2007 Football preview and offseason fan talk

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&nbsp; NEW ORLEANS - To the surprise of no one, Troy was the overwhelming choice by league coaches atop the Sun Belt Conference's preseason football poll.

The Trojans - who shared last year's Sun Belt title with Middle Tennessee and earned the league's berth in the New Orleans Bowl - got five of the eight first-place votes and 59 total points in polling as Sun Belt Media Day began Monday.

But one vote Troy didn't get was from Trojan head coach Larry Blakeney.

"Just looking at last year and the folks everyone has coming back, it was hard for me to decide who to choose," Blakeney said. "For me, it was between Middle Tennessee, Arkansas State and Lafayette.

<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070724/SPORTS/707240317/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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"Mostly, I didn't pick us because we have to go to both Lafayette and Arkansas State."

Since ASU got a first-place vote and neither Middle or UL did, it stands to reason that Blakeney's vote went to the Indians. The other first-place votes went to UL Monroe and Florida Atlantic.

UL coach Rickey Bustle voted along with the majority, picking the Trojans for a repeat, and he wasn't surprised that his Ragin' Cajun squad was tabbed fourth.

"That's probably where we deserve to be," Bustle said. "The preseason poll's always more about what you did before and what's coming back. That's about where I thought we would be."

Troy's selection came as no surprise. The Trojans (8-5, 6-1 Sun Belt) won seven of their final eight games last season, including a dominating 41-14 romp past Rice in the New Orleans Bowl. In addition, in every year the Sun Belt has conducted a preseason poll, a team that either won or shared the previous year's title has been atop that ranking.

"I would have bet the ranch that we would have been picked to win the league," Blakeney said. "That's the way these things work. We won, so the onus is on us."

Troy only has three players on the preseason All-Sun Belt team, one of them being quarterback and returning league offensive player of the year Omar Haugabook. It was the same number as the Cajuns, who put running back Tyrell Fenroy, offensive lineman Jesse Newman and kicker Drew Edmiston on the squad.

In contrast, UL Monroe had five players among the league's 11 picks on the preseason offensive unit. That wasn't a surprise to Bustle.

"I thought at the end of the year last year, they were the best offensive team in the league," Bustle said in reference to the Cajuns' 39-20 loss to the Warhawks.

In addition to Haugabook's honor on offense, Arkansas State's Tyrell Johnson was tabbed as preseason defensive player of the year.




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Also we will be televised by CSS when we play at Tennessee. Also will be interested to see if my klaf will pick up another game like they usually do for football

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Originally Posted by EVCajun12

_ Also we will be televised by CSS when we play at Tennessee. Also will be interested to see if my klaf will pick up another game like they usually do for football _

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Date Home Team Away Team Time Media


Thurs., Aug. 30 UL-Monroe Tulsa 6 p.m. ESPN 2


Sat., Sept. 1 Penn State Florida Int. 11 a.m. BTN


Sat., Sept. 1 Oklahoma North Texas 6 p.m. FSN


Sat., Sept. 1 South Carolina UL TBA CSS


Thurs., Sept. 6 Louisville Middle Tenn. 6 p.m. ESPN 2


Sat., Sept. 8 Clemson UL-Monroe 1 p.m. CSS


Sat., Sept. 8 Florida Int. Maryland 6 p.m. ESPN 360


Fri., Sept. 14 Troy Oklahoma St. 7 p.m. ESPN 2


Sat., Sept. 15 Florida Atlantic Minnesota Noon ESPN 360


Sat., Sept. 15 Miami FL Florida Int. 2:30 p.m. ESPNU


Sat., Sept. 15 LSU Middle Tenn. 7 p.m. CSTV


Thurs., Sept. 20 Middle Tenn. W. Kentucky 6 p.m. ESPN+


Sat., Sept. 22 Tennessee Arkansas St. TBA CSS


Fri., Sept. 29 Troy UL-Monroe 6 p.m. CSS


Sat., Oct. 6 UL North Texas 6 p.m. ESPN+


Sat., Oct. 6 Middle Tenn. Virginia TBA CSS


Sat., Oct. 13 North Texas UL-Monroe 6 p.m. ESPN+


Sat., Oct. 20 UL Florida Atlantic 6 p.m. ESPN+


Sat., Oct. 27 Arkansas St. Troy 6 p.m. ESPN+


Sat., Nov. 3 Georgia Troy 12 p.m. CSS


Sat., Nov. 3 Arkansas St. Florida Int. 2 p.m. ESPN+


Sat., Nov. 3 Tennessee UL TBA CSS


Thurs., Nov. 15 Arkansas St. North Texas 6 p.m. ESPN+


Sat., Nov. 17 Alabama UL-Monroe TBA CSS


Tue., Nov. 20 Troy Middle Tenn. 6 p.m. ESPN2


Sat., Nov. 24 Florida Int. Florida Atlantic 6 p.m. ESPN+


Sat., Dec. 1 Troy Florida Atlantic 1 p.m. CSS


New Orleans Bowl


Fri., Dec. 21 TBA TBA 7 p.m. ESPN2


Note: BTN is Big Ten Network

DaddyCajun

CSS is TBA for the South Carolina vs Louisiana game also!!

