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Head coach Rickey Bustle gave his University of Louisiana football team a break Sunday and today, its first two-day stint off the field since mid-October.
But his Ragin' Cajuns have earned the time off.
Over the past four weeks, UL went from a struggling 1-5 team to one that is a victory away from no worse than a share of the Sun Belt Conference title, and maybe even a bowl berth.
Bustle said Saturday, minutes after his team's 28-7 victory over Florida International, that he didn't want to see the squad until Tuesday.
"We'll take a couple of days off," Bustle said, "and then get started on UL Monroe."
The Cajuns (5-5, 4-2 Sun Belt) don't meet ULM until Nov. 26 thanks to a late-season open date Saturday created by Hurricane Katrina rescheduling. Now, with the developments of the last four weeks, UL has extra time to prepare for its biggest football game in over a decade.
Only minutes after a fourth straight league victory, the Cajun players weren't ready to hoist any banners or make any bowl plans.
"We don't get ahead of ourselves," said junior offensive tackle Brandon Cox. "We do what we do every day, every practice, every play. That's what we've been doing all year."
<center><p><a href="http://www.acadiananow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051114/SPORTS/511140343/1006">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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Cox and his offensive mates are glad for the break. UL ran 78 offensive plays in grinding out 30 first downs and 413 yards Saturday, after going for 436 yards on 72 plays in the 31-28 win at North Texas one week earlier.
In contrast, UNT ran 47 plays one week ago and FIU ran only 54 on Saturday. The Cajuns' time of possession advantage in those games is a huge 76:16 to 43:44. UL had possession 22 out of 30 minutes in the second half of Saturday's win.
"That's exactly what we want," said Cajun center Greg Hodges of UL's possession dominance. "As an offensive line you like to find a rhythm, and we're in such a rhythm right now offensively. I think we wore them down ... one of our goals is to control time of possession. That helps our defense in keeping them off the field, and it wears down the other team's defense if someone keeps running the ball right at you."
Over the last five games, UL has rushed for over 305 yards per game, and have moved all the way up to fifth nationally in team rushing with a 245.4 average per game. This year's Cajuns are already the best rushing team in school history over an entire season.
"We've made a conscious decision that we need to get after people," said Cajun offensive line coach Ron Hudson. "I'm so proud of the offensive line guys, but we're very average team without those backs running the way they are. They're sticking it up in there and getting the job done, and those fullbacks we have are phenomenal leaders and that's where it starts."
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