BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) — While it’s the first time LSU and Southern University will be sharing the field, it’s not the first time they’ll be sharing a stage.
In January 2004 the City of Baton Rouge honored the 2003 National Champions, the LSU Tigers, and the 2003 Black National Champions, the Southern University Jaguars, with a “Parade of Champions.”
Nearly 20 years later both teams are just days away from a historical showdown and a halftime show that will be seen by a national audience. The director of bands of the Southern University Human Jukebox says there’s no pressure though.
“For Southern University, we’ve been on plenty of big stages, we’ve done Super Bowls, Rose Parades, we’ve done inauguration parades,” said Kedric Taylor.
Being center stage is nothing new for the Human Jukebox, but Taylor says the band always prepares to be better than their last performance. What does that take? Sacrifice and late-night practices, even on a holiday.
“We put a lot of work and time into what we do. This is our third show in two weeks so our students definitely know how to make the adjustments. Typically we leave here by 10 o’clock every night,” said Taylor. “We had the battle of the bands Aug. the 27th, our first home game was last week, which we did a different show, and this week we’re doing another show so it won’t be the same thing from last week people saw last week or the week before.”
Despite being only 10 miles apart, the two teams have never faced off. Taylor says this is an opportunity to gain a new audience.
“LSU has a huge fan base, the game is sold out, it’s going to be thousands and thousands of people, most of which never seen the Southern University Jukebox live,” said Taylor. “I don’t know one venue that we’ve gone to that people get up and go to the snack bar for halftime and so I’m just letting LSU know that here on the Bluff we don’t go to the snack bar for halftime — we stay in our seats.”
By now, if you’re still trying to get your hands on tickets for the big game, best of luck to you. But whether you’re watching these two teams on the gridiron from the stands or on a screen, Taylor says this is a halftime show you won’t want to miss.
“If you turn your head to the left or the right, you’re going to miss something, that’s just how this band moves,” said Taylor.
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