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KU vs SE Louisiana

Southeastern Louisiana's football program, which netted $275,000 for playing at Kansas University, suffered a rather costly defeat Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

"It's not worth a nickel to lose a guy like that for our season," Mike Lucas, coach of the second-tier school, said dejectedly after a 62-0 loss to the Jayhawks.

Southeastern Louisiana standout junior defensive tackle Walter Vaughn suffered a broken arm in four places.

The 6-foot-4, 278-pounder went down in the second quarter with SE Louisiana behind, 22-0.

"He is our best defensive lineman who has started two years. To turn around and see him flopping around on the track in great pain : to see him lay there and break his arm : what does it do to the other 10 (on defense), the other 50? That's what happened to us," Lucas said.

Vaughn - he was on painkillers after the game as he sat outside the locker room with his arm in a sling waiting to board the team bus - was one of several Lions injured against the larger-class Jayhawks.

"You hate to lose players. We have five guys very questionable for next week and maybe two out for the season," Lucas said.

Not all on-paper mismatches turn out to be storybook outings like last week's Appalachian State-Michigan game, that's for sure.

"When I was at Sam Houston State, we played Texas A&M. Everybody was fired up driving 30 minutes to College Station, getting a big paycheck. All our alums were fired up. We lost three starters for the season. We are not deep enough now to lose people," Lucas said.

He wasn't blaming KU.

"I tip my hat to coach (Mark) Mangino. He played everybody he had on the bench. He didn't try to run up the score. We had 57 guys travel. Guys get tired punting the ball so much, returning kicks so much," Lucas said.

Coincidentally, the Lions, who lost to New Mexico State, 35-14, last week, lost to Big 12 school Texas Tech by an identical 62-0 score a year ago.

"They are a very good Big 12 team," Lucas said. "Coach Mangino has done a great job recruiting players. I don't want to jump up and say they will win the Big 12 North. They will surprise some people, but not coaches. The coaches I've talked to tell me about Kansas recruiting the same players they wanted (to sign)."

Senior linebacker Michael Johnson was impressed with a KU team that outgained the Lions, 501 total yards to 75.

"Their offense? It's dynamic," Johnson said. "They've got a good coach and played their assignments.

"They are better than New Mexico State. No way they were 62 points better than us. We had a bunch of busted coverages."

Quarterback Brian Babin, who completed 20 of 30 passes for 89 yards but was sacked four times, lauded KU's defense.

"You've got a guy like No. 93, he was everywhere," Babin said of tackle James McClinton. "He is a great player. No. 3 (corner Aqib Talib) is a great player. They are Kansas. We're Southeastern. It's a big difference. They are competitive in the Big 12 every year, and we are Div. 1-AA. At a certain point, size really takes over. We tried to make some plays. They are pretty good."

Aside from losing players to injury, the Lions - who headed back home right after the game, expecting to arrive in Hammond, La., about 2 a.m. - said they enjoyed the experience in Big 12 country.

"I'd rather play games like this than beat a Div. III team," QB Babin said.

"We got to play in the Big 12. Any time you get to play in the Big 12, it's good," linebacker Johnson said.