Cajuns simply run out of time
<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Two-minute offense runs out of time, downs in thriller.</b>
LOUISIANA La. — If they didn’t have bad luck,
Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns might not have any luck at all.
Coach Rickey Bustle’s squad suffered its seventh loss of the season on Saturday, this one the most frustrating yet, as UL Monroe held off two furious Cajun rallies to escape Cajun Field with a 45-42 win.
It was a game that wasted a record-setting day for senior quarterback Eric Rekieta and a dazzling show by senior Fred Stamps, a game in which the Cajuns piled up 524 yards but couldn’t grasp that elusive first triumph.
Hitting 10 different receivers, Rekieta completed 33-of-54 passes for a school-record 474 yards and four touchdowns against the visiting Indians.
“I’m sure Eric would trade that record for a win,” Bustle said. “He played a tremendous football game. I don’t know of but one ill throw, an interception in the first half that eventually led to a Monroe touchdown.
“He really competed. He’s a good leader out there and the players have a lot of confidence in him.”
Stamps finished with 198 yards and a pair of scores on eight catches, the second-most yardage in a game in Cajun history, while Carencro’s Bill Sampy had six catches, 102 yards and a leaping 21-yard touchdown that tied the game at 42-42 with 5:23 to play.
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“We kind of came out of our shell a little bit offensively,” Bustle said. “We had a lot of different guys making plays. Our tight end (Josh Joerg) make a heck of a catch for a touchdown. It’s something we’ve got to continue to do. It gave us a chance to win the game.”
Most of that offensive explosion came after the Cajuns fell behind 28-7 and went into a no-huddle, hurry up mode late in the first half.
“We have been throwing it quite a bit lately,” Rekieta said. “But we went to the two-minute drill at the end of the first half and had success with it. We never huddled again after that.
“Then it the second half, we popped off two quick ones (touchdowns, tying it at 28 apiece) and that was a real confidence booster.”
“That’s part of our offense,” Bustle said. “We went with it there in the first half, and then just stayed with it. I’m sure we’ll do more of that.
“We intended to bounce in and out of it, to change it up a little bit. It changes up the pace of the game, and the kids felt good in it.”
Rekieta had to adjust while running that quick-strike attack.
After Stamps caught his seventh pass, a 64-yard touchdown for a 28-28 tie, with 8:05 left in the third period he then didn’t have another reception until the Cajuns’ last offensive play of the evening.
“I said before the season that if you double me, others are going to make plays,” Stamps said. “When they started to double me, Bill, Kemmie Lewis (3-73-0) and Eric Bartel (2-28-0) started to make plays.”
“Fred is our playmaker,” Rekieta said. “We went to him to try to get us started. Then they rolled all their coverage to him, and that gave a chance for everybody else.
“They all stepped up and did a nice job.”
While the Cajuns were forced to go almost exclusively with the pass, the Indians used multiple weapons in victory.
Kevin Payne (28-143-2) paced a 238-yard rushing day. And, with Payne and Floyd Smith launching crucial flea-flicker bombs and Steven Jyles and Daniel DePrato splitting the game at quarterback, ULM threw for 299.
The Indians’ 537-yard total nipped the Cajuns’ 524. They also took first downs, 24-23, and both teams had 77 snaps.
It was that kind of battle for the two Sun Belt Conference rivals, as ULM grabbed a 20-19 edge in the all-time series between the two.
The Cajuns roared back into contention with that two-minute attack. They just didn’t get to it soon enough.
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Cajuns don’t have normal break to lick wounds
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LOUISIANA La. — There’s no time for Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns to lick their wounds.
Just hours after Saturday’s gut-wrenching 45-42 homecoming loss to UL Monroe, coach Rickey Bustle’s staff was turning its focus to a televised Thursday night home game against New Mexico State.
The Cajuns fell to 0-7 and 0-3 in Sun Belt Conference play despite a 524-yard offensive explosion keyed by Eric Rekieta and Fred Stamps, and it might be good to jump back into action rather than dwell on their latest disappointment.
“I don’t know if its a plus,” Bustle said of the short week. “We’ve never done it before.
“Sometimes you want to get right back in the saddle and go.”
The Cajuns, accustomed to an off day on Sundays, practiced instead on Sunday as if on Monday and moved the week ahead from there.
Bustle put his team through a 3 p.m. video session, practice and evening meetings.
“It doesn’t make any difference to us if we play tomorrow,” Stamps said.
“A lot of it is mental,” Rekieta said. “Everything is stepped up. We’ve worked hard every week. We need to get the chip back on our shoulder like we had at South Carolina, like we have in practice.
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“Maybe the emotion of this loss will go into Thursday.”
