2002 First Fall Intersquad Scrimmage
The Ragin’ Cajuns football team enjoyed their first intersquad scrimmage on Wednesday. The Cajuns ran a scripted 72-play afternoon set, following a two-hour morning practice under light rain.
The majority of heavy rain fell between the Cajuns two practices. The rain was heavy enough to drench the ground and divert head coach Rickey Bustle’s plans to scrimmage at Cajun Field. Instead the team ran their scrimmage on the practice field.
The team worked 12 of the 72 plays on special teams. Units Bustle refers to as “pride” and “pride and joy”.
The “pride” team is the Cajuns punt unit, while the “pride and joy” team is punt block/return team.
Bustle was pleased with both units, as “pride” looked sharp and “pride and joy” blocked one punt.
“It’s so important not to let a punt get blocked,” said Bustle. “The players on that unit need to take pride in not letting it happen.”
“There is so much pride in both of them. ‘Pride’ takes pride in not allowing a punt to get blocked. On the other side, there is a lot of joy when ‘pride and joy’ blocks a punt.
“Both units’ players are hand picked. It’s both offense and defensive players in there working together.”
The Cajuns scrimmage was a 60-play scripted event. Different sets of offensive and defensive groups battled against one another for six plays, then a different group would take the field on both sides of the ball.
Each half lasted exactly 30 plays.
“I thought it was a good scrimmage,” Bustle added. “There was a lot of intensity and plays were made on both sides of the ball.
“The players have been eagerly waiting for this. I wish it wasn’t so muddy, but it didn’t seem to adversely affect anyone. I saw some good individual plays, but now we need to do that as a team.”
Bustle did point out that the Cajuns fell victim to an unacceptable number of mental mistakes.
“We made some mistakes, missing a few tackles and taking way to many penalties. The number of flags thrown was disappointing.
“Offensively it’s tough to have only six plays and then be out. Hopefully on Saturday we can get a little more rhythm.”
The Cajuns will practice at 4 p.m. on Thursday and have their last two-a-day practice on Friday, working at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. On Saturday, the team will have a heavy dose of special teams meetings in the morning, followed by a 4 p.m. scrimmage.
Bustle hopes the weather will cooperate enough to allow the team to have Saturday’s scrimmage at Cajun Field. The team will have their final fall scrimmage sometime next week.
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Cajun football squad washed out again
