture, his friends and family. But at his new job, he feels challenged by his work. He can take a train to New York anytime he needs, and he feels his new home shares more of his values.

“In engineering, the professors are like, ‘Get out of here if you want to do anything meaningful,’” Govender said. “My parents, when I told them I was leaving, they were sad but they were like, ‘Yeah, you got to go.’ They were even thinking of coming to live with me here.”

Pushed by a lack of professional job opportunities and pulled by the lure of big cities elsewhere, young people are leaving Louisiana, often with a college degree—and their parents are encouraging them to do so.

Louisiana has long been an exporter of college-educated young adults. The state has the second-worst net outmigration problem among college-educated residents compared to the other nine Southeastern states—behind Mississippi only—according to data compiled by Gary Wagner, an economist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Texas pulls young graduates from Louisiana more than any other state. From 2007-2017, Louisiana lost over 17,000 young graduates to Texas. Other popular destinations include Colorado, Arkansas, Virginia and California.

Sixty percent of East Baton Rouge parents want their children to settle outside of the parish as adults, up from 45% in 2019, according to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s 2021 survey for its CityStats project, which has been measuring quality of life in the parish for 13 years. Respondents cited lack of opportunity, crime, poor quality of life and racism as the main reasons.

In the latest survey, only 7% of parents say they want their children to stay.

“I don’t think my children, if they stay here, are going to earn or live to their full potential,” said Jill Michelle, a Baton Rouge

mother of two boys. “They’re going to be held back here.”

Michelle comes from a long line of Louisianans, dating back to at least the 1800s. She plans to move to Colorado with her family once her oldest son graduates high school, which would make her the first of her immediate family to move out of the state

al marijuana-themed restaurant that is part of a chain of 50 locations in 14 different states commonly found in college towns.

They also own a bakery that supplies local coffee shops.

“We stay because we feel like there’s a culture in South Louisiana that we want to change,” Wiggins said. “We have invested

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Port Eads, Louisiana, is located at the end of the Mississippi River. Once a small community with a school and post office, the port is now sparsely inhabited, serving only as a fishing destination. for good.

It isn’t an easy decision. She wishes her children could stay near their family and enjoy the state’s unique blend of culture and food. But state officials haven’t done enough to make the area an attractive place to start a career and family, Michelle said, citing a lack of jobs and poor education system.

Baton Rouge business owner Meredith Beth-Wiggins feels the same. She encouraged her son to go out of state for college, though he decided to stay and attend LSU, where he’s currently a junior.

“Louisiana is always going to be here,” Wiggins said. “He can come back and settle if he wants.

While he’s young and doesn’t have anything tying him to the state, [he should] spread his wings and explore.”

Wiggins and her husband recently opened Cheba Hut, a casu-

our time and money back into the economy here. Hopefully we can help.”

At the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, an economic development organization operating in nine parishes around the capital area, Kelly Bienn and Andrew Fitzgerald work on connecting college students to Baton Rouge businesses.

They say there are plenty of professional opportunities in the Baton Rouge Metropolitan—students just aren’t aware of them.

Larger companies have entire teams dedicated to “talent pipelines,” Bienn said, using marketing resources to attract talent from around the country. In Baton Rouge, the average business owner is also running the company’s social media.

“One thing that has been tough is for smaller and midsized businesses to get access to LSU or Southern (University)

students or BRCC or any of those schools,” Fitzgerald said. “These are small five- and 10-person companies. They aren’t great at marketing and PR. That’s not what their strength is.”

In 2020, around 82% of Baton Rouge businesses were either sole proprietorships or had between two and nine total employees, according to youreconomy.org, a business database.

Despite having access to over 50,000 college students from three schools, including the state’s flagship university, small and mid-sized businesses in the capital area struggle to find students, Bienn said.

“That is frankly unacceptable when we have the state’s flagship in our backyard,” Bienn said.

“We don’t want Baton Rouge to not even be on the table for consideration, because right now for so many students it’s not. It’s not even top five when they’re looking for a place to launch a career.”

Govender spoke to recruiters from the company he currently works for his freshman year of college. They reached out to him again his senior year and offered him an internship that led to a full-time opportunity.

“I didn’t really find this job. It more like found me.” Govender said. “Of all the companies that reached out to me, 99.9% were outside of Louisiana. They were sending me t-shirts and water bottles. A small company [in Louisiana], if all they sent me was an email it probably just went to spam.”