Rekieta hit 33-of-54 passes for a school-record 474 yards in Saturday’s defeat, giving him 1,684 yards in his two years with the Cajun program.
Stamps scored twice and had eight catches for 198 yards, second only to Willie Culpepper’s 220 yards at McNeese State in 1986 for single-game production at the school.
He now has 150 career receptions for 2,400 yards and 15 touchdowns, catching a pass in all 39 games he’s played in college. Stamps is now No. 2 in career yards behind Brandon Stokley’s 3,702 and No. 3 in touchdowns as a Cajun.
Saturday’s game offered a matchup of the 2002 All-Sun Belt Conference receivers, as Stamps battled ULM’s Mack Vincent (8-166-2) once again.
“He and I have been competing against each other since high school,” said Stamps, who prepped at Carver while Vincent was at John Ehret.
Now Vincent is ULM’s career receiving leader and Stamps is second only to Stokley at UL.
“He’s been my friend,” Stamps said. “He lived down the street from me. I congratulated him on the win. Now it’s time to go back and work hard.”
When the Cajuns do resume action, they’ll face a NMSU team that is in a foul mood.
The Aggies blew a 28-0 lead in a 35-31 home loss to Idaho two weeks ago, then last Saturday fell 35-18 at Middle Tennessee despite outgaining the Blue Raiders 525-293, out-rushing them 318-85 and piling up a 28-9 first-down bulge.
Four turnovers, including three interceptions, spelled NMSU’s doom. One of those thefts was returned 89 yards for the clinching touchdown by Michael Woods with 4:34 to play.
Also, MT redshirt freshman Clint Marks hit Kerry Wright for touchdown passes of 32, 39 and 61 yards.
It’s not often teams with a combined 1-12 record are featured on TV, but that will be the case this week as NMSU has just one win over Western New Mexico (48-3) and the Cajuns are winless.
It’s time for both teams to quickly get back to business.
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Cajuns starving for first victory
<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA La. — Louisiana head coach Rickey Bustle munched on a sandwich at his weekly Monday media luncheon, and then was told his team was probably hungry for its first win.
“Hungry! We’re damn near starving,” he said.
Bustle’s famished Cajuns are 0-7 after last Saturday’s 45-42 homecoming loss to UL Monroe, and they have to get quickly in gear if they’re going to perform well in Thursday’s regionally-televised home game against New Mexico State.
It’s a matchup of two frustrated teams, as NMSU fell to 1-5 last week with a 35-18 defeat at Middle Tennessee — this despite piling up a 28-9 first down advantage, rushing for over 300 yards and surpassing 500 in total offense.
“New Mexico State is a team that’s a lot better than its record,” Bustle said. “They’re real physical on both offense and defense, and they’re going to come right at us and run the football. We’ve just got to read and react.”
The Aggies’ problem is taking care of the ball. They have served up nine interceptions and nine lost fumbles, often at the worst possible time.
“Turnovers have flat blown their foot off,” Bustle said. “They’re not just shooting themselves in the foot with them.”
The Cajuns are wary of NMSU place kicker Dario Aguiniga, who has defeated the Cajuns the last two seasons with last-minute, long-range field goals.
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Asked if he was worried about another such kick, Bustle said, “I don’t want to give him a chance. I’m hoping he misses the trip, takes a wrong turn or something.”
But, while Bustle and his staff are scheming for the Aggies, they remain mainly concerned with their own performance.
The Cajuns fell behind 28-7 in the first half last Saturday, but picked up a score before halftime and two more on the first two possessions of the second half to forge a 28-28 tie.
Then, after ULM surged ahead 42-28, the Cajuns forced another tie with two more touchdowns.
A team raising the white flag would not have staged those two rallies, so the Cajuns haven’t quit on their coaches. They just haven’t executed like they can.
“When times are tough, you’ve got to be straightforward with the players,” Bustle said. “But you can’t beat them down but so much.
“You’ve got to find the silver lining, and sometimes that’s hard to find. As long as they keep working hard and playing hard, that’s all you can ask.”
The Cajun attack hit its stride once the team fell behind, going to a two-minute drill and flourishing behind senior quarterback Eric Rekieta’s 474 yards passing and four touchdowns.
Fred Stamps had eight catches for 198 yards and two scores, but other receivers also produced results once ULM concentrated on him.
“It was good to see Kemmie Lewis and Bill Sampy get involved in the offense,” Bustle said. “Going to a quicker pace with the three (wide) receivers obviously helped us. That was one of those great coaching decisions — it’s working, so keep using it.”
Bustle was hesitant to say his team would come out in that hurry-up look from the opening kickoff on Thursday, but it’s sure to be a big part of their plan. They also don’t have much time to make other changes.
That short week may be a blessing for the frustrated Cajuns.
