HOUSTON – Kansas State was the trailer park and the LSU was the tornado Saturday evening at NRG Arena in Houston, TX.
The Tiger’s defeated the Wildcats in the Rodeo Bowl, one of the bowl season’s best kept secrets. As a part of the TaxAct Texas Bowl game week, select LSU and Kansas State players faced off in seven rodeo-themed events which included penning live calves, tossing hay bales, roping a dummy horse and rolling a teammate inside a barrel.
The Texas Bowl was hoping to finally have the event open to the public with a state-fair-like feel for the whole family to enjoy but had to keep it closed due to Covid-19.
“It was fun to see our kids compete and really it speaks to who our kids are – even in an event like this you can see the competitive juices come out,” said interim head coach Brad Davis.
K-State started strong, winning the calf penning competition handily in a record 21 seconds. LSU struggled to keep the calves together, finally getting all five in the pen in 55 seconds.
“When they were getting the cattle into the pen – the fact that they did that so quickly, I heard it was a record, that was pretty cool how they all worked together,” said Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn.
LSU came back strong, winning the calf roping competition in sudden death after three players from each team tried and failed to rope the dummy and freshman linebacker Lane Blue secured the victory with a solid toss.
“I didn’t know Hadley Panzer could rope like that,” said Kansas State senior linebacker Cody Fletcher. “They had a kid that could rope really well too, you could tell he’s been doing it a while. That was surprising.”
The Tigers also won the calf ribbon pull, snatching the purple piece of cloth from the tail of one of the calves in just 11 seconds. The Wildcats finished in a respectable 14 seconds.
Then came everyone’s favorite event – the barrel man. Both teams placed a player inside a barrel and two teammates rolled the barrel from one end to the other. The player inside then had to get out and run back to the start line as fast as possible.
LSU went first, with sophomore wide receiver LJ Gilyot in the barrel. Gilyot said he was chosen by the team because he is one of the smaller guys on the roster but is the fastest for his size. He finished in 18 seconds.
“LJ getting in the barrel, that was fun to see,” shared junior wide receiver Jaray Jenkins. “We called him, he is a little man so you know so that’s why we called him in there and he did great.”
Kansas State also went with a wide receiver – junior Seth Porter who won the event in a blazing 14 seconds.
“I personally liked the barrel roll,” admitted Porter. “I was in the barrel, got a little dizzy but it’s always fun trying some new stuff; a little dizziness in exchange for pulling out the win was worth it.”
The Houston native said he had no strategy just hoped he wouldn’t be too dizzy to make it to the finish line.
“Definitely the one where they put him in the barrel and rolled him – that was something that it was pretty cool to see just from the fact that I have no idea how Seth ran in a straight line after he got out of that barrel,” laughed Vaughn.
LSU countered with a 15-second calf branding win (using chalk of course), beating K-State’s time by four seconds.
And then controversy struck – LSU’s win in the hay bale stacking competition was called into question as the rodeo clown judges determined the Tiger’s re-stack didn’t meet the criteria and so awarded the W to the Wildcats, tying up the bowl 3-3.
Fired up from stack-gate, LSU entered the last challenge no holds bar. Five players from each team competed in the relay-style event, donning a horse costume around their waist, running the length of the arena and back before passing it to the next guy. LSU started fast and ran fast in the middle and finished fast, defeating K-State handily. But it wasn’t just speed, LSU earned some style points as well.
“My favorite event was at the end,” said offensive tackle Austin Deculus. “We had some of our guys like Jontre Kirklin acting like he was actually galloping while he was running around everything which was pretty comical.”
Before we get to the bowl trophy, more points must be awarded for style. And who better to proclaim who wore it best than the head coach himself.
“Spencer Payne is a natural,” announced Davis. “It fits him, it looks right. He should get an NIL deal from this. Somebody should legitimately sponsor him and give him a lifetime supply of cowboy hats.”
As the Tigers hoisted the Rodeo Bowl Champions Belt aloft with glee, reveling in their collective rodeo skills, their head coach looked on with pride.
“Well let’s see…my favorite event was winning it all,” said Davis. “We spoke to our guys about whatever it is, it doesn’t matter if it’s Rodeo Bowl or Tic-tac-toe – whatever we do, we compete to win. Our guys really lived up to that and I was proud of them.”
Fun fact: 70 percent of the time, the team that wins the Rodeo Bowl also wins the Texas Bowl.
“I heard that stat too and I wanted to win this event really bad,” admitted Davis.
The two teams face-off at NRG Stadium on January 4 at 8 PM CT.
Written by Emily Van Buskirk
