For Sulphur head football coach Paul Bourgeois, the 2008 season was the most difficult of his life. However, it had nothing to do with the Golden Tors’ 5-5 record.

After each football season Bourgeois visits his family doctor for a routine checkup. But when he went to his doctor in February of 2008, something didn’t feel right.

“I was going through a stage where I felt real tired,” said Bourgeois. “There were some things that we talked to the doctor about, so we did some blood work and everything came back negative.”

After the visit, he was experiencing the same symptoms. Bourgeois didn’t have much energy and lacked the drive to do normal daily activities. He went back to the doctor in April and asked for more blood work.

This time the doctor came back with some disturbing news. MRI results showed that Bourgeois had a quarter size benign tumor in his brain. As soon as he received the news, Bourgeois drove two hours to MD Anderson Hospital in Houston. He was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove the tumor on June 3, 2008.

“The surgery lasted ten hours and went well,” said Bourgeois. “The reason for the length of the surgery was because the tumor was in a bad location, basically in the center of my head.”

The surgeon was able to remove all but six millimeters of the tumor. What was left was destroyed through six weeks of radiation treatment.

Bourgeois began his radiation treatments in late July of 2008. He had to undergo radiation once a day, Monday through Friday. With a new football season beginning in early August, Bourgeois did not want to spend weeks at a time at MD Anderson. He decided to go back and forth between Sulphur and Houston.

“Thank goodness I have the coaching staff that I do because they were basically running the show during August,” said Bourgeois.

Many people told Bourgeois that driving back and forth during his radiation treatments was ridiculous. But the coach didn’t see it that way. Coming back to Sulphur every chance that he could gave Bourgeois a sense of relief.

“Traveling back and forth worked for me,” said Bourgeois. “MD Anderson is a sad place to be. There are some very, very sick people at that place. To be able to come to work and be with youth, coaches, and a lot of healthy people… I felt better when I came home.”

Those of you who really know me know this. I am a life long Brett Favre fanatic. Favre has the Minnesota Vikings off to a 3-0 start and I would love to think that the Vikes are the team to beat in the NFC. But I do not think that they are the team to beat. With each passing week it's looking more and more like the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC will go through New Orleans.

The Saints are now 3-0 for only the sixth time in 43 years of existence after Sunday's 27-7 win at Buffalo. And this year it looks like the Saints don't have to have a monster stat game from quarterback Drew Brees to win.

On Sunday Brees only threw for 172 yards. That was his lowest passing yardage total in a game since 2006. Brees was backed up by a Saints rushing attack that produced over 220 rush yards including 126 (all in second half) by Pierre Thomas.

Did you know this? After three weeks the Saints rank second in the NFL with 170.7 rushing yards per game. If you can run the ball like that in the NFL, you will be successful even without a great quarterback. It doesn't matter who is toting the rock either. Mike Bell looked great against the Lions and Eagles. Thomas was fantastic against Buffalo, and for crying out loud, even Reggie Bush is running the ball well!

I wonder, if you are and NFL defensive coordinator, how do you gameplan to stop the Saints offense? If you focus on the run then Brees will burn you all day long. And if you try to contain Brees then Thomas, Bell and Bush will run with ease.

Before the season started I said that I thought the Saints defense would be much improved under new coordinator Greg Williams. The Saints defense didn't need to be top notch this season for the Saints to make the playoffs. Just middle of the pack and I thought Williams could get them there. After three weeks, that's exactly where the Saints defense ranks, 12th out of 32 teams.

I'll leave you with two more tidbits. In 180 minutes of football this season, the Saints have yet to trail in a game. Also, under Sean Payton the Saints are now 12-0 when allowing 14 points or less. With the way the defense is playing, I can certainly see the Saints holding a few more teams to 14 points or less.

This Sunday the Saints host the red hot New York Jets and rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez. He's the first rookie QB to start his career 3-0, but something tells me that Mark will have his rookie "Welcome to the NFL" moment this Sunday in the Superdome.

Entering the Auburn Game, as several previous games, Les Miles and the LSU Tigers felt they had something to prove. They were desperately looking for that break-out game for quarterback Jordan Jefferson and the underachieving offense. A game that would legitimize national title hopes. To that point, the offense consisted of very good running game and a passing game that completely consisted of short to intermediate passes. An offense that was predictable and often called vanilla. This game, Miles had promised a more aggressive downfield attack and more pocket presence from his young quarterback.

On Monday, I hope that coach Miles was sending a thank you card to Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof. Roof’s game plan played right into what Miles was wanting to do, albeit a fan pleaser. Auburn seemingly decided to attack LSU’s strength, its running game. Shut down the running game and dare the sophomore quarterback to beat them with his arm. Well, it worked out well for LSU. Auburn’s porous secondary was lit up for a LSU season high 242 passing yards. It quietened a lot of the critics but rose concerns for the running game as the Tigers star running back, Charles Scott, was held to a measly 20 yards. Freshman sensation Russell Sheppard struggled for running room with 5 carries for 6 yards until he broke one for loose for 69 yards and his first collegiate score.

Although Miles is declaring mission accomplished, I believe LSU still hasn’t put together a complete game offensively. When facing a complete defense like Alabama, the Tigers will need a balanced attack. The good news is the defense is playing about as good as one can. In the last three SEC games, the Tiger defense has only allowed two touchdowns. Only Alabama has allowed fewer in the SEC.
This week LSU has the downtrodden Tulane Greenwave. It should not be as much of a test of ability as it will be a test of mental focus. With the biggest game of the year, Alabama, looming the following week, the Tigers must focus on the game at hand and not look ahead. LSU cruises to victory 45-3.