<table bgcolor=#860000> <td> <Font color=#ffffff> <p align=justify>
Central Florida coach George O'Leary was waiting until two seconds remained to call his last time out here Saturday.
He was convinced that the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns had 12 men on the field as they lined up to defend John Brown's 28-yard field goal. But he didn't expect his team to snap the ball with six seconds left.
"I was trying to figure out what happened," O'Leary said. "I was going to go right to the officials and call time out. We shouldn't have snapped it to begin with."
Brown pulled the first try wide right, but someone on the Cajun sideline had yelled for a time out just before the kick and the time out was granted by the Conference USA officials crew. After the break, Brown made the difference in the Golden Knights' 24-21 win over a disappointed UL squad.
"I was going to call time out," said Cajun coach Rickey Bustle. "But I felt they (UCF) were too rushed, so I wasn't going to call it. Everybody gets a little crazy on the sideline in that situation, but I was hoping they'd rush it too much."
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051002/SPORTS/510020350/1006">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com <!--
Brown had replaced regular Knight kicker Matt Prater, who had missed a 36-yard field goal in the third quarter and was awkward on his third extra point that gave UCF a 21-0 lead midway through the second.
"I'm happy having either of those guys out there," O'Leary said. "I didn't think Matt was kicking the way he's capable, so we didn't hesitate to put John out there and let him just kick it."
FIELD STUFF: Saturday's game is the first of three games that will be played on the Cajun Field game surface in an eight-day period, marking the first time in its history that its hosted three collegiate games in that short a time period.
The Cajuns will host Florida Atlantic at 7 p.m. Thursday, and Tulane will take on the University of Houston at 5 p.m. Saturday in a game moved from the Louisiana Superdome after Hurricane Katrina made that facility unusable.
The quick turnarounds will make life interesting for Anthony Babineaux, UL's assistant baseball coach who also oversees the athletic complex grounds - including the field.
"It'll have some stress that it's not used to," Babineaux said Saturday. "Tomorrow (Sunday) we'll cut and water to help it come back, and with the short week we'll paint Monday and Tuesday so it'll be ready for Wednesday walk-throughs."
The tougher field preparation will come after the Thursday game, Babineaux said.
"The field looks good right now, and it shouldn't be too beat up since the weather's been good," he said. "Since both games (Thursday and Saturday) are on TV (UL-FAU on ESPN Regional and Tulane-Houston on the i Network, formerly PAX), a lot of people are going to see the field, and we're going to do everything we can for both games, just like it was us playing both nights."
Babineaux said that changing out logos and field paint for the Tulane-Houston game may not be possible.
"I haven't spoken to anyone from Tulane to set anything up," he said, "but with that little time it's almost impossible to get our logos off the field and get theirs on. I don't think they're expecting that."
OFFICIALLY: Two well-known local football officials were on hand for Saturday's game, one of them in a working capacity.
Dan Blum, a long-time official in Conference USA, was the official observer for the C-USA crew. He will be the replay official for Saturday's Tulane-Houston game, with C-USA utilizing instant replay during its league games this season.
Greg Gautreaux, now in his fourth season as an NFL official, was in a non-working capacity and sat with Blum in the press box. Gautreaux was taking advantage of one of his two weekends off during the NFL season, after working the Monday night Denver-Kansas City game. His crew will officiate next Sunday's Atlanta-New England contest.
BLOCK PARTY: When sophomore safety and Lafayette High product Derik Keyes came in untouched to block UCF punter Aaron Horne's kick in the second quarter, it upped the Cajuns' total blocked kicks since Rickey Bustle took over as head coach to 19.
Since 2002, UL has blocked six punts, seven field goals and six extra points. Two of those conversion blocks came earlier this season in the opener.
KEEPING IT TIGHT: On Saturday's second play, UL quarterback Jerry Babb threw a pass in the left flat to tight end Erik Jones for a nine-yard gain. No big deal ... except that it was the Cajuns' first completion to a tight end in eight games and nearly a calendar year.
The last time UL completed a pass to a tight end was last Oct. 16 against Idaho, when Babb completed two passes to Xavier Campbell and one to Lawrence Johnson.
LAGNIAPPE: Carencro senior Bill Sampy's first-quarter catch extended his streak of games with a reception to 33 ... When Michael Desormeaux had a second-quarter touchdown run called back on a penalty, it marked his second score to come back this year. He had a 57-yard touchdown run called back against Texas.
--> </td></table>