“After we started practice on Sunday (normally a day off), everybody felt better,” Bustle said. “Sunday’s a bad day when you don’t win, because it’s bad all day. This way we were able to get back to work.”
They are, after all, starving for success.
CAJUN CLIPPINGS — Jarrett Jones, moved into the cornerback rotation by injuries for the ULM game, hurt his shoulder in pregame warmups on Saturday. He could play Thursday ... Fred Stamps is 39th in the nation in receiving yards per game at 83.43 ... classes at UL on Thursday will end at 2 p.m. as the campus gears up for the TV game.
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Prater, ‘D’ face more of burden
<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA La. — Usually, if a football team scores 42 points, it has a fair chance of winning a game. But this has been an unusual season for UL Lafayette.
The Ragin’ Cajuns scored 42 points in last Saturday’s homecoming game against UL Monroe at Cajun Field, the most they’ve scored in two years, and set offensive yardage marks along the way.
But they’re still 0-7, because ULM scored 45 against a sometimes timid Cajun defense.
“We’ve just got to make plays,” coach Rickey Bustle said. “We’ve got to get to where we play the ball better.
“At South Carolina, we knocked down 10 passes. Now, teams are going to make some plays on you, but you can’t be too cautious and afraid to make plays. You have to do what you’re coached to do and believe in yourself.”
Junior free safety David Prater, who blocked a kick and was around the ball for much of the ULM game, agreed that the defense needs to do its part.
“We’re not executing like we should,” said Prater, who is third on the team in tackles with 37. “Coaches are making the right calls. We just need to be more consistent executing them.
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“We’ve got to keep that chip on our shoulder. The defensive backs want to prove we can make plays. We just have to take the ball at its highest point and go get it.”
The Cajuns are still stinging from a flea-flicker the Indians used to ignite their game-winning drive, a receiver reverse pass on third down from Floyd Smith to Mack Vincent that carried 42 yards to the UL 34 with four minutes remaining.
There were two defenders with Vincent, but he was the one who leaped to pull the ball in.
“The secondary is usually the cockiest bunch on the field,” Bustle said. “We can get that back, but we’ve got to practice it. You can’t just do it against the scout team. You’ve got to be in position in games to make the same plays.
“We also missed way too many tackles. When the ball was run, the free safety would come up and the safety and the linebackers were in the gaps. But when we do that and the play goes sideways you’ve got to make the tackle.
“And, we would make the play one time, but not another time. That’s what you scratch your head over. They can see on film that it works.”
“This is my first year playing free safety,” Prater said. “I’m doing the best I can, trying to learn to help out the team as much as possible.
“We need to go up and make plays on the ball. We’re very capable of doing that. We just need to go up and do it.”
“I don’t think we’ve progressed as much as I thought we would,” Bustle said.
The Cajuns lost 14-7 at South Carolina in a promising opener, but in the last four games have been pillaged for 48, 44, 56 and 45 points.
“The guys who have been in the system for two years are playing pretty well,” Bustle said. “Tony Floyd (defensive end Antonio Floyd) has been consistent out there.
“We have a lot of new players, some of them just came in August. You’ve got to have confidence in yourself on the field.”
“The (ULM) loss is pretty much behind us,” Prater said. “We’ve seen what the offense can do, and what the defense can do. We’ve just got to make plays.”
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Bustle displeased with ULL 'D'
<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA La. -- Rickey Bustle can't quite put his finger on it, but he knows one thing -- his University of Louisiana defense has not progressed like he had hoped it would this season.
While the Cajuns have finally begun to make strides offensively, his defense has gone from allowing 14 points to South Carolina on Aug. 30 to surrendering 45 points in Saturday's three-point loss to previously-winless University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Trying to figure out what has happened has Bustle searching for answers.
"I wish I could put my finger on it," he said Monday when asked about his defense's progressive deterioration. "We've looked at everything and ... I think it's inconsistency as much as anything.
"We've got guys like (defensive end) Tony Floyd who is a consistent guy because he's played a lot. But a lot of these guys where the inconsistencies are coming from are first-year players who are still trying to learn this thing. They're not seniors who have been out there playing; those guys are playing well."
The Cajuns defense, racked by injuries this fall, gave up only 326 yards to the Gamecocks in the opener, and then gave up 537 to the Indians Saturday, including 299 passing yards.
"It was a day defensively that we just struggled making some plays," said Bustle of Saturday's performance. "We've got to get where we play the ball better.
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"We went from the South Carolina game where we were knocking down 10 passes to, all of a sudden, having some big plays run on you. I'm not sure we're not a little too cautious back there (secondary). All of a sudden, we're afraid to make a mistake."
Bustle said the only way for the Cajuns (0-7) to correct the situation is for players to believe in what they are taught and believe in themselves.
