Michael Adams almost blocks an extra point try in OT
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Michael Adams almost blocks an extra point try in OT
CAJUNS WIN ! CAJUNS WIN !
UL - 57
MT - 51
Post game hand shake with fans
Thanks for posting these great pictures. I saved them on my machine and printed a couple to display on my wall in my home office. It will remind me of a fanstatic weekend.
I can sent the original pictures to anyone who would like to have a copy. Just send me an email & let me know what pics you want sent to you.
The originals have a much higher pixel rating & should be better for printing.
By the looks of the last few pics [blurry, off center, heads chopped off] a good time was hard by all including the camera-person! LOL! :D
.~.
Sorry the last couple of pictures were blury. I was a little excited when I was taking them & I guess I rushed things.
Just messing with ya. Great pics and thanks for sharing them! You rock! .~.
I have to totally agree with RaginCajun08, it was the best time I've ever had tailgating. Meeting and getting along with the MT fans was awsome. Let's give these guys the same great hospitality next year.
RC 08, thanks for the great photos. Couple of questions - (1) Was that the extent of their tailgating area? (2) The crowd looke slim. What was the attendance?
The attendance was 4,000 and change. I feel sorry for those guys. They have a better team than that.
<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Ragin’ Cajuns win 4-of-5 to spark optimism for ’04 </b>
The last time this many people got so excited about winning four games was when the Florida Marlins celebrated a World Series title on hallowed ground in Yankee Stadium earlier this fall.
Louisiana finished the 2003 season on a high note with last Saturday’s 57-51 quadruple overtime victory at Middle Tennessee, winning four of its last five for a 4-8 finish.
Usually four victories is not a lot to get excited about in college football, but the Ragin’ Cajuns haven’t posted that many wins since the 1996 squad finished 5-6 so it was time for some celebrations.
Not that too many people were on hand to watch. The crowd was announced at 4,311, but don’t you believe it. The MT dance team outnumbered fans in front of them in the south end zone during one of their numbers.
To quote A Chorus Line, “Dancin’ for my own enjoyment ... that ain’t it, kid, that ain’t it.”
It was rainy for most of the game. It was cool to chilly, depending upon how wet you were.
The Cajun fans on hand, a hearty bunch who had dropped in the Old Navy store on Saturday morning to find more warm clothing, did their part despite the conditions.
It seems like every time the Cajuns go to Mufreesboro, it’s like that. It certainly was last year. Perhaps the Cajuns and Blue Raiders need to play earlier in the year when it’s MT’s turn to host.
And, just for familiarity’s sake, the game reminded backers of the 2000 season finale in which MT escaped with a 41-38 home win over the Cajuns in two overtimes.
Not since a four-overtime, 48-42 home loss to North Alabama at Cajun Field in 1997 has a UL game gone that far into the evening. It was the longest game in Sun Belt Conference history.
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Bruce Brown
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When you see a game with both teams exceeding half-a-hundred points, you figure nobody played much defense. But in reality, the Cajuns controlled most of the contest with the glaring exception of Blue Raiders touchdown passes covering 35 and 60 yards.
Those helped boost an otherwise pedestrian day to 405 yards for the home team.
“In the first half, I thought we played well defensively,” said senior defensive end Derace James. “In the second half, they made some big plays and got the momentum going.
“We had to keep our poise and keep fighting to the end.”
That could be the theme for the 2003 season for coach Rickey Bustle’s Cajuns, who refused to fold after starting the year 0-7.
The finale was a showcase swan song for senior receiver Fred Stamps, as well as a coming out party for freshman quarterback Jerry Babb.
Babb played like someone with much more experience, hitting 14-of-20 passes for 141 yards in the first half, 8-of-9 on a gut-check 84-yard drive to tie the game and send it into overtime at 34-34 and was 8-of-11 through the air in the extra periods.
In all, he threw for 435 yards and four touchdowns, hitting 37-of-56 attempts. Babb also rushed for 39 yards and the game-winning score, giving Bustle and his staff a bright star around which to build their offense in 2004.
Sadly, 2004 will be spent without Stamps on the field for the Cajuns. His talent, work ethic and joy of playing will be missed, but he went out with a bang.
With 13 catches for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns, Stamps finished his senior year with 62 receptions for 973 yards and 7 TDs. He also leaves as UL’s No. 2 performer in career catches (180) and yards (2,789), with his 19 touchdown receptions third.
“It was a hell of a way to go out,” said Stamps, who was misty-eyed when he finally came off the field for the last time.
“It (the end) has come so fast. It seems like yesterday since I was a freshman who didn’t know where to go or what to do. I told the team in the locker room after the game not to take anything for granted.”
Stamps, who never took a day for granted, was a pleasure to watch.
So were Bustle’s 2003 Cajuns, for the most part — mainly because they never stopped trying to get better and never gave up on the season or on each other.
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Nothing official but we estimated they had about 200 people tailgating. Right next to the Hillbilly Hilton there was about the same size group as what we had. Other than that there was only a handfull scattered around the area.
They are in trouble & its pretty sad. They are a great group of people. We found out from them that many of the local residents follow UT football. Just like many people from Acadiana rather travel to the Chemical Plant capital of the world on Saturdays.
cool pics...........good job.
thanks for the shots, i was hoping to see the last OT, i was unable to listen at that time. great win, again thanks. "GEAUX CAJUNS."
Yeah, I bet sitting at the top of Neyland with a respirator and a telescope is big fun. Too bad the Coulee drains so quickly. We could pirogue to the Swamp just like Tennessee. Maybe Gerald can add a lock system to hold the water and a Coulee extension under Cajundome Blvd to the wish list. I guess the Pirogue Krewe would still need a pond to gather in.
