It didn’t quite work out that way.
Instead of booting balls, the St. Martinville Senior High graduate has been McNeese’s insurance policy as backup quarterback to starter Derrick Fourroux.
 After three seasons spent as a backup quarterback at McNeese State University, Beau Lasseigne prepares to punt for the Cowboys this year. - Neal McClelland / The Daily Iberian Advertisement
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“Beau’s a great example of what it is to be selfless and have an understanding of his role,” said McNeese co-offensive coordinator Tim Leger. “He’s played wideout for us, he’s punted for us, he’s been in the backup role as quarterback, he’s mopped up games for us.
“We always said this and talked about it in out meetings and I’ve said this to Derrick, the team and the coaches, if something happened to Derrick, we could win a championship with Beau Lasseigne at quarterback.”
Lasseigne has had playing time as Fourroux’s backup. In the spring game this year, he led two drives with less than four minutes remaining to put his team in the lead. In that spring game, Lasseigne completed 17 of 28 passes for 229 yards and rushed six times for 65 yards.
“It was his show to lead one team and Derrick led the other,” said Leger, who said Lasseigne and Fourroux have the same qualities. Both are cool under pressure, neither is afraid to get hit, both can and will run but look first to make throws, and both have the respect of their teammates, Leger said.
For his career, including taking a redshirt season in 2006, Lasseigne has played quarterback in 13 games and has completed six of 11 passes for 55 yards and two touchdowns. Last year he completed his only pass for a 28-yard touchdown against Southern Virginia. His other touchdown pass came in 2005 as a freshman against Texas State.
Even with the lack of playing time, Lasseigne isn’t complaining about his time at McNeese.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” said Lasseigne. “Hopefully this year I’ll get some playing time to help the team out.”
Lasseigne’s father, St. Martinville Senior High baseball coach Andy Lasseigne, played football at Tulane and he also has an uncle, Alvin Lasseigne, who played at Louisiana-Monroe.
This year, finally, Beau Lasseigne will get a chance to do at McNeese what he was originally recruited to do, punt the ball. He averaged more than 40 yards a punt during his career at St. Martinville, and never really thought that he would end up at quarterback.
“I signed as a punter, and I came here thinking that I would be a receiver but one of the quarterbacks got hurt when I got here,” said Lasseigne.
But Lasseigne hurt an ankle early in his career, putting his punting duties on the shelf, and he migrated back to quarterback, where he played during his senior year at St. Martinville.
“Derrick was signed to be the quarterback and we’ve had success with him,” said Lasseigne. “So I kind of just stayed back and stayed ready in case I got the chance to play.”
It wasn’t hard for Lasseigne to accept his new role since he played multiple positions at SMSH. He played receiver while current Arizona Cardinal Early Doucet was quarterback, splitting time at QB with Doucet in Doucet’s senior year before becoming the full-time starting quarterback in his senior season after Doucet graduated and went to LSU.
With more quarterbacks in camp this year, Lasseigne can go back to punting, where he said he has good hang time but needs to work on distance.
While happy with his role and how his career turned out, it could have been a lot different.
“Beau was the man at St. Martinville,” said Leger. “But for him to come here and do what he’s done shows how selfless he is and what type of man he is. It’s been so close between Derrick and Beau in their time here that Beau could be on the cusp of breaking records and Derrick could have been the career-long backup. It’s good to have them both, it leads to some comfort for sure.”
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