Check out the whole list as of today:

Get your SEASON tickets and have your friends do the same, then SHOW UP at the games!!!!!!!!:h:


DaddyCajun

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Originally Posted by crazycajun

_ OK, THE REASON I ASKED IS B/C A FOOTBALL PLAYER SAID THAT THEY WOULD OUT TODAY IF A FEW CERTAIN PEOPLE WERE ELIGIBLE. _

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Bustle said on yesterday BEV that everything was going good with the players in summer school.

Ok first off I have 4 Season tickets to Football, 2 to basketball and 4 to Baseball... Will probably add at least 2 for Softball... I am a card carrying member, as my name illustrates , in the LSUA&M@BR is evil club... I just mention that so the naysayers don't respond with the "If you don't like it the way it is go to Baton Rouge" type stuff..

Anyway I was listening to Jay yesterday and it sure seems to me that at least in Football the SBC is passing us bye... We are into year 6 (am I right on that one?) under Coach Bustle and we are simply middle of the pack again... We do have tremendous facilities but I heard the commissioner talk of new stadiums going up, new turf and 3 schools averaging over 20,000 in attendance... Further I hear Oklahoma State going into Troy and I don't remember who but others getting some prime teams coming into their places... we get McNeese. And then they bemoan the lack of support...

The local beat writer tells us all that we are wrong about Dr. A.... that he is a big supporter of athletics but has just been limited by funding... ok... if you say so... Then we hire an AD that is beloved in the offices but does not seem to be very dynamic... the last paragraph of the story last week said something to the effect of "He prefers to stay out of the limelight in the background".. Thats all well and good but wouldn't we have preferred someone that wanted to come in and be out in the forefront of a new era... Yea Yea....I know..... $$$$... Still I thought I heard some time back that the North Texas AD or assitant AD (Dickey?) was very interested in the job and was the sort of dynamic person I speak of... We choose instead someone who emphatically said for two years he did not want the job preferring to work behind the scenes...

For over 30 years now i have bought tickets and supported Ragin Cajun athletics.. I keep asking.. Why can't we do what Southern Miss has done... Even Tech seems to have taken a few steps forward.. spare me the diatribes... Listening to WWL, Mike D. was talking about South Louisiana recruiting and mentioned of course that LSUA&M@BR was dominating but said that Louisiana Tech was making great inroads... nary a word about us in our own back yard...

Well I am anxiously awaiting the start of football season with high hopes again.. But shouldnt we be concerned?? just a little bit??

All i can say is that, as far as football is concerned, wait until the end of the season to make a judgement. I don't think anyone has passed us by, per se. I think that by saying that some teams have passed us by, you concede that some of those schools were in the same position that we were. Troy has been a better program than us for a while. MTSU was on par with us, perhaps, but I don't know that they've zoomed ahead. They weren't very good in '05, and unexpectedly had a good season with a brand new first year head coach. ASU was good in '05, but like us, stumbled a bit last year. And as for the Florida teams, they continue to grow, and are growing and winning at a faster rate, if for no other reason, than high student populations, large amounts of money, and fertile recruiting grounds.

Just remember that earlier this decade, NT dominated the conference and went to the NO Bowl 3 or 4 years in a row, and lost them all. Since then they have fallen way back, and now the conference doesn't ahve one dominating team. Now all teams are performing better, winning more OOC games, and sending more teams to bowl games. In turn, the conference isn't seen as a horrible conference anymore. I don't think that teams in the conference have neccessarily passed us by, some may have been better than us last year, but we were better than them the year before. This year, we may rule the conference again, and other schools will take a step back. Its just what you get when you have such a competitive conference.

just remember that the fourth place finish they are predicting means nothing. We have a fair amount of lettermen returning. we have a new QB, but he has a lot of snaps under center and has a lot of game experience. We are returning a 2x 1000yd rusher, with an experienced offensive line. And we have four new coaches to bring a whole new philosophy. i bring up these points just to remind you that we should wait until after this season to ask questions. If its a failure this year, then we worry about the sky falling.

ah, you are correct Daddy, I missed the USC game. I will be attending that game along with 4 other Cajun fans. Can't wait for it to get here.

north texas isn't passing us up. they headed south for the winter.

I just hope that we don't live and die by Desormeaux this year.

I realize the dynamic nature of Mike and love the guy. I am just very concerned with his throwing ability and throwing decision making. I know that true athletes tend to pick up on things quickly and I have high hopes that Mike will have taken care of the fundamentals and situational things before Conference games open up. And we can't judge Mike by the 2005 campaign. He was thrown in and had not been preparing to be an every game QB. Due to his obvious lack of confidence in throwing, his instincts took over and we saw brilliance in his scrambling.

I am behind Mike 110% and I think we are a better team with him behind center IF he can throw enough for defenses to not load the box. But if he doesn't or can't, our coaches have to put Hundley in. We can work in Mike other places and he will succeed (see the past two Sun Belt All Purpose awards). I just won't people able to tolerate hard-headedness in the event of Mike struggling at the QB position. If he hasn't shown drastic improvement in his throwing ability at the end of the 2nd conference game or so, Hundley has to go in. He is plenty competent enough and will stretch the field, ultimately opening it up for our bread-and-butter, #32.

Mike is the man. But the coaches (and Hundley) better be ready to make a change if necessary.