Ouch! How many seats are in the Heymann Center? I think my 6 year old dances for more people than that. :(Quote:
Originally posted by CajunRebel
The attendance was 4,000 and change. I feel sorry for those guys. They have a better team than that.
That is sad! I always thought their program was well supported. I guess not. The BCS people rule the football world, and will not relinquish their strangle hold, unless forced to do so. The lsu fans are learning that the system even excludes them from playing in the championship game, regardless if they run the table in the sec. If they do, brace yourself for the howling and screaming from their faithful and the wannabes.
All of this does not relieve MTSU's problem, which as a member of the Sun Belt is our problem also! Unfortunately, I do not have a solution to the problem, and I guess that makes me part of the problem.
Give Fred Stamps a plug for reciever of the week.
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We enjoyed having you in the Boro. Glad you had a safe trip back.
Wish I could have gone.Quote:
Originally posted by POLO_MT
We enjoyed having you in the Boro. Glad you had a safe trip back.
Hey POLO_MT just beat the D1aa teams and the fans will return.
We took our biggest hits in attendance when we lost 3 games to D1aa teams a couple years back. This was after averaging around 20,000 for the previous 20 years. Slowly they are returning.
Win the games you are supposed t win and the fans will follow. Of course this post isn't directed at you but only the MT fans who think the sky is falling.
<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA La. — Somehow, it was fitting that Louisiana should finish the 2003 season with a four-overtime game.
The Ragin’ Cajuns had weathered a seven-game losing streak to start the season, and every game they did win came with plenty of nervous moments.
So, with endurance already a theme, why not play all evening for victory No. 4 and a 4-8 record?
That’s what happened in last Saturday’s season finale at Middle Tennessee, when Jerry Babb rallied UL to a 57-51 triumph in the rain.
It was wild, and the end result was gratifying, but Cajun coaches were just about worn out by the time the game was finally history.
“I’m glad it’s over,” head coach Rickey Bustle said. “Now we can go recruit.
“Someone asked me after the game if it was fun. No, it wasn’t fun. But it was an incredible experience, and a game either team could have won.
“It was a very physical game. We had two seniors who had to have X-rays and went back into the game. I don’t know if they were just trying to prolong their careers, or what.”
The Cajuns needed an 84-yard drive just to reach OT after dominating much of the contest, then matched MT in a pressurized duel.
“Things happen fast,” Bustle said. “Strategies go back and forth. My postgame speech changed four times.”
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It was not Bustle’s intention to play that long. He wanted to end it in the first overtime with a two-point conversion, before settling on an extra point kick and more action.
“We were going for two,” Bustle said. “We had about 25 players on the sidelines who wanted to get in on that play, but we only need 11. Then, we got out there and had the wrong personnel, so we had to take the penalty and just kick it. We were going for the win.
“These guys don’t want to do anything the easy way. We had to grind it out, but we got it done.”
Although a 4-8 finish is a mere one-game improvement over 2002’s inaugural 3-9, Bustle noted that it was the result of the Cajuns winning four of their last five contests after that bleak beginning.
“It was an extremely important win for our program,” Bustle said. “We set that goal of winning four of our last five several weeks ago, and we did that. We got great leadership from the seniors, and that tells you they believe in what you’re doing.
“Derace James told me one Monday how hard it was, but we kept doing it. When we were 0-and-7, you look for players who are playing well. Then when we got through the smoke, you hope that translates into (having) a better team.
“Our desire got us through. They’ve given us something to take off with.”
When underclassmen take over that leadership in 2004, starting with offseason weight work resuming on Thursday, they’ll find a more forgiving schedule.
The slate includes Sun Belt Conference games against North Texas, Middle Tennessee, Idaho, Arkansas State, Troy State, New Mexico State, UL Monroe and Utah State, as well as road games at La. Tech and Kansas State and one home game to be determined.
“The (2004) schedule is very fair, and it’s competitive,” Bustle said. “It gives us a chance to compete for a championship. You don’t have to use others (like La. Tech) for conference games. Having eight conference games is exciting, tremendous for us.
“You’re actually playing like other teams are now, in the Big Ten and other places, where the best team in the conference wins.”
If the Cajuns are going to compete for Sun Belt honors, they’ll have to win away from Cajun Field, and that’s something they hadn’t done under Bustle until Saturday.
“You (media) guys have brought that road business up more than I have,” Bustle said. “I figured the law of averages would give us one sometime. But championship teams have to win on the road.”
After one, long, deep breath, Bustle and his staff are turning their attention toward harvesting new talent.
“We’ll have several recruits in this weekend,” said Bustle, who can sign 29 this year. “We need to replace good linemen, especially on the defensive side, and we need to shore up the offensive line.
“I love recruiting. I know what they can do for you. This coaching stuff is way overrated.”
Leaving the field with that 4-of-5 finish made a hard season worthwhile for Bustle and his staff.
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<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA La. — UL quarterback Jerry Babb and kicker Sean Comiskey were named the Sun Belt Conference Offensive and Special Teams Player of the Week, respectively, for their efforts last Saturday at Middle Tennessee.
Babb finished the game with a school-record 37 completions for 435 yards and accounted for 474 yards of total offense and five touchdowns.
Trailing by seven with 2:47 left to play, Babb engineered a masterful 10-play, 84-yard drive in 2:21 to tie the game. He went 8-of-9 for 84 yards on the drive.
Comiskey converted all three of his field goal attempts (25, 30, 24) and all five of his extra points. His third extra point tied the game at 34-34 with 26 seconds remaining in the game.
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Great job help him move into 3rd