Brain drain, the phenomena of highly training or intelligent individuals emigrating from an area, affects most states in the South, except for Texas, which has diversified its economy and become home to three large cities rife with opportunities, all relatively close to home for Louisiana graduates.

Other states like New York and Illinois are retaining and attracting educated adults, according to a report by the congressional Joint Economic Committee.

Jobs in engineering and tech are especially in demand in the Baton Rouge area. Government efforts to attract tech companies to Louisiana have been met with some success.

The state has bolstered computer science programs in recent years, including at LSU, to attract talent to IBM in Baton Rouge, where roughly 50% of employees are Louisiana natives, according to the company.

“Our labor market can’t take 12,000 new [degree holders] every single year,” Fitzgerald said.

“But we need to retain more than what we are.”

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CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS The Reveille holds accuracy and objectivity at the highest priority and wants to reassure its readers the reporting and content of the paper meets these standards. This space is reserved to recognize and correct any mistakes that may have been printed in The Daily Reveille.

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ABOUT THE REVEILLE The Reveille is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication.

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NEWS LSU UNDER RENOVATION professor creates

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COVID-19

Studio arts building updated after years of disrepair

tracing app

BY PIPER HUTCHINSON @PiperHutchBR

Roger Ogden, known for endowing the LSU Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College building in honor of his father.

“We hope that this donation to this building and his participation in it means more opportunities for interactions between our students and the New Orleans art community,” Parker said.

The building was recently approved to be renamed the Barnes Ogden Studio Arts Complex.

Paul Favaloro, the director of

LSU engineering professor Lu Peng and a group of graduate and undergraduate students developed GeauxTrace, a mobile contact tracing app that notifies users of close contact with somebody who reports contracting COVID-19.

The project was funded as part of an $888,642 grant from the National Institutes of Health and began in January. The grant also funded four other virus-related projects.

The user is not required to submit any personal information. The app only records a limited amount of information in order to protect user privacy like time duration, contact distance and COVID status. Peng says that the user can use any email address, “even if it does not exist.”

Instead, the app assigns users a universally unique identifier, or UUID, which is a long, randomlygenerated number that’s associated with a smartphone. Using Bluetooth, the app can track these ID numbers and create a map. If a user reports a positive COVID-19 test, other users who were in prox-

see ARTS, page 4

see COVID, page 4

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

Pipes and other construction equipment sit near the LSU Studio Arts Buildings on Oct. 3 on South Campus Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

BY GABBY JIMENEZ @gvjimenezz After 46 years since the first meeting to plan the project, the Studio Arts building is finally under renovation.

The 41,500-square-foot building is one of the first built at LSU around 1924 and marks the southernmost edge of the original campus. It hasn’t undergone any major renovations since then, causing the building to deteriorate greatly over the years.

“It was like a trip intoa differ-

ent century,” Studio Arts Director Rod Parker said. “The building was decrepit beyond all imagination.”

Parker described the building as an enormous space, one that was home to various creatures, including rats, squirrels and spiders. On top of that, most of the building was not air-conditioned.

The aging building had been on LSU’s major repairs list for many years, and renovation plans have been ready for implementation since 2013. According to Parker, funding is the main rea-

son it took so long for the project to begin.

The project had been attempted in previous years, but was shelved twice due to the lack of budget. The third time around, the design had to be modified to ensure it met standards. Priority I funding from the state was approved in the 2019-2020 legislative session, and the renovation will cost a total of about $18 million.

In addition to state funding, the university received funding from private donors, including

STUDENT LIFE

Freshmen donate plasma, do other odd jobs to pay expenses

BY MADDIE SCOTT @madscottyy From donating blood plasma to participating in science studies, LSU freshmen are turning to alternative ways of making money to pay for necessities and college expenses.

Social work freshman Bella Costanza turned to blood plasmadonation after hearing about it from her mother. Offered by the BioLife Plasma Services in Baton Rouge, the center offered to pay a starting of $130 per visit.

Participants can receive $1,200 if they donate twice per week for 45 days.

Upon arriving at the center for her first donation, Costanza was shocked to see the waiting room full of people her age. She sat next to a 2021 LSU graduate who uses the blood center as a fallback for income. Being surrounded by students and young adults made Costanza feel as if

everyone was experiencing the same financial issues.

“It’s pretty much a doctor’s appointment, and you immediately are getting like six hours worth of minimum wage right there,” Costanza said.

