McNeese Athletics officially announced their 2022 football schedule with first year head coach Gary Goff, Thursday afternoon. The Cowboys also publicized that the program will move back to their traditional 7:00 p.m. kickoffs for all of their home games.
McNeese will open the season on September 3rd at Montana State, who was the FCS National Runner-Up last season, then will visit Rice on September 10th. This matchup will be the first-ever meeting against the Owls while the matchup versus Montana State will be just the second time both program will play each other. The first time was in 2002 when the Cowboys defeated the Bobcats 21-14 in the first round of the FCS playoffs, that was then know as the 1-AA, en route to the national title game.
The Cowboys will begin a three-game home stand on Sept. 17 when they hosts Alcorn State for the fifth meeting in program history. Following, McNeese will host Mississippi College on September 24th before beginning Southland Conference play on October 1st at home against HBU. After their bye week on October 8th, McNeese will travel to take on conference newcomer Texas A&M-Commerce on October 15 in league play.
October 22 will be when McNeese will travel to play Nicholls for the first of two meetings on the season. The Colonels will make a trip to Cowboy Stadium on November 12th in the home regular season finale. McNeese will host Southeastern on October 29th and Eastern Illinois on November 5th in the SLC/OVC Alliance game as that contest was made known back in December.
After the Nicholls home game on the 12th, McNeese will visit Northwestern State on the 19 to finish off the regular season, as the FCS playoffs will be the following week on November 26th.