Ragin' Cajun football coaches excited to begin spring

<i>UL’s 2005 opponents were a combined 62-62 in 2004. The Cajuns are 86-86-4 all-time versus their 2005 opponents. </i><blockquote><p align=justify>University of Louisiana football players and coaches may have been more excited than normal to begin spring practice Saturday.
After all, that group had been gathering for 6 a.m. conditioning drills since early February. That made Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. kickoff much more palatable.

“We’ve had those ‘Red Dawn’ sessions the last couple of weeks to prepare for this,” said Ragin’ Cajun head coach Rickey Bustle. “It wasn’t just the players that were anxious to get started ... the coaches were pretty happy, too. We’d been beating UPS in the morning.
“But those early workouts have helped our agility. We’ve gotten stronger and a little faster, and I think a combination of those workouts and the weight work we did has led to that increase.”

With the dawn workouts a thing of the past, 83 players went through Saturday’s two-hour session that opened up a series of 14 spring practices.

NCAA regulations limit teams to non-contact drills in the first two spring sessions, and the Cajuns will hold their second no-pads practice today at 2:30 p.m. Contact drills will begin Monday.

“We’re doing a lot of teaching in these two days,” Bustle said. “We’re pretty much re-learning our offense and defense, and for some of the guys it’s pretty much learning on the run.

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“I like more of a fast-paced practice, but today was a learning day. There’s a lot of new things out there, and hopefully we worked out some kinks and can get the practices moving quicker.”

The Cajuns had three players hitting the field for the first time Saturday, with new signees Don Hargroder, Brit Framel and the injured Brad Bryant joining the squad at mid-term. But a lot of other players are in new positions, and a lot of redshirted players are seeing their first extensive action.

“I’m really excited about getting some of these guys more experience,” Bustle said. “Guys like Michael Desormeaux, Brenton Burkhalter, Johnathan Vance, Bobby Fails ... they’ve been foaming at the mouth to get out here to practice. They didn’t get a chance to do much last fall except on the scout team.”

UL’s defensive staff made some position shifts prior to the start of spring drills, with Mark Risher going from the “Sam” to the “Mike” linebacker, Terryl Fenton shifting from cornerback to safety and Torres Kingsby going from safety to cornerback.

“Everybody’s got a lot to learn, but especially those guys,” Bustle said. “It’s a matter of everybody understanding what they’re doing. It’s a team sport and everybody’s got a job to do and a responsibility. The biggest thing is knowing that responsibility and why they’re there.”

Only three players were held out of full-scale drills for Saturday’s workout, and Bryant may be able to take part in all drills before the end of spring practice after arthroscopic knee surgery earlier this year.

Saturday’s session is the first of three straight days of spring drills, but that will be the only such run during spring practice barring weather problems. The squad plans to hold its spring sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays through the March 19 Red-White spring game.


Originally published February 27, 2005

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