The transition from high school to college has left Costanza stressed, both financially and academically. A minimum wage job is time consuming, and Costanza said she would rather use that time to adjust to her new life at LSU. “You just don’t have time to catch up,” Costanza said. “Honestly, at this point, I do not have time to go out to make a resume to apply for a job, because my schedule is so erratic right now.”

Environmental management freshman Sawyer Pendry said she feels overwhelmed with college expenses. She has to worry about car insurance, gas, textbooks and now, two parking tickets. LSU parking patrols ticketed a whole

line of cars that had been parking in a lot since the beginning of the semester.

“I hadn’t realized I had been parking in the wrong section because I had been parking there for so long,” Pendry said. ”I thought it was secure, but apparently, it was not.”

With bills piling up, Pendry felt she had no choice but to look to odd jobs for money. She wanted something that could be scheduled around her own time.

Like Costanza, Pendry turned to donating blood plasma after receiving a spam email advertising the need for donors.

A 30-minute drive from campus, the donation center provided a convenient way for Pendry to get quick money in the form of a prepaid visa gift card. Her parents questioned the idea of donating part of her body, but eventually trusted Pendry to make

CHYNNA MCCLINTON/ The Reveille

see JOBS, page 4

BioLife Plasma Services stands on Oct. 4 on 11620 Coursey Blvd in Baton Rouge, La.

Monday, October 11, 2021

page 4 ARTS, from page 3 Capital Project Management and Development, oversees Capital projects at LSU. According to Favaloro, the original building needed a significant amount of repairs and had about $1 million in deferred maintenance issues.

Favaloro said that while roofing repairs done a few years ago were able to protect the building from further decay, the building was still not up to code, and even had asbestos in the tunnels that run below the building.

“The systems had exceeded their life expectancies,” Favaloro said. “It was in disrepair.”

Favaloro affirmed that the renovations are going according to schedule, and they plan to finish over the summer next year.

The Studio Arts building is owned by the state of Louisiana and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Because of this, it has to undergo a historic renovation that complies with its building requirements. The outside will look like the original building, with a state-of-the-art interior.

“It did look outdated, but the character makes the whole building so unique, especially for an

arts building,” said project manager Vincent Guillory.

New double-pane windows are being installed, along with aluminum doors instead of wood to match the original look while still being up to date.

Among the other upgrades will be a 100-seat classroom equipped with desks and studio space, which will enable the professors to teach in more interactive ways.

New air conditioning units are being installed with more energyefficient systems, updated building materials and modern technology.

Currently, construction is installing steel beams, running wire, and putting a new roof on the center of the building.

Students will also be able to store their tools and art supplies in lockers near the classrooms.

“It’s an iconic building on campus,” Favaloro said. “To see it finally get the restoration [needed] to bring it back to its prominence, it’s really exciting to see.”

Guillory echoed this sentiment.

“I think people are going to be in awe when they see the finished product. It’s going to be a showcase building,” Guillory said.

The new building will enable

the studio arts department to maintain its population of over 500 undergraduates students.

Current displaced studio arts students are taking their classes all over campus. Sculpture classes are being held in the basement of Atkinson Hall, painting and drawing are taught on the second floor of Foster Hall, graduate painters work in the Dairy Science building, the Electrical Engineering building holds the kiln shed and spare equipment is being stored in the Food Science building.

After all this time, “people thought [the renovation] was never going to happen,” Parker said, noting that many people have put in effort over years to get the project done.

He envisions the new building will be “a source of pride” for the LSU community.

Renovation updates to the building are posted on the LSU College of Art and Design website with pictures of the design plans and photos of the construction.

“I think it’s going to be transformative,” Parker said. “Everyone will see the evidence that the LSU campus and the state of Louisiana actually cares about arts education.”

COVID, from page 3

JULIAN COOPER / The Reveille

LSU COVID testing assistants listen to an LSU student about their testing information on Sept. 10 at the 4-H Mini Barn on Ag Center Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

were in proximity of them are notified.

The app uses blockchain to encrypt data and store it on a decentralized network of servers, protecting data from potential hackers.

Peng said user data is totally secure “unless the hacker can hack the majority, more than 50% of the servers.”

A variety of mobile contact tracing options are already on the market. Both Apple and Android have COVID exposure notifications available in settings to users who wish to opt in. Several states have released their own contact tracing apps, including Louisiana. Louisiana’s app, COVID Defense, was released in January. It uses similar technology to GeauxTrace to protect user anonymity.

