The Book: 2002-03 Louisiana Football season

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Louisiana: 6-Rekieta, Eric, 8-Calais, Ricky, 11-Williams, Wen., 13-Reed, JC, 16-Archangel, St., 18-Dugas, Nick, 19-Crist, B.J., 20-Fenton, Terryl, 22-Bartel, Eric, 23-Sanders, Jamaal, 24-Lindon, Dwight, 25-Arceneaux, Ri., 31-Henderson, Sh., 33-Bourque, Blake, 34-Carter, Jerell, 35-Johnson, Ches., 37-Comiskey, Sean, 38-Knott, Jonathan, 39-Autrey, Grant, 40-Kwarteng, Eug., 41-Lamy, Patrick, 45-Temple, Elliot, 46-Felders, Johnny, 47-Floyd, Antonio, 49-Rudick, Gary, 51-Berry, Marrious, 54-Charles, Dallas, 57-Delahoussaye,W., 63-Taylor, Daniel, 64-Taylor, Justin, 80-Sampy, Bill, 84-Howard, Billy, 88-Johnson, Lawr., 98-Gaines, David.

Texas A&M:
3-Thomas, Ter., 4-Goynes, Dwain, 5-Murphy, Ter., 6-Singleton, Bry., 7-Carter, Jason, 11-Jones, Byron, 12-Squillante, A, 13-Pegram, Todd, 14-Gentry, Dawon, 16-McNeal, Reggie, 18-Long, Dustin, 20-Scates, Cody, 32-Flemming, Osch., 33-Jackson, Keelan, 34-Joseph, Keith, 38-Jones, Stacy, 39-Crutchfield, E., 40-Mangum, Kevin, 41-McDaniel, Arch., 42-Smith, Everett, 44-Porter, Greg, 49-Manning, Nurah., 50-Kirk, John, 53-Wooldridge, T., 55-Webb, Randall, 56-Johnson, Bran., 58-Kendrick, Blake, 59-Patrick, Brian, 60-Jolly, Johnny, 63-Pearce, Chance, 71-Holman, Quentin, 74-Steamer, Domin., 76-De La Garza, A., 82-Fleming, Pat., 83-Van Zant, Tim, 84-Woods, Jesse, 89-Massey, Haven, 92-Losada, Nick, 97-Stickane, Scott, 99-Ross, David.

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Kickoff time: 6:00 pm End of Game: 9:35 pm
Total elapsed time: 3:35
Officials: Referee: C. Castleberry; Umpire: J.C. Leimbach;

Linesman: F. Hutchinson; Line judge: T. Sutter; Back judge: J. Robison;

Field judge: D. George; Side judge: F. Johns; Scorer: T. Reber;

Temperature: 93 Wind: 6 ESE Weather: Partly Cloudy

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Miscellaneous Yards...........        0        0

Possession Time...............    24:24    35:36

Third-Down Conversions........  6 of 14  7 of 22

Fourth-Down Conversions.......   1 of 1   2 of 3

Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      0-2      4-6

Sacks By: Number-Yards........      1-3     2-12
			
		

[Turbine]

Well I have been saying for quite a while that UL when paired with Lafayette carries no meaning and all the outsiders remember is Lafayette. Forget that UL-Lafayette is an edict breaker in its own right. Check out the most benign AP quote:

"Since upsetting Texas A&M 29-22 in the second game of the 1996 season, when the school was still known as Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette is 13-52. That includes a 66-0 loss at Kyle Field in 1997, the last time the teams played."

The good news is, no outsider actually knows the true identity of the school that lost to Texas A&M.

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Advertisers Bruce Brown
Posted on September 2, 2002

LAFAYETTE -
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette has had better days.

On the other hand, past trips to College Station, Texas, have been downright hideous, so last Saturday's 31-7 loss to Texas A&M wasn't the nightmare it might have been.

What did cause the Ragin' Cajuns to lose sleep on the drive back was the knowledge that they were in position to grab an early 14-0 lead on the Aggies and to dictate the tone of the season opener.

Instead, a pair of ominous fumbles within the A&M 5-yard line left the visitors scoreless when they should have had the Aggies back on their heels.

By the time coach Rickey Bustle's team was through, there were 10 UL turnovers. Six came in the first half, when the Cajuns managed to stay within 3-0 thanks to a determined defense, and six came on interceptions thrown by Jon Van Cleave.

