The Cajuns finished 3-9, and if we were talking basketball they shot a brick at the end. But this is football and I am looking for bricks. At the end of football season what you hope for is the chance to find bricks that can help lay the foundation of success for the future of football at the University of Louisiana. In my opinion Louisiana's 2002 Ragin' Cajuns did create those bricks. Good bricks.
In facing the toughest schedule in memory, it was expected to be a season of highs and lows. Lets look at a few of each.
The high point had to be the near upset of SEC west leader Arkansas, followed by the ultimate compliment, from instate rivals from Monroe. The ultimate compliment is when a team takes you seriously and does not take you lightly. Respect is not a song, it is an opinion.
Along with respect, Coach Bustle instilled on this team, pride. The pride started with coach Bustle and the respect he gave seniors who were not his own. He made them his own, he could have done as so many new coaches do, which is to ignore the seniors and start working long-term on kids who will later have several years under his system. Instead he undertook the arduous task of uninstalling poor tendencies and habits. This paid off in the first winning record at home in 6 years.
The respect that coach Bustle and his staff showed for the seniors who had never known winning at home brought to the fore another quality, loyalty. Loyalty to kids who were not his own. Loyalty to kids who had another system ingrained into their psychic makeup for 3 or 4 years previously. Loyalty to players who had chosen his program before it was his program.
The underclassmen that are still with the program will come to the fore in the future and never forget the lesson of loyalty that coach Bustle taught them with the 2002 squad.
On the subject of lows this years squad was having to make a go of it with the equivalent of a Saints team having to play without Deuce McAllister. OK perhaps that is a bit of stretch, but when Coach Bustle did the right thing and dismissed for disciplinary reason his best offensive and special teams weapon, Nick Dugas, it did many things. One of those things is it probably cost the team far more than the 52 fewer points than the team scored last year.
What this disciplinary action did on a positive note is it taught the team that they were in fact a team, and no player is above the team. This will score the Ragin' Cajuns points for years to come.
While the team as a whole did score 52 fewer points than last year, they did not do it against inferior competition. To the contrary there were no Division 1AA teams on the schedule and in fact the 2002 squad played 4 teams who received top 25 votes at some point during the season.
Louisiana also played teams who had a propensity for shutting out opponents’ altogether. During the course of the season UL played the # 2, 12, 19, and 20th ranked pass defense in country. UL also faced 4 of the top 35 rushing defensive teams for 2002.
Sunbelt opponent North Texas ranked 5th in the country in fewest points allowed, while LSU ranks 8th in scoring defense they were #3 at the time. The big improvement at the end of the season was against the 18th ranked scoring defense in Arkansas whom the Cajuns scored 17 against.
Under those circumstances a 4 point per game offensive drop off is not unexpected, and in fact could be deemed a positive. A team without pride would have done far less.
Defense was also a positive note on the season. When the Cajuns lost preseason Butkus award nominee Ross Brupbacher for the season, the team did not fold. In fact against the heightened competition the team allowed 46 fewer points than did the 2001 team.
Coach Bustle did a good job of spotting talent and knowing where to assign the talent. In moving Ivan Taylor from offense to defense he created a NFL light at the end of Ivan's Ragin' Cajun career as he will participate in the post season Hula Bowl.
Charles Tillman will accompany Ivan in the Hula Bowl and together they help demonstrate coach Bustles big time ability to get his players noticed. Combined these two plays show that if a high school player opts to play for Louisiana he will get playing time which will only make him better. He will then stand as good a chance if not better, of getting an NFL break than if he had sat the bench for 3 years and played for some talent graveyard else where.
Together "TnT" Taylor & Tillman helped the Ragin' Cajuns rank 39th in the country in total pass defense.
The 4 fewer points per game given up makes the 2002 squad a quality brick in the foundation of coach Bustle's and the Cajuns future success.
The second biggest brick this year was created through the discipline the team showed that resulted in 33 fewer penalties than the 2001 squad. This coaching staff has their team on the right track for future success.
Finally, besides a winning record at home for the first time in 6 years, the biggest brick built during the 2002 football season was coach Bustles ability to draw 20,794 more fans than the year before. Recruits want to see fans, and fans want to see recruits. The two go hand in hand.
Building a successful program is not a short-term project, but with the bricks manufactured during the 2002 season and the bricks that will be forged in the months and years ahead, we are building something special at the University of Louisiana.
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Geaux Cajuns (against Arkansas)