MATTHEW PERSCHALL/ The Reveille

Construction materials and equipment sit near the LSU Studio Arts Buildings on Oct. 3 on South Campus Drive in Baton Rouge, La. The app was tested successfully by more than 100 volunteers prior to release. While a full version is available to Android users, only a beta version is available to Apple users.

In June, Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a review of contact tracing apps, which are only available in 25 states. Their models show that a 15% participation rate in contact tracing apps is necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19.

While Peng does not agree with that threshold, he is concerned about the rates of participation.

“The user rate for contact tracing apps in the United States is very, very low-, extremely low.

The average in the US.. is probably around 5% or even less,” he said. “ No matter how good it is, if people don’t use it, it can’t help.”

JOBS, from page 3 prepaid visa gift card. Her parents questioned the idea of donating part of her body, but eventually trusted Pendry to make good decisions.

“I didn’t really think it was weird when I first heard about it, I mean, I’m pretty desperate for cash, and it just seems easy,” Pendry said.

Business freshman Walker Hosford was paid $100 as part of the state’s “Shot for 100” campaign, which gave visa gift cards to the first 75,000 Louisiana college students who reported vaccination. Hosford used the money to buy mostly groceries. After working at his dad’s restaurant for eight years, Hosford decided to find jobs that are more flexible with his hours as a college student.

“Sometimes, I really don’t like the societal view of a nineto -five job,” Hosford said. “I

CHYNNA MCCLINTON / The Reveille

A sign informs students about donating plasma Oct. 4, outside the BioLife Plasma Services building on 11620 Coursey Blvd in Baton Rouge, La. mean, Dolly Parton did it, but not everyone is Dolly Parton.”

Hosford resisted vaccination

until the vaccine mandate was implemented at LSU. Hosford thought it would be easier to get

vaccinated than undergo monthly testing and getting paid for it only made it more appealing.

Peng would like to see more people using these apps, especially because they can be repurposed after the pandemic.

“Contact tracing apps could be used for other viruses, like the flu,” he said.

Students’ fears about their privacy may prevent them from using a contact tracing app.

Plant and soil systems freshman Catherine Herchak said she’d be willing to try GeauxTrace if it becomes popular on campus.

Herchack said, though she thought “It might be good to know if my dorm has a high count of COVID cases,” Mechanical engineering sophomore J.P. Robert feels that there is “a certain giveaway in privacy that comes with it.” Robert also said he does not think he needs to use a contact tracing app.

Later, when Hosford was walking into his environmental science class, he saw an advertisement on a hand sanitizer bottle, saying that an LSU science study needed participants.

He researched the ad and found a plethora of experiments offering money to willing participants.

One experiment Hosford decided to take part in investigated dehydration. It included six to seven hours of testing where participants had to bike in a heat chamber, avoid drinking water, give blood and consume a variety of different energy drinks.

Participants received $250 for completing the study. Hosford planned to pocket $100 and put the rest in his savings account.

“Textbooks are expensive,” Hosford said. “If I need to get one, now I have $150 extra and a little cushion, so when you fall, the landing is a bit softer.”

ENTERTAINMENT

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OCTOBER

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Perennials for Progress | Near the Indian Mounds

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Sigma Lambda Gamma, LSU’s multicultural sorority, is hosting Perennials for Progress, an event in honor of Indigenous People’s Day. Any LSU faculty or student can join the chapter near the Indian Mounds from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. to discuss the importance and history of Indigenous People’s Day and plant a Dwarf Iris, a native Louisiana flower.

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The Indian Mounds sit on January 28, 2020 on Dalrymple Drive.

OCTOBER

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Homecoming Concert | Parade Ground

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Rapper, singer and songwriter Swae Lee will headline the LSU Homecoming Concert from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. on the Parade Ground. Swae Lee, one half of the duo Rae Sremmurd, recently released a single entitled “Play Stupid” and collaborated with Post Malone for “Sunflower” on the “Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse” soundtrack.

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OCTOBER

Splatterbeat | Parade Ground Get ready for an explosion of color at Splatterbeat, the annual homecoming party where you can throw paint at everyone on the Parade Ground. The LSU Residence Hall Association is hosting the event from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Get there early to get an official t-shirt to splatter.

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LSU Residential Life sets up its annual splatterbeat on the parade grounds on Sept. 26, 2016, on LSU campus.