One of those pickoffs was run back for a touchdown.

A&M touchdown "drives" began on the Cajun 17-yard line, the Aggies' 47 and the UL Lafayette 26, while the home team missed four of five field goal attempts - most set up by other Cajun miscues.

Bustle had stressed the need for a balanced offense before the season, and the Cajuns' inability to achieve that spelled doom against the Aggies.

The rest of the Story

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Saturday, August 31, 2002

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)- Brian Gamble recovered two fumbles and had an interception as No. 23 Texas A&M set a Big 12 record by forcing 10 turnovers in a 31-7 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday night.

The Aggies' "Wrecking Crew" defense was completely dominant, holding the Ragin' Cajuns to just 205 yards. A&M had six interceptions, another Big 12 record, and Byron Jones returned one of them 36 yards for a touchdown.

The offensive struggles continued for the Aggies, however, a year after they had the second-worst offense in the conference. Mark Farris, the 26-year-old senior, was benched for part of the game while three other quarterbacks played, including highly regarded freshman Reggie McNeal.

It was the season opener for both teams, and the head coaching debut for Lafayette's Rickey Bustle, an assistant coach at Virginia Tech for 13 of the last 14 seasons. The Aggies are 14-0 in home openers under coach R.C. Slocum.

The Aggies finished with 423 total yards but led just 3-0 at halftime, when the Ragin' Cajuns already had six turnovers.

On the opening play of the second half, Gamble recovered a fumble by Jerome Coleman at the Lafayette 17. Four plays later, Joe Weber scored on a 2-yard run.

Later in the third quarter, after Gamble put heavy pressure on quarterback Jon Van Cleave, Jones stepped in front of the receiver and raced down the sideline untouched for a 17-0 lead.

The Aggies built a 31-0 lead, on fourth-quarter TD runs by Dwain Goynes (4 yards) and Derek Farmer (3 yards), before the Ragin' Cajuns scored on backup quarterback Eric Rekieta's 31-yard pass to Fred Stamps with 5:36 left.

Stamps had seven catches for 115 yards.

After punting on its opening drive of the game, Lafayette lost fumbles on three straight possessions, the first two after driving inside the Aggies' 10.

Van Cleave, who threw for 2,499 yards last season and had just 10 interceptions in 407 attempts, was 13-of-34 for 143 yards and six interceptions.

Since upsetting Texas A&M 29-22 in the second game of the 1996 season, when the school was still known as Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette is 13-52. That includes a 66-0 loss at Kyle Field in 1997, the last time the teams played.

The rest of the AP Story

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By GLENN QUEBEDEAUX
Special to The Advocate

LAFAYETTE -- A performance like John Van Cleave's against Texas A&M on Saturday might cause most coaches to lose confidence in their quarterback, but Rickey Bustle isn't like most coaches.

After watching Van Cleave throw six interceptions and fumble once in Saturday's 31-7 loss to the Aggies, the new coach of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns said he still believes in his junior quarterback.

"I'm not worried about Jon," said Bustle, whose team committed a mind-boggling 10 turnovers in Bustle's debut as head coach. "He's a veteran guy; he'll bounce back.

"When I took him out, I told him: 'I believe that if I let you stay in a little longer, you may set some kind of record. It may not be a good, but..."'

Van Cleave, who passed for 2,499 and 14 touchdowns a year ago while setting school records for attempts and completions, had the type game Saturday that quarterbacks only dream about -- in nightmares.

Against the Aggies, he was only 13-of-34 for 143 yards. Six others were caught by Aggies, some off of bad-luck deflections.

"It seemed like every bounce went their way; every break went their way," said Van Cleave, who seemed undaunted afterward. "They were bringing good pressure. Their front seven was just unbelievable. They got a lot of pressure and that made it easy for their defensive backs.

"There's no excuses we can make, though. We just didn't get the job done; I didn't get the job done.

Despite the Cajuns' numerous gifts, the Aggies led by only a field goal at the half, 3-0. In the first half, Van Cleave was picked off three times and the Cajuns fumbled the ball away three other times.

The rest of the Story

[Turbine]

I was listenting to the coaches show and he handed out awards to the best players of the week. I caught a few did anyone get the rest?