"Go make the play, go knock the ball down, go intercept it," he said, focusing on the play of his secondary. "As a defensive team, we've got to tackle better. We missed way too many tackles Saturday. We've got to find a way to come up with a couple of plays that will work for us."
ULL must find that formula in a hurry. The Cajuns have only three days before their next challenge, a regionally-televised Sun Belt Conference date at 6 p.m. Thursday at home against New Mexico State (1-5, 0-2). The Aggies, coming off a 35-18 loss at Middle Tennessee, are averaging 404 yards of total offense.
Bustle said the Cajuns will use the no-huddle offense again this week.
Nonetheless, the key Thursday will be the defense, said Bustle.
"Our defense is just like any defense," he said. "It's made where defensive people have to fit in the running game. When the ball is run, free safeties have to come up, linebackers have to be in gaps, linemen have to be in gaps. It's no different from any defense. We've just got to be there."
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Rekieta, hurry-up hit stride
<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Senior Eric Rekieta has sparked Cajun aerial game. </b>
LOUISIANA La. — No one is expecting Louisiana to break into “Air Bustle” any time soon, but it’s hard to argue with results.
Senior quarterback Eric Rekieta, forced to play catch-up in last Saturday’s 45-42 homecoming loss to UL Monroe, set a new school record with 472 yards passing and touchdowns of 28 and 64 yards to Fred Stamps, 21 yards to Bill Sampy and 3 yards to Josh Joerg.
He hit 33-of-54 passes as the Cajuns rallied from 7-28 to 28-28 and from 28-42 to 42 apiece.
Rekieta also had 475 yards in total offense, one yard short of Brian Mitchell’s single game record set against Colorado State in 1987.
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After missing spring practice with arm surgery and starting fall drills as the backup to redshirt freshman Jerry Babb, Rekieta has hit 92-of-151 passes (60.9 percent) for 1,032 yards and seven scores.
“I didn’t play in the first three games, and I was kind of down because this is my last year,” Rekieta said. “I’ve started the last three games and I’ve enjoyed it.”
Named the starter after throwing for a pair of touchdowns in relief in a loss at Minnesota, Rekieta has thrown for 192, 225 and 474 yards leading the UL attack.
Big numbers are nothing new for the Lubbock, Texas, native.
He threw for 4,850 yards and 41 touchdowns, and ran for 293 yards and 12 TD’s, in two years at Navarro Junior College. In his final season alone, he had 3,067 yards and 26 scores through the air.
Last year with the Cajuns, Rekieta threw for 652 yards behind Jon Van Cleave as the team posted a 3-9 record in Rickey Bustle’s first season at the helm.
The Cajuns are 0-7 heading into Thursday’s televised home game against New Mexico State, but if they are going to win games it will likely be with Rekieta throwing the ball.
Last Saturday, the Cajuns had 383 of their 524 total yards after falling behind 28-7 and going by necessity to a hurry-up passing attack. Prior to that in their conventional game plan, Bustle’s team had possessions of 31, 12, 7, 0 (first-play interception) and 8 yards aside from a lone 73-yard TD march.
UL coaches might be tempted to jump into the hurry-up before falling so far behind, although they’re low key about that idea. NMSU’s yield of 616 yards on 53 opponents’ aerial attempts in its last two losses add to that temptation.
“It’s the same offense, just (at) a faster tempo,” Rekieta said. “In our regular offense, the defenders are moving around and bringing pressure from different areas. When we went to the two-minute, they had to drop back into zone and I just had to find the open man.”
Stamps jump-started that attack, catching eight passes for 198 yards, the second-highest yardage total in school history. And, in addition to his two scores, he had two other catches that set the Cajuns up in point-blank range.
But the Indians caught on and began concentrating on Stamps, so Bill Sampy, Kemmie Lewis and Eric Bartel had to make plays. Eventually, Rekieta hit 10 different receivers on his record day.
“They had been rolling their coverage to Fred, to try to keep him out of the passing game,” Rekieta said. “That started to open it up for different receivers like Kemmie and Bill. Their linebackers started to drop off, and you’ve got to take advantage of that.
“Because of their drops, you’d hit a 5-yarder, and then turn around and get 8. It’s not like we had to jump into the two-minute offense (late), because we were already in it. We were able to set the tempo, instead of easing up to the line.”
Even after the 42-point breakout, though, Rekieta was looking for better results.
“We’ve watched film, and there were a few plays we messed up on,” he said. “There were a lot of missed assignments, and I tried to force a pass into coverage that got intercepted and led to a score. That’s one I wish I could do over.”
As it is, Rekieta and his talented receivers have provided the blueprint for scoring as the Cajuns try to salvage something in their last five games of the season.
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