OCTOBER

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Divas Live! |

LSU Student Union Cotillion Ballroom

TH THE REVEILLE ARCHIVES

Lady D. Andrews, Millie Meringue, Andy Black, Santana Pilar Andrews and Brianna Powers smile on Oct. 24, 2019.

Join LSU Residential Life and the Office of Multicultural Affairs for an evening of drags, gags and community at Divas Live!

Enjoy performances by Andy Black, Lady D. Andrews, Santana A. Savage and London Manchester at 7 p.m. in the LSU Student Union Cotillion Ballroom.

Monday, October 11, 2021

page 6 STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Local gameday button business Stripe Hype says what LSU students are really thinking

BY EMMA JACKIMOWICZ @emmajackimowicz LSU football fans are notorious for using profane language and expletives toward opposing teams. What better way to show you’re a true Tiger than to wear a button on gameday that encapsulates just that?

Stripe Hype, a new local button-making business, wanted Tiger fans to be able to show their more expressive side on game days.

Co-founders Cheston Mulford and Mallory Lacombe thought of the idea in early August before the first LSU game of the season against UCLA. While neither had any experience making buttons before

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Stripe Hype, the duo realized they could not resist adding some flair to a classic gameday tradition.

Their first collection of buttons, “Beat UCLA,” was launched on Aug. 24, almost two weeks before the game. The collection included buttons saying “Beat the Bruins,” “The Real LA” and “Roses look better in purple and gold.” The response from customers after their first drop was positive for Stripe Hype.

LSU alumnus Mulford is a Shreveport native who now works full-time as a manager at Caliente Mexican Craving.

Graphic design senior Lacombe works alongside him at Caliente and is from Walker.

“I’ve never made buttons before in my life. Cheston just had this really great idea to kind of take football fan buttons and put a little extra spin on them,” Lacombe said. “Alongside some good old LSU student section profanity.”

Lacombe said that Mulford is the “brainchild” behind the LSU-specific slang and button ideas, while she draws and makes the aesthetically-pleasing game day accessory.

“I feel like I come up with the ideas, but that’s all. If [Lacombe] wasn’t here, all they would be are just ideas in my head,” Mulford said. “Mallory is the conduit to my ideas.”

Their business has done well in reeling in students and LSU fans from all over to buy their buttons. While most gameday buttons have more modest language, Mulford, being an LSU alumnus himself, knows what the fans want when it comes to cheering on their Tigers and bringing down the opposing team.

7.99IZZA

“As you know, our fanbase is way more colorful than basic buttons that say ‘Beat Bama’ on them. No one in this area is making anything that actually says what fans want to say,” said Mulford. “We all know what we would like to say to other teams.”

In terms of Stripe Hype’s outreach, their Instagram page

includes photos of all their current button designs and prices.

Stripe Hype also operates sales through their profile, taking orders via direct messages.

Buttons are sold individually and in package sets.

When asked what their favorite button design was so far, Mulford and Lacombe both answered: “Auburn Ain’t S---.”

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SPORTS ‘TOUGH TO BE A TIGER’

page 8 SOCCER

Soccer drops fourth straight match

BY MICHAEL SANCHEZ @MikeSanchez525

Kentucky’s dominant run game was the main factor in LSU wearing down. The Wildcats collected 329 yards rushing, with 147 coming from star running back Chris Rodriguez.

Kentucky quarterback Will Levis was also a handful for the LSU defense — he put up 75

The LSU soccer team returned to Baton Rouge facing off against Texas A&M in a conference match up on Thursday.

LSU fell to 8-4 on the season after losing 4-1 at the hands of the Aggies. After breaking the school record for most consecutive wins within a season and sitting at No. 5 in the country, the Tigers are now in a four-game slump.

“Credit to A&M for their performance tonight,” Head Coach Sian Hudson said. “I thought we showed bright moments throughout but couldn’t sustain constant pressure for extended periods of time. We’ll put this one behind us and turn our focus towards Auburn for Sunday.”

Barbara Oliviera put the Aggies in the lead within the first 10 minutes of the match with a shot that ricocheted off the bottom crossbar and rolled into the net. The Tigers were unable to put a point on the board during the first half despite having mul-

see FOOTBALL, page 9

see SOCCER, page 9

Against Kentucky, LSU caves to early adversity MICHAEL CLUBB / The Associated Press

Kentucky tight end Isaiah Epps (81) tries to get away from an LSU defender during their game in Lexington, Oct. 9.

