BEAUMONT — If anyone argues whether Lamar should have played in the wake of Harvey’s flooding in Jefferson County, Darrel Colbert Jr. states his defense.

“Our coaches did a great job taking care of everything dealing with the hurricane, making sure we were safe and also making sure their families were safe,” Colbert said. “I feel like they took a big part in that, even though we couldn’t practice every day like we wanted to or meet like we wanted to. But some things are bigger than football, and that’s our safety. Coaches handled the situation perfectly. We got a couple days in.”

The journey the Cardinals (0-1) took toward opening the season with a new head coach is more memorable than the outcome, a 59-14 loss at North Texas.

They left last Thursday for Lafayette, Louisiana, expecting to practice at the Ragin’ Cajuns’ facility before having to turn toward Denton due to wet roads. The floods in the county had peaked a day earlier.

“It is a football game,” Lamar coach Mike Schultz said. “When you look at the devastation of Southeast Texas — our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and people around Southeast Texas — what we do is just a football game, so we tried to keep that in perspective when we went into this thing. Our kids did a great job of staying focused and staying resilient about coming back and getting ready to play.”

Now, Lamar has reached out to Southeast Texas families who have children. Those families will be granted free general admission to Schultz’s first home game Saturday against UT Permian Basin.

“We are particularly sensitive to all of the children who have had school canceled and their lives turned upside down,” LU athletic director Jason Henderson said in a statement earlier this week. “We want them and their families to join us at the game providing them an opportunity to focus on the great game of football and their Lamar University Cardinals.”

Colbert said it’s a game the city of Beaumont needs.

“Everything’s been bad, so that’s why this week is going to be a big week for us, preparation-wise and practicing-wise,” the junior transfer from SMU said.

The biggest part about Saturday’s game in Schultz’s mind is seeing whether the Cardinals have made significant improvements from Week 1.

“You should make the most improvement in your football team from Week 1 to Week 2,” Schultz said. “So, this is a huge, huge week for us.”

Colbert had a nice debut statistically at North Texas, completing half of his 28 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns. When talking about that game, he quickly put the final score in perspective.

“Just to go out there, I feel like our team gave it their all,” Colbert said. “We tried to make some good things happen. We ended up on the short side of the stick, but it just shows the fight in this team that we have and the city has as well, going through Harvey and different things, and that’s just being able to go down there [to Denton]. People able to play and come back, everybody’s volunteering now.”

UTPB (0-1), an Odessa-based Division II university of almost 6,000 students, is playing football for only the second year in its 44-year history. The Falcons are coming off a 47-22 loss to Division III Sul Ross State of Alpine.

The Falcons responded to Harvey’s devastation by holding a supply and water drive at the Sul Ross game.

“Hurricane Harvey has had a direct impact on so many of our UTPB families,” coach Justin Carrigan said in a release last week. “I wish we could do more. I wish we were there physically to help with the clean-up process.”

UTPB quarterback Michael Myers is a run-pass threat coming off an 11-for-19, 164-yard effort in which he threw for two TDs and posted an efficiency rating of 154.61. The Duncanville sophomore also ran 10 times for 40 yards.

He’s one focus of a defense trying to prove it’s better than the one that gave up 668 yards, albeit to an FBS team.

“We’ve got some areas where we need to improve; there’s no doubt about that,” Schultz said. “We saw, believe it or not, some good things on both sides of the ball. We’ve got to get some fits better on defense. We’ve got to tackle better.”
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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews