The Book: 2002-03 Louisiana Football season

[NewsCopy]

Advertisers-Bruce Brown
LAFAYETTE - It's almost time to go.

UL fans will bid farewell to 23 seniors when the Ragin' Cajuns host Arkansas State at 4 p.m. Saturday in the home finale. The Cajuns have road games remaining at Arkansas and at UL Monroe, but this will be the final opportunity for most fans to see the seniors in action.

From the beginning, it has been a group crucial to the transition phase of coach Rickey Bustle's first year at the school. They embraced the change to a new staff and helped produce a winning atmosphere even though results have been poor.

"Our seniors have really kicked it in these last couple of weeks," said defensive coordinator Brent Pry, who of course is pleased that they haven't packed it in instead. "There have been some tough conference losses to deal with, and they've battled back.

"We will miss each one of our 23 seniors because of the tremendous effort they put forth. We need to make sure the emotion of playing your last game at home becomes a positive."

Pry will lose five senior starters from this 2002 squad, including all three members of the secondary, so his sense of loss will be real.

The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

Advertisers-Bruce Brown

LAFAYETTE - Say this about Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns: They're resilient.

Coach Rickey Bustle's first Cajun squad has remained upbeat and combative despite a 2002 season that has fallen far short of their goals.

A lesser team would have folded facing a 21-7 deficit against Idaho last week for homecoming. Instead, the Cajuns battled back for a 31-28 victory in the rain.

They have a chance to achieve back-to-back wins for the first time this year, and send 23 seniors out on a positive note, when they host the Arkansas State Indians in the 4 p.m. home finale at Cajun Field.

Arkansas State (5-6) is also riding momentum after last Saturday's 38-16 win over Southern Utah snapped a three-game losing streak.

Both are out of the Sun Belt Conference title race - likely to be decided between New Mexico State and North Texas next week - but are building for contention in 2003.

At least 13,838 fans are needed at 31,000-seat Cajun Field today for the Cajuns to average 15,000 in 2002, a key element in future Division 1-A qualifications.

The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

ADVOCATE-BOBBY ARDOIN

LAFAYETTE -- That calmness Eric Rekieta normally displays in the huddle could be in jeopardy sometime around kickoff today at Cajun Field.

Rekieta admits he may initially relinquish to his emotions as he starts for the first time as a University of Louisiana at Lafayette quarterback.

"I always try to hide (nervousness) by playing like I'm calm," Rekieta said. "I don't want anyone to know the quarterback's really nervous."

"You always want people to have confidence in you, so it's going to be hard to hold it before the game."

Rekieta starts today in place of junior Jon Van Cleave, whose severely sprained ankle will prevent him from playing against Sun Belt opponent Arkansas State.

Van Cleave injured the ankle last week during the fourth quarter against Idaho.

Rekieta replaced Van Cleave and led the Cajuns (2-7, 1-3) to a pair of unanswered touchdowns to complete a 31-28 victory.

The situation on the field will be different today against ASU (5-6, 2-2).

"It's going to be a lot more mental out there for me," Rekieta said. "Instead of watching the defense for Van Cleave, I have to come in, read and react to what I see."

The rest of the story

[Cajun1997]

What a win, Cajuns finish the 2002 season 3-2 at Cajun Field. Hard to pick out individual players with such a great team effort, o-line, defense as a whole, running game, etc...But what a great game by QB Eric Rekieta, 25-33, 256 yards, 1TD and Kicker Sean Comiskey with 2 field goals one for a career long 49 yards. Defense holds ASU scoreless for the final 3 quarters. Cajuns now lead the series with Arkansas State 18-17-1. We have 2 away games left, next week at Arkansas and final game at ULM. Cajuns are 3-7 on the season 2-3 in the SBC.
Listening to the game, I was very impressed with ER. He seemed to only make 1 really bad throw, the interception near the goal during the 3rd quarter. He played within himself and except for that one time did not try to force things. The running game played much better than usual which had to help. From everything I had read prior to ER getting to play, I had said his QB style may be better fitted to our offense than JVC. JVC is a good QB no doubt to me but he is more of a drop back passer. If you look at VA Tech and Michael Vick, he is a passer that can also run the ball. I think ER brings that added threat to the game. He may not be the passer JVC is (he may be) but the 3 games he has played in the offense has responded to him.

[Turbine]

Great take on the game.

On Eric's one bad throw I thought he was trying to throw it away, only he threw it straight to the sidelines, he should have lofted it, and thrown it away like he meant it. Otherwise he looked good.

Bustle had a great game plan for the team he was playing and the replacement qb.

[Turbine]

[Turbine]

This is the qb fumble that the refs put back at the one yard line. The players know, looks like a TD to me.

If you notice when the clip starts to zoom in, the ball is already on the "N" of CAJUNS.

At no time during this clip did the QB have posession.

[RaginRash]

those refs are incompetent

[Cajunfever]

I think the game ball should go to the defense. This is the first game that we put pressure on the quarterback. We did not allow him time to throw the ball. I think that made all the difference.

[Cajun1997]

UL breaks into the top 100

CollegeFootballPoll.com Rankings for 11/10/02

Sun Belt Conference Teams

066 New Mexico St.
069 North Texas
092 Middle Tennessee
095 Louisiana
098 Arkansas St.
108 Idaho
112 ULM

Notice we have lost to the three SBC teams above us and have defeated 2 of the 3 below us. Hopefully, we will add ULM to the defeated list and finish conference play 3-3.