BY PETER RAUTERKUS @peter_rauterkus Coming into the game, getting off to a fast start was a major key for LSU. Quite the opposite happened, and LSU was never able to recover. On Saturday night, Kentucky dominated LSU 42-21.

A fumble on LSU’s open-

ing drive led to a quick score

by Kentucky, giving them early momentum in front of a raucous crowd. From this point, Kentucky’s offense only gained confidence, and it was the complete opposite for LSU. Despite having its best rushing performance of the season, LSU could never establish a rhythm on offense, which put them in an early hole.

“We needed to be more explosive in the first half,” LSU quarterback Max Johnson said.

Whenever a team is playing on the road, it’s imperative to start strong and take the crowd out of the game. LSU was unable to do this, allowing Kentucky to feed off the crowd and wear down LSU over the course of the game.

FOOTBALL

LSU offense disappoints despite success on the ground

BY NICK OMBRELLARO @NOmbrellaro A point of emphasis was made on the offensive line this week.

Ed Orgeron expected more from the group this season: LSU’s rushing offense ranked secondto-last in the SEC heading into the Tigers’ sixth game, a road game against Kentucky.

Max Johnson started the game strong, going 4-4 for 24 yards, but on his fifth attempt is where things changed for the Tigers.

Kentucky ran a simple play on their defensive line. The fivetechnique rusher on LSU right tackle Austin Deculus slanted inside on the snap of the ball. The linebacker blitzed and replaced the gap left open from the move.

Deculus should have passed the rusher off to the right guard Chasen Hines and picked up the blitzing backer.

He didn’t.

Max Johnson was hit from his blindside, fumbling the ball in the process. Kentucky took over with a short field.

MICHAEL CLUBB / The Associated Press

LSU quarterback Max Johnson (14) hands the ball off to running back Corey Kiner (21) during the first half of their game against Kentucky in Lexington, Oct. 9.

Following a Kentucky touchdown, the next drive for the Tigers started well. They drove the ball to the Kentucky 40-yard line, but began to slip up. A sixyard loss on first down put the Tigers in too big of a hole to overcome. Jack Bech and Ty Davis-Price managed to gain most

of the yards back, leaving the Tigers with a fourth-and-1 chance, but an incomplete pass to Bech stopped the drive and momentum was lost.

After this, Johnson had difficulties connecting with receivers, leading to drives stalling from overthrown passes and

drops that could have converted for easy first downs. Johnson completed 58% of his passes, and at times held onto the ball too long in the pocket, taking unnecessary sacks.

The only reason the Tigers had an opportunity, though slim, in the fourth quarter was

the performance Davis-Price had against the Wildcats and the holes the offensive line was opening for him.

Davis-Price had his best game of the season, rushing 22 times for 147 yards and two touchdowns.

“I like the way we ran the football with authority.” Orgeron said. “Give Ty Davis-Price credit and the offensive line. I thought he ran the ball very hard, the best he’s run. But we stayed with him. We did not abandon it.”

With the loss to No. 16 Kentucky, LSU falls to 3-3 this season with four more ranked SEC opponents ahead on the schedule.

When asked if this was the toughest stretch he has faced at LSU, Orgeron deflected.

“Man, I’m not going to have a bad day at LSU, I’m the head coach of LSU,” he said. “I’m going to live each day to the fullest. I love being the head coach here. Is it tough? Yeah, but I’m not gonna feel sorry for myself. I never will. That will never happen.”

Monday, October 11, 2021 FOOTBALL, from page 8 yards on 11 carries and scored two touchdowns on the ground.

LSU Head Coach Ed Orgeron attributed much of LSU’s struggles to the failure to stop the run.

“I knew they had a good rushing game, but 329 yards rushing, we have to do something about that,” Orgeron said in his post-game press conference.

For LSU’s offense, it took a while to establish a rhythm, but the run game had its best game of the season. Tyrion Davis-Price rushed for a season-high 147 yards and two touchdowns in a very impressive performance from the junior running back.

The offensive line looked much better in run blocking, but still struggled to protect Max Johsnon. Johnson was sacked four times and was under duress for most of the game, forcing multiple missed throws and rushed decisions. Johnson missed multiple throws on important third downs, which played a huge part in LSU’s offense struggling to gain momentum.