Offensive player Frederick Stamps,

Defensive player Antonio Floyd.

Special teams Grant Autrey

Jerry Babb won something I am not sure what since he didn't play.

I missed the rest while I was trying to commit to memory the ODS

The first post game coaches show of the season is over. A caller (not me) called the coaches show and asked coach what happened with Dugas? Coach said he and Nick had talked, and Nick will be back on the practice field. Actually it sounded like he already is.

Oh yeah I really doubt JVC will ever throw 6 interceptions again.

[CajunDave1]

Although the final score was Texas A&M 31 Cajuns - 7, I feel very good about the future of this UL football program. We all knew that going into Kyle Field would be a tough first game for Coach Bustle and his team but, in my opinion, there were many more positives than negatives that came out of that contest.

1st - If defense is what wins championships, and our defense continues to play anywhere close to the way they played Saturday evening, the Ragin Cajuns will certainly be in the hunt for the Sun Belt title this year.

2nd - Nick Dugas (allegedly, one of the best players on our team) was nowhere to be found in College Station because he was left home for "personnal reasons"! This proves to me that Coach Bustle will demand that things be done his way, members of his team will practice hard and do what is right, or they simply won't play a roll on his team. There will always be some young adults that require "tough love" and good coaches don't make exceptions!

3rd - I loved the way the Cajuns came out with everyone wearing the same uniform. For the past few years, it appeared to me that players were being to allowed to wear many "miscellanious" items that were not part of the official uniform that seemed to be designed to attract attention to themselves instead of the team!

4th - Even though we lost the game, there was a tremendous improvement in game management by the coaching staff. No silly time outs because the team was confused or the coaches couldn't decide what to do next! Improvement in this aspect of the game alone should lead to an additional 1 - 3 wins per season.

5th - For the first game of the season, the Cajuns had very few penalties and seemed to play with a lot of discipline. The Cajuns were flagged for very few false starts, illegal procedure and holding penalties against a very physical Texas A&M team. Also, when the defense could have gotten very frustrated by the offense's lack of production and turnovers, they kept their cool and had "zero" personal fouls! For the past few years we could count on comitting at least 2 or 3 personal fouls each game. Those kind of penalties are, more often than not, simply an illustration of one's lack of discipline and frustration.

6th - The coverages on special teams was far superior than in the recent past and our punting game was much improved.

7th - Although the offense had a horrible debut, they wereheld in check just as much by their own mistakes as they were by a very good Texas A&M defense. The Aggies did make some good plays to create some of the 10 turnovers, but several (at least half) were simply gifts by the Cajuns. The offense will show at least a 200% improvement this week against the Golden Gophers, if they simply cut down the turnovers from 10 to even 3! After this one game, we still can't really judge the offense because we never held onto the ball long enough to get anything going!

8th - And finally, as I was sitting in Kyle Field watching the team in pre-game warm-ups and throughout thegame, I could just sense and feel that the team (and fans) had a renewed sense of pride in being Ragin Cajuns!

Yes, we departed College Station 0 - 1, for the 7th year in a row, but this was not the same kind of defeatas most of the one's in the recent past. I can't ever remember sitting through a 31 - 7 loss and leaving the game with such a positive outlook for the future of Ragin Cajun football!!!!!!

Coach Ricky Bustle, and his staff, are on the right track and "will" be getting their first of many W's in the very near future!!!!!!

[Turbine]

I like your thinking.

I'm sure LoveFest wold agree. Feed them some Hot Boudin, Cold cush cush, Geaux Cajuns, push push push.

Rice anthing with rice will swell in the "sota" tummy.

[Turbine]

CajunDave1 that is one heck of a post. Very inspiring.

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Here is a heads up look at the punt return game, compared to the Aggies.
Both from a return and defense standpoint.

Both teams kicked and received 6 punts.
Both teams returned 4 punts.

Average punt distance (out of 6)
Louisiana 42.7
Tx Aggies 41.2

Total Return yards (from 4)
Louisiana 39
Tx Aggies 05

The 1.25 yard average of the Aggies tells me we are either qucik or consistent. It would not be hard for a 42.7 average to include some kicks that out distanced the coverage. This did not happen.

The kicking game was very incouraging from both vantagae points.

[Turbine]

Artwork provided by Gerald Hebert.