This article was copied from the Times-Picayune Sports Desk Log.
Miles said LSU will do the right thing
By Jim Kleinpeter
Friday, 09/02, 9:40 a.m.

BATON ROUGE – The LSU football season opener has already been pushed back and the possibility of another postponement next week looms in the wake of the catastrophic results of Hurricane Katrina.

As much as he’d like to get his inaugural season under way, Tigers coach Les Miles said the school will do the right thing.

No. 5 LSU is scheduled to play No. 20 Arizona State Sept. 10 in Tiger Stadium, one week after the Tigers were scheduled to open the season against North Texas, a game that will be rescheduled for later in the season. But with the aftermath of the hurricane and subsequent use of the LSU campus as a refugee port, playing a football game wanes in significance. .

“We are going to do what is right for the state, what is right for the school,” Miles said after Thursday’s practice. “We are very much tied to the people of Louisiana.

“It was right to postpone the first game. It was right for the pain, destruction and the loss of life and to assist in the supporting efforts. To help those people who need help most. Certainly we feel that it would be important for us to serve our state, and we will do so in any way directed.”

There is also a possibility the game could be moved to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. The game is scheduled to be televised by ESPN beginning at 7:45 p.m.

Miles said the conditions in southeast Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast have weighed heavily on the minds of his players, but that players have still been able to practice hard.

“I think they are pensive,” he said. “They want to play a game. They’re frustrated because of the inability to help. They’re sad when they see how much difficulty the state is going through. I think they are sensitive to that. They know people that are in real difficult times and it is not normal. It’s not business as usual, and it’s tough to go beyond, yet they step out on the field and take a break for two hours and practice hard.”

Miles dodged the issue of who would start at quarterback. Previously, he said he might name a starting quarterback Thursday before the game, but was not forthcoming with that information. Sophomore JaMarcus Russell has the edge in experience but is competing with sophomore Matt Flynn and incoming freshman Ryan Perrilloux.