Overall, the biggest takeaway from the game was the way LSU looked utterly dominated by Kentucky up front. Despite LSU looking like it had resolved issues on the defensive line and stopping the run, Kentucky bullied LSU up front for four quar-

page 9 ters. Especially after LSU faced adversity early, it just looked like the fight was gone, especially on defense. It’s not the first time this season that LSU has looked that way, and after another disappointing loss, it’s easy for one to question if that fight will ever come back this season. Max Johnson was asked after the game what the feeling in the locker room was following the game, and his answer was straight to the point.

“It freaking sucks,” he said.

Johnson’s words reflect the feelings of just about every LSU fan this season. The early adversity made it feel as if the game was on the brink of getting ugly after the first drive, which is a major red flag when looking at the trajectory of the program.

The adversity is only beginning for LSU as well, as it goes into back-to-back games against ranked opponents in Florida and Ole Miss.

On a night where many questions were raised about the future of the program coming into the game, fans will now spend the next few weeks looking for those answers. The future and trajectory of the program is unknown, but in the short term, Orgeron summed things up perfectly in his post-game press conference.

“It’s a tough night to be a Tiger,” he said.

ABBY KIBLER / The Reveille

LSU soccer senior forward Alesia Garcia (10) keeps her eyes on the ball Sept. 26 during their 2-1 loss against Georgia at the LSU Soccer Stadium .

SOCCER, from page 8 tiple shots skim the crossbar.

In the 58th minute of the match, Wasila Diwura-Soala conceded a penalty kick in the Tigers box. Aggies forward Maile Hayes approached the ball and drilled it past Mollee Swift into the upper left corner of the net, extending the lead 2-0.

Four minutes after Hayes’ successful penalty kick, she assisted

s l w o t nigh

Kate Colvin on a score, pushing the lead to 3-0, and leaving the Tigers in disarray. With five minutes left to play, LSU seemed down, but not out. Alesia Garcia took matters into her own hands, scoring the first and only goal of the night for the Tigers.

Just when the LSU fans and players thought the match was winding down, the Aggies had one last trick left in their bag.

Oliviera scored her second goal

of the night, putting the final nail in the Tigers coffin.

In the past four matches, the Tigers have been outscored 2-9.

Prior to LSU’s first loss on the season, they dominated their opponents by a 28-4 margin. The Tigers are now 1-4 in conference play and are looking to get back into their early season form.

LSU will travel to Alabama to face Auburn on Sunday, Oct. 10 at 2 p.m.

early birds

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OPINION

page 11

Head

to

Head

Louisiana is special and Louisiana’s ‘unique culture’ certainly worth fighting for isn’t enough to redeem it SULLY’S SCOOP CLAIRE SULLIVAN @sulliclaire

roots, citizen-powered organizing is a powerful testament to the strength of Louisiana.

I came to Louisiana the day after my 18th birthday and I have known since then that I made the right choice. Never have I been somewhere that radiates the same warmth and hospitality as Louisiana. I will forever be grateful to Louisiana for giving me an education, and beyond that, the great gift of wonderful friends, mentors and community.

Life is just better in the bayou.

HADEN’S HOUSE OF HYSTERIA HADEN DEVILBISS @SullenDucken

between a boiling, blistering heat and torrents of spontaneous rain. Lake Charles, my own hometown, is the second most-humid place in the contiguous United States, although it can regularly make it to No. 1.

On top of the humidity and bipolar weather patterns, the annual tradition of hurricane season sees massive flooding, property damage and loss of life, with critical damage often exacerbated by slow disaster response.

Of course, a horrid climate is the case for much of the world—floods and rainfall were even the benchmarks of hearth civilizations on the Indus, Nile and Yellow river valleys. So it’s that much more depressing that Bronze Age civilizations who were still inventing the wheel had more reliable infrastructure than 21st century Louisiana.

Traffic-congested roads lead into massive parking lots for stores located miles away from residential areas. Drainage systems can’t handle more than a few of those spontaneous storms before overflowing like a Lockett classroom, and we can’t even consider the idea of simply building upward instead of outward! Urban sprawl is the name of Louisiana’s developmental game, and there will be no other word on it.

And then there’s the demographics and statistics. Forgoing my surface level criticisms of that sector of our state’s population who drive lifted white trucks with obscene bumper stickers, an LED underbelly and “The Compensator” scrawled beside a Snapchat handle on the rear window, Louisiana has some seriously unsettling trends.

According to US News & World Report, Louisiana ranks close to last in the nation for healthcare, education, crime, incarceration and economy. In fact, its highest score is a mere 42 out of 50 for fiscal stability.

Want to fix these problems and put this train wreck of a state back on the right track?

