New Orleans • The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau donated $25,000 to the relief efforts in Houston on Saturday after the AdvoCare Texas Kickoff was moved from Houston to New Orleans last Monday.
Good call.
The Bureau estimated that New Orleans would see an economic impact of more than $50 million after the Superdome agreed to take the game from NRG Stadium.
Attendance wasn’t available at press time, but officials said they had sold about 50,000 tickets by Saturday morning.
BYU officials said they expected around 15,000 BYU fans in Houston, but weren’t sure how many BYU fans attended Saturday night’s game in New Orleans because all ticket sales for the relocated game were routed through Ticketmaster.
Nightmarish half
The last time BYU played in the Superdome, the Cougars put up 527 yards in a 54-3 blowout of Tulane. Obviously, LSU is not Tulane. BYU had just 47 yards of offense in the first half against the Tigers, while LSU put up 269 and took a 14-0 lead at the break.
The Cougars rushed for just 5 yards and Tanner Mangum was just 6 of 10 for 42 yards, with an interception that LSU turned into a touchdown.
Mailman in the house
When LSU players arrived at the New Orleans Marriott on Friday night, former Utah Jazz great Karl Malone and his wife, Kay, were there to greet them with dozens of other LSU fans.
Malone’s son, senior K.J. Malone, started at left tackle for the Tigers against BYU.
“I was a Utah fan,” K.J. Malone told reporters earlier in the week. “I grew up five minutes away [from the University of Utah]. Everybody at my school were like, ’You need to be a Utah fan. BYU people are mean.”
K.J. lived in Salt Lake City until he was 10 years old.
Karl Malone posed for pictures and chatted with the handful of BYU fans who were at the hotel Friday night as BYU fans seemed more interested in talking to the NBA legend than LSU fans.
“A lot of people have been talking to me about the game,” K.J. Malone said. “Some of my Utah fan friends are like, ‘Beat them.’ And my BYU fan friends are like, ‘Uh, I don’t know if I can cheer for you this weekend.’”
This and that
Lee Corso picked BYU to upset LSU on ESPN’s College GameDay program Saturday morning. Fellow host Kirk Herbstreit said it was going to be close but predicted LSU to “ultimately win at the end.” … The game pitted a pair of starting quarterbacks who earned their Eagle Scout awards. BYU’s Tanner Mangum was a member of Troop 106 in Eagle, Idaho, and LSU’s Danny Etling earned scouting’s highest honor as a member of Troop 17 in Terre Haute, Ind. … Former players James Dye, Adam Hogan, Norm Dixon and Dustin Rykert carried out the alumni flags for BYU. The team flags were carried out by Fred Warner and Tanner Jacobson.