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LSU to host North Texas as scheduled

Sep 13, 2008 - 5:12 PM North Texas (0-2) at No. 7 Louisiana State (1-0), 8:00 pm EDT

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Ticker) -- With the Baton Rouge area spared from Hurricane Ike, seventh-ranked Louisiana State will host North Texas on Saturday as scheduled.

Earlier in the week, Tigers athletic director Joe Alleva said the school was exploring the possibility of moving the game to another site. LSU considered the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Texas Stadium in Dallas, the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana and the Superdome in New Orleans.

But on Wednesday, Alleva announced their was no need to switch the game to another location, and Hurricane Ike hit the state of Texas the hardest, prompting Texas to postpone its game against Arkansas.

Hurricane Gustav caused some damage to Tiger Stadium, including a power outage, causing school officials to postpone last week's contest until November 15.

Saturday marks the first game for LSU (1-0) since it opened defense of its national championship with a 41-13 victory over Appalachian State on August 30.

"I'm glad to be back," LSU coach Les Miles said. "I'm glad there is a resemblance of a routine. I'm glad to see some familiar faces and that we're in a game week."

LSU's offense is being directed by a pair of inexperienced quarterbacks in Andrew Hatch, a Harvard transfer, and redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee. They did not need to do much against Appalachian State, however, as junior Charles Scott rushed for a career-high 160 yards and two touchdowns.

Following lopsided losses to Kansas State (45-6) and Tulsa (56-26), North Texas (0-2) can hardly be looking forward to facing the Tigers in "Death Valley."

The Mean Green allowed Tulsa quarterback David Johnson to pass for 418 yards and six touchdowns in just his second career start. In its first two games, North Texas has given up more than 1,000 yards in total offense.