Well, good luck getting past the corrupt politicians, lawyers and massive lobbying groups for international industries. I’m sure your naïve idealism and “coming together as a community” is really going to make a difference to oil barons and the Southern aristocracy.

There are some genuine draws to the state—TOPS, Tabasco, the soft, comforting smile of Ed Orgeron—but I for one can’t overlook all of Louisiana’s glaring weaknesses enough to tolerate the unique culture and so-called “charm.”

Sure, there are worse places to be (somewhere horrid like Connecticut, for example), but I spit on the advice of Delbert McClinton; when I’m out, I plan on doing everything in my power not to come “back to Louisiana.”

In my year of living in Louisiana, this No matter how many “Visit Louisiana” state has become a second home to me. ads are played, no matter how many times There’s an atmosphere of genuine people unnecessarily put “-eaux” on billboards, it’s impossible to deny that Louisiana kindness and charity that ties neighbors is detestable. together. There are beautiful natural I’ll keep my criticisms brief while I barscenes unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed. There’s a melting pot of cultures ricade my apartment from the Cajun death that produces exceptional art, music, litsquad.

Claire Sullivan is a 19-year-old coastal erature and food.

Louisiana’s most obvious problem—and Louisiana is a beautiful place, and environmental science sophomore from likely its most fundamental—is its climate. it’s my hope to stay here after I graduate Southbury, CT. The state is a muggy swamp that ping-pongs from the university.

The most common response I get from people when I tell them I came to Louisiana from Connecticut, and even more so when I say I want to stay here, is a confused “why?”

Many of my native Louisiana friends want to leave the state as soon as they can. They cite low rankings across the board in education, health, and quality of life. They’re tired of Louisiana politics, which have for so long been entrenched in corruption.

Their criticisms of the state are valid, and I share (and write about) many of them. It’s sad, though understandable, that many young people can’t see a future for themselves in this state.

As someone who has been here only a year, I won’t pretend to be an expert on living in Louisiana. I can’t and won’t try to argue against the statistics that tell of unfortunate realities for many residents.

What I will say is that I believe a more fair, equal and prosperous Louisiana is possible—and that it’s worth sticking around to fight for.

Political leaders have betrayed this state and its people frequently over the years. Many of our lawmakers are more interested in scoring culture war points or doing the bidding of their donors than fighting for their constituents. The constant political games are exhausting and infuriating.

What gives me hope is the resounding spirit with which so many residents fight against those wishing to exploit the state for personal or corporate benefit.

Between RISE St. James, Louisiana Budget Project, Louisiana Center for Health Equity and others, so many organizations are fighting for a better tomorrow in this state. These organizations are all ABBY KIBLER / The Reveille predicated on the belief that Louisiana is worth that fight—a belief that is un- LSU graduate student Cory Calabria bikes through flooded waters Sept. 15 during Tropical Haden DeVilbiss is a 19-year-old history and doubtedly true. The resilience of grass- Depression Nicholas in the Tiger Stadium parking lot on LSU’s campus in Baton Rouge. psychology sophomore from Lake Charles.

Editorial Policies and Procedures EDITORIAL BOARD Lara Nicholson

Editor in Chief

Enjanae’ Taylor

Managing Editor

Madelyn Cutrone

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Josh Archote

Deputy News Editor

Cecile Girard

Opinion Editor

The Reveille (USPS 145-800) is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University.

The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication. Signed opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, The Reveille or the university. Letters submitted for publication should be sent via e-mail to editor@lsu.edu or delivered to B-39 Hodges Hall. They must be 400 words or less. Letters must provide a contact phone number for verification purposes, which will not be printed. The Reveille reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for space consideration while preserving the original intent. The Reveille also reserves the right to reject any letter without notification of the author. Writers must include their full names and phone numbers. The Reveille’s editor in chief, hired every semester by the LSU Student Media Board, has final authority on all editorial decisions.

Quote of the Week “Outside, the sun was hot and heavy as a hand on my back.”

Louise Erdrich author 1954 — present

Homecoming Week 2021 October 10–17

BANNER COMPETITION • OUTDOOR MOVIE • SCAVENGER HUNT • CONCERT • FOOD DRIVE SPLATTERBEAT • DRAG SHOW • FALL FEST • GREEK LAWN DECOR • COURT PRESENTATION Join us for an action packed week of events on campus!

Stay tuned to lsu.edu/homecoming or follow @lsucampuslife on social media for the details.

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