The Book: 2004 FOOTBALL

If you are reading this right now...GET YOUR BUTT TO CAJUN FIELD!!!!!

ITS TAILGATING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!

I am leaving right now for the Krewe de Chew tailgating festivities.

<blockquote><p align=justify><b> UL survives battle with NSU Demons </b>

LOUISIANA La. — Rarely has a season opener meant more to Louisiana's football program.

The Ragin' Cajuns started the 2003 campaign 0-7 and spent the rest of their time digging out of that deep hole, so an opening victory was crucial.

It was also critical to keeping the tenuous attention of fans returning to the fold. Some 22,117 of whom showed up at Cajun Field for the game against the Northwestern State Demons, and they saw UL prevail in a 14-7 defensive struggle.

“It means a lot for us to be able to come in here and win the game,” said sophomore quarterback Jerry Babb, who threw for one touchdown and ran for the other scored by the Cajuns.

“We’ve got this one under out belt. We started 0-7 last year, and we didn’t want to go through that again.”“I hope it gives us a little momentum,” linebacker Wes Simon said. “It keeps out spirits up. Now we’ve got to keep it going.”Coach Rickey Bustle isn't sure what it will do for his squad, but it can't be a bad thing.

“This is the first time (in three years) we’ve won an opener since I’ve been here, so I don’t know,” Bustle said. “It helped to strengthen everything we’ve been talking about, everything we’ve been teaching.

“It was an effort win. We hung in and played with a lot of heart and a lot of effort. That’s what it took to overcome some of the bad things we did to ourselves.”The Division 1-AA Demons outgained the Cajuns 343-288 as Derrick Johnese’s 126-yard night led a 177-yard ground game. But, aside from his 34-yard run and a 57-yard Davon Vinson pass to Toby Zeigler, NSU gains were short and steady.

Babb hit 17-of-26 passes for 176 yards and a 10-yard score to Travis Smothers, who began the 2003 season with a 100-yard rushing night in a 14-7 loss at South Carolina and has since shifted to wide receiver.


John Rowland/The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Cajuns’ quarterback Jerry Babb (15) celebrates the first touchdown with teammate Billy Sampy (80).Chester Johnson (14-63) and senior Dwight Lindon (10-44) paced the Cajuns on the ground.

"We have to learn how to capitalize, finish drives and score," Babb said. "Our defense did a good job and gave us some good field position, but we couldn't put them away.""We moved the ball down the field several times," Bustle said. "But we just hurt ourselves. We were kind of nickel-and-diming it, but we'd take three steps forward and two back.

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Bruce Brown
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"I thought our backs ran hard and made some good plays in there. And, our fullbacks did a heck of a job blocking."There was no scoring in a tense second half, so the UL defense had to hold steady on each possession.

"We took it play by play," Simon said. "We knew we needed to keep fighting.

"We expected them to run the ball well, so we wanted to stop them on first down and get them in third-and-long, so we could pressure their quarterback."The Cajuns led 14-0 on Babb's 2-yard run on fourth-and-goal at 5:24 of the first period and his pass to Smothers that was set up by Michael Adams' 50-yard return of a blocked field goal to the NSU 25.

Simon claimed a Johnese fumble into the end zone to thwart one NSUJ threat, but an 8-play, 80-yard march before halftime drew the visitors within a touchdown at the break.

All-Sun Belt Conference kicker Sean Comiskey missed a 51-yard field goal ending the half, and another later in the game that would have helped provide a cushion.

NSU's Tommy Hebert was short on a 43-yarder on the opening drive of the second half that could have closed the gap to 1410.

"These young guys are killing me," Bustle said. "It was a hard, hard fought game, as we knew it would be. Both teams made enough mistakes to lose it, and thankfully we came out on top.

"Hats off to our defense in the second half. Offensively, we were our own worst enemy, but on defense we shut them down in the second half. We didn't tackle well in the first half, but we made big plays in the second."The clincher came when UL forced three straight Vinson incompletions, the last with 22 seconds remaining at the NSU 48-yard line.

"We can learn from our mistakes," Babb said. "We'll go watch film, see where we are and make sure we don't make those mistakes again."With Sun Belt members like North Texas, Arkansas State, New Mexico State and Utah State getting thrashed on Saturday in big guarantee games, the Cajuns were grateful for a rare even playing field in their opener.

"We probably had the fairest game in the league today," said Bustle, whose team visits Louisiana Tech next Saturday. "We needed to win this football game."
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HOW BOUT DEM' CAJUNS !!!!!


this game was huge we needed a good start and we got one


GO Cajuns !!

<blockquote><p align=justify><b> New-look unit stands tall for Cajuns’ in one-TD victory </b>

LOUISIANA La. — UL’s new-look defense had its baptism of fire Saturday night, and except for a three-minute period late in the first half that unit passed its test with flying colors.

“We had a few execution errors that set them up with some big plays,” said Ragin’ Cajun defensive coordinator Brent Pry, “but other than that we did a lot of good things.”

The Cajuns converted from an eight-man front defensive alignment to a multiple 4-3 during spring drills, and that unit gave up only one score in a 14-7 victory over Northwestern State Saturday in its first full-scale outing.

“My hat’s off to the defense and the way they played in the second half,” said Cajun head coach Rickey Bustle. “They came out and shut the door on them, and we made some big plays defensively.”

