The Book: 2003 Football

Am I the only one who noticed on just about all three of those plays, all three of ULM's down lineman WALTZED into the backfield while they were being blocked by NO LESS than five of our O-Lineman. As a matter of fact, two of them were even "being" double teamed. The first play was especially ATROCIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! Watch the left tackle and tell me WHO IS HE BLOCKING?! I understand that O-line blocking didn't cost us the entire game, but with that kind of effort it's no wonder we can't run the ball. I wasn't able to see the game due to the fact I was visiting in-laws in Murfreesboro, TN, but I listened to most of it over the internet. I can only imagine how non-existent our defense must have looked. I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but if we don't get our act together soon 0-12 is becoming more and more realistic. :hot:

I wasn't going to post for a while but the holiday is doing me good. I want to say don't discount the advantage ULM got due to its easy schedule.

I AM NOT DEPRESSED. I AM NOT SAD. LETS BEAT NMSU

Chuck, believe me when I say that you are not alone in wanting some success for this team, Bustle, and the University. I have made a pledge not to read any messages from people afflicted with the fast food syndrome. These people are wearing me out. I fuss and rant and rave during the games, but then I realize taht we must keep the faith, and realize that with all of our injuries, some key ones at that, the players are still trying to win. Yes, I know that some of our fans don't want to hear so called excuse, but the injuries are a reality. As an example, we are playing people in our secondary, by necessity, that should be red shirted.

The one really big disappoint for me, Saturday, was Wendell Williams, a senior, I believe, running off at the mouth, and incurring a penalty after we blocked a kick. Bustle was irate!! That is not his kind of player, but he has no choice at the moment.

Pardon my rambling but I had to vent a little myself. .~. .~. .~.

OK "UPDATE"

I called in the coaches show and simply asked if the band should play while the play was being called in the no huddle.

Coach just told me that the QB can whisper the play to his lineman and they can relay it down to the other players.

He also said he never heard the band playing.

Jay said/asked "so it's a non issue?"

Coach replied "it's a non issue"

Thanx Turbine! Anything else of "note" that you picked up from the coach's show? :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by RaginRash
Thanx Turbine! Anything else of "note" that you picked up from the coach's show? :D

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Expect more of the same offense, hey it worked. Who knows it might set up the run.

They talked in depth about the injuries since the start of the season. To many to recount.

Our linemen need to get stronger in the weight room this off-season and our backs bigger. I think this was a recruiting comment.

I am paraphrasing here, but Coach says he feels deeply for the players who have worked so hard. He personally he has seen success everywhere he has been so he knows the future is bright. But he feels pain for the players and fans that are going through the tough times.

On the Thursday game, he has coached several Thursday games in his career, but he has always had the Saturday prior off. This is his first 4 rest days before the Thursday game experience.

<i>I came in late and only heard the last 2/3rds of the show, hope it covers the highlights.

<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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<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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<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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Starvin' like Marvin!!!! ::x::

i spoke to the band director monday nite, we sing in the same choral group, he said, "people tells him it's because of the band we lost the game," i told him nonsense, then proceeded to tell him the importance of not playing when we are on offense. the confusion is the crowd wants the band to play alot more, so he's trying to please them, but i made sure he knew that is was not the band's fault we lost the game. "GEAUX CAJUNS." let's pack the house thursday nite.