Lynn Bustle: Art Professor...coaches wife
2006
Louisiana Ragin' Cajun head football coach Rickey Bustle isn't the only university employee in the family. His wife, Lynn, is an art professor at the university and has many more interests than just football. She spoke with The Daily Advertiser's assistant sports editor Jessica Waldon.
Question: How did you meet coach Bustle?
Answer: I didn't meet him until we were both at Clemson (She's from Charleston, S.C.; he's from Summerville, S.C.). I played on a girls intramural football and he was the GA. I was a linebacker and he was my coach.
Q: What made you think I might want to marry this guy?
A: He has such a humor and he's very genuine. He loves people.
Q: Art teacher and a football coach?
A: We're both about teaching young people. We ask each other for help.
Q: Are you more nervous watching your son play in high school or your husband coach college football?
A: There are different kinds of nervousness, different levels of anxiety.
Q: What are those?
A: For Rickey, it's just seeing how much work and how hard and how vested and how much you want them to succeed. It's the tension of wanting them to do well. For Brad, it's that he's happy, enjoying it and not wanting him to get hurt. Mostly it's just wanting him to be happy.
Q: Is there more pressure when your husband is the head coach instead of an assistant?
A: He was a coordinator his last years at Tech. There were three names they would yell out - the two coordinators and the head coach.
I don't know if I feel so much more pressure. Either way I was going to be supportive. He's never burdened me. He's been really good at always respecting me and respecting what I do. It probably is a little more because you realize it all falls on him (as a head coach).
Q: What's it like to be a coach's wife?
A: Probably like any spouse that's married to someone who has a demanding job. People handle it different ways. Some are heavily involved. That was not my thing because I wanted to keep my identity intact. ... People ask how long we've been married and I say it's been 26 years but 12 years in coaching years because you don't have a fall. While the spring is heavy, at least there is some time where you can carve out a weekend.
Q: What do you teach?
A: Art in education and art in secondary schools as then advanced studies.
Q: What led you to the collegiate level?
I taught in public schools all the way along and then once I decided I wanted to go back to school and get my masters and thought why not get my doctorate so that kind of led me to work at the university level
Q: Why have you decided to do community art?
A: Because one of my jobs is to prepare students. I feel strongly that in order to do that, what we talk about, what we lecture about, what we read has to be relevant to the community.
I'm really big on let's leave the classroom let's take what we're learning here and take it out into the community. or else it's no use to them. I just feel like they're going to be working with children of all backgrounds. (This will prepare them )
Q: What do you think of Lafayette? How have y'all adapted?
A: They are two different towns. One is at the foot of the Blue Ridge Parkway where you see mountains and cool weather. Coming from Charleston, Charleston's real hot. It's a lot like home with the large oaks. ... When we moved here, it was comfortable. It's such a wonderful, rich cultural area. I am fascinated with the texture of culture with the music and the food.
Q: Have you always liked sports?
A: I always liked football. I'm glad of that.
Q: Do you feel pressure when he's (Rickey) on the field, maybe not so much for yourself but for him?
A: You feel for them. In the stands, if I need to, I walk out. If I need to. He can't do that. Most of my anxiety is tied to him, not whether we win or lose.
It would be like when you get up in the morning and go to your job. You do your job in front of 30,000 people watching and they write about it. That is what makes it different. It's real different. And everybody knows how to do it. That's the greatest distinction.
Q: What's coach Bustle like after a game?
A: He's pretty even. He's not the type to go home ranting and raving. If it's a bad game, he's quiet.
Q: How do you deal with his ups and downs?
A: We talk a lot.
Q: Are you close to the team?
A: Now that Brad's playing, I see them a lot. I'm so busy with my job. ... I'm relatively quiet. It's not my personality. I hear about them. I'm concerned about them.
Q: Do you teach football players?
A: I never have.
Q: What's it like to be so close and involved with the team spirit on campus?
A: I feel real connected to the university. My colleagues, they accepted me as a professor and not as the coach's wife. I stay more focused on my job than let that filter in. Students have called me coach Bustle occasionally.
Q: What do you do when he goes through a rough part of the season like the middle of last season?
A: I just put it in perspective.
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Mother and wife combines the arts with a football household
Originally Posted by NewsCopy