The biggest came in the closing seconds, when that unit held Northwestern on downs and forced a fourth-down incompletion with 23 seconds left.

The Cajuns, winning their opener for the first time since 2001 after starting last season with seven straight setbacks, didn’t allow the Demons to get past the UL Lafayette 48 after the first drive of the second half.

Demon drives in the first half went for 52, 71 and 80 yards, and Northwestern took the second-half kickoff and marched 49 yards. But Opelousas Catholic product Tommy Hebert was short on a 43-yard field goal effort, and the visitors didn’t reach midfield again until the game’s final minute.

“We’ve got to find a way to get the ball in the end zone,” said Demon coach Scott Stoker. “You can’t expect to win very many games with seven points, especially when you give up 14 on special teams.”

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The visitors did roll up 343 yards in offense, but lost three fumbles and Antwain Spann stepped in front of Davon Vinson’s pass for a fourth turnover with 2:26 left.

“The defense played great,” said Cajun quarterback Jerry Babb. “They gave us a lot of chances to score a lot more points than we did, and fortunately we were able to capitalize on a couple of those in the first half.”

A Cajun offense that scored 100 points in its final two outings in 2003 took advantage of two Demon mistakes to get the first-half touchdowns — a two-yard Babb run and a 10-yard toss from Babb to Travis Smothers. After that, it was up to the defense to pitch a shutout in the second half.

“In the second half, we got back to real base calls,” said Pry. “We played it pretty vanilla. That’s the way our guys wanted to play it. In a first game, you’re never sure what you’re going to face, and our guys did a great job of talking to each other and made some good adjustments.”

The defense did struggle to slow down Demon tailback Derrick Johnese, who rushed for 126 yards on only 13 carries.

“I was impressed with their backs,” said Bustle. “You’ve got to hand it to them. I don’t think we tackled very well in the first half, but we hit them pretty good sometimes and they still got yardage.”

“He’s a complete football player,” said Stoker. “We’ve got to give him the ball more, because we’ve got to get better offensively.”

“They did a lot of things with different formations,” Pry said, “and we were without some linebackers that we would have liked to have in there. But we had guys step up and do a great job.”

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Great win! Definetly needed to win this one with two tough games in a row coming the next two weeks. Defense looked great. Offense needs to pick it up to compete. Way to conservative with the play calling. Baab looked good but didn't use him enough. To many hand offs while in the shootgun. Need to take that momentum into the Tech game and get a win. Would be nice coming out of the K-State game with a 2-1 record.

Geaux Cajuns

When I got back from the game, well after midnight I was too tired to post, 2 hrs sleep in 36.

I was kinda hoping there would be some game time opinions from those who couldn't make, but heard the game. Does this mean the internet feed was or wasn't working?

14-7 might not sound like much but the scoring could have been much different, on the more side for both teams.

<blockquote><p align=justify><b> Demons unimpressive in opener </b>

LAFAYETTE – It was not the way Northwestern State wanted to start what the Demons hoped would be a banner season.

NSU looked like anything but a Southland Conference championship contender in Saturday’s ugly, 14-7 loss to UL Lafayette.

The Demon defense played well, but was fighting a losing battle. The offense moved the ball OK but put only a touchdown on the board. And the special teams were simply awful.

“Take nothing away from them, they’re a good team, but we hurt ourselves,” said NSU quarterback Davon Vinson, who lost his touch in the second half as the offense failed to sustain any drives. “We shot ourselves in the foot.”

Both UL touchdowns came on a short field after NSU special teams miscues. A bad snap on a first quarter punt set the Cajuns up at the 10, and they capitalized with a two-yard TD run by quarterback Jerry Babb on fourth-and-goal.

NSU — breaking in a new deep snapper in Tommy McClelland — struggled on punt snaps all night. Another poor snap forced a 15-yard punt in the fourth quarter.

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UL went up 14-0 on a 10-yard pass from Babb to Travis Smothers in the second quarter. That was set up by a blocked field goal, which Michael Adams scooped up and returned to the Northwestern 25.

On offense, all Northwestern had to show for several promising drives was a 17-yard scoring pass from Vinson to Derrick Doyle in the second quarter.

The Demons turned the ball over four times – including a second-quarter fumble by freshman running back A.J. Franklin on third-and-goal from the one.

“Turnovers and special teams,” said NSU linebacker Jamaal Johnson. “Those are two phases of the game that you have to win, and we didn’t.”

“We’ve got to find a way to get the ball in the end zone,” said NSU coach Scott Stoker. “You can’t score seven points and give up 14 points on special teams and expect to win a ballgame.”

UL, which had lost 12 of its last 13 season openers, was hardly a model of efficiency. But for a program struggling to get back to respectability, any win is a good one.

“It was a hard-fought football game, like I thought it would be,” said UL coach Ricky Bustle, who started 3-16 in 2002-03 but has now won five of his last six dating back to last season. “We both made enough mistakes to lose. Either side could have won. I’m just glad we did.”
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The internet feed was working fine for me and a few others that I know about. I know Trigger could not get it but we are not sure why.

You may have been hurting for lack of sleep, but your appetite wasn't.:>000. Just kidding, but then again maybe its the "spread"we lay out. Enjoyed having you over at the Krewe de Chew site, as always. Thought the game and the win was good. Bustle didn't show Tech too much. The offense was basic, and so was the defense- very little blitzing. Its a win, and as stated in another post, "its nice to win ugly than lose pretty".