The Book: 2003 Football

[NewsCopy]

Cajun fans wave bye to 22 seniors vs. FIU Panthers today.

LOUISIANA La. — Today is Senior Day at Cajun Field, with 22 players taking a final bow as Louisiana hosts Florida International at 4 p.m. in the last home game of the season.

But it’s more than a little symbolic that redshirt freshman Jerry Babb is the starting quarterback for the Ragin’ Cajuns.

Senior Eric Rekieta will finish his two-year Cajun career on the sidelines with a broken collarbone suffered four games ago against New Mexico State.

Rekieta had hit 99-of-165 passes for 1,090 yards and 7 touchdowns before the injury, including a school-record 473 yards against UL Monroe.

He finishes just a shade outside of the career Top 10 for yardage at UL with 1,742 (No. 10 James Freeman had 1,760) and has served as a valuable bridge between Jon Van Cleave and Babb.

Babb (88-of-167, 860 yards, 2 TD; 51-146-3 rushing) stepped in to direct wins over NMSU and Idaho before faltering in last week’s 48-3 loss at Southern Mississippi.

His mistakes have mirrored the Cajuns’ growing pains in the second year under coach Rickey Bustle, a year which still has a chance to finish on a high note.

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[DestinCajun]

Turb,

I'll have my collection of old Athlon mags and a few other Cajun football historical items in the trunk today. Look for me there by the Bookstore's set up at D2.

DC

[LatvianCajun]

Great job seniors.

[Turner]

The UL victory over FIU proves that UL does not belong in D1AA. UL scored the most all year and allowed the fewest, now if that doesn't prove my point nothing does.

[Turner]

Originally posted by LativanCajun
Great job seniors.

I thought having a total eclipse on Senior night was something special. Something money couldn't buy.

[RedBug58]

Great game for the Cajuns

Nice finish for the Seniors

Interesting Lunar Eclipse

The band was awsome in the stands & halftime

The game was well promoted & attended

A lot of things were done right tonight!!

[RedBug58]

The difference is......Bustle's team plays a 1-AA and wins 43 to 10 and it could have been a larger margin.

The previous coach loses to 1-AA North Alabama and we were lucky that it was close.

We are moving in the right direction.....

[NewsCopy]

Touchdown return mirrors opener at South Carolina

LOUISIANA La. — One of the deciding plays in Louisiana’s 43-10 win over Florida International Saturday looked like an instant replay, or maybe déjà vu.

For the second time this season, the Cajuns scored on the last play of the first half courtesy of a blocked field goal.

Linebacker Derace James stormed in to block Adam Moss’ 53-yard field goal attempt with less than a second left before halftime, and Antwain Spann picked the ball up on one hop in front of the UL Lafayette bench and returned it 45 yards down the left sideline to give the Cajuns the 36-7 halftime lead.

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — Louisiana’s football squad was in some trouble midway through the first half here Saturday night.

The Cajuns had just seen an early 13-0 lead dwindle to 13-7 when Florida International converted an interception into a touchdown, and the visiting Golden Panthers had possession once again with momentum on their side.

On the first play of that possession, though, an attempted reverse turned into disaster and Cajun linebacker Eugene Kwarteng fell on a fumble.

Three plays later Dwight Lindon bowled into the end zone to make it a 21-7 game after Jerry Babb’s two-point pass play to Bill Sampy.

Just a few minutes later, it wasn’t a contest any more when the hosts scored two more times in the last 34 seconds of the half on the way to a 43-10 win over the Panthers.

“That fumble recovery was big,” said Cajun defensive coordinator Brent Pry.

“We’d been preaching turnovers all season. That’s one thing we could really point to all year, and when we create turnovers we can win football games.”

The Cajuns went into the game ranked eighth nationally in turnover ratio, and made that number prophetic with the recovery on a play that FIU head coach Don Strock said may have been a game-breaker.

“I think that was going to be a touchdown,” Strock said. “They (LOUISIANA) didn’t have anybody on the other side.”

The play was designed as a tight end reverse, but Panther quarterback Josh Padrick and running back Adam Gorman mishandled the first exchange and Kwarteng plopped on the loose ball at the FIU 17.

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[NewsCopy]

Louisiana ends home season in style with 43-10 blowout

LOUISIANA La. — How do you react to a new situation?

It was a nice problem to have for Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns, who led visiting Florida International 36-7 at halftime of Saturday’s home finale at Cajun Field.

Coach Rickey Bustle’s squad had only exceeded that many points once this season, in a 45-42 homecoming loss to UL Monroe, so the midpoint runaway was uncharted territory.

“It’s never happened before,” Bustle said. “But there were still nails in the coffin, and championship teams do that.

“We need to understand what to do in the second half, and for the longest time they (the visiting Panthers) were basically winning the second half. I was upset with that. We were playing hard, just not smart.”

Of course, when you lead by 29 points at halftime and you’re honoring 23 seniors, it would be hard to let down enough to lose.

So, despite an astounding 14 penalties accepted against the two teams in the third period alone (25 overall), UL improved to 3-8 with a 43-10 victory.

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — It’s a good thing Louisiana scored a 43-10 victory in Saturday’s home finale against Florida International.

If they had been on the short end of the score, the Ragin’ Cajuns would surely have been in a surly mood over the 25 penalties called on the two squads — 13 on the visitors for 96 yards and 12 on the Cajuns for 126 more.

The latter figure is an unhappy high mark for coach Rickey Bustle’s two years at UL.

Referee Rick Doan and his officiating crew might have iced their shoulders after throwing that many flags.

In the third period alone, there were 14 penalties accepted against the Panthers and Cajuns.

Especially absurd was an FIU field goal drive that made the score 36-10.

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[CajunCall]

I couldn't go to the game but I did read the paper and Stamps only had 3 receptions. How is this possible against a 1AA school? Was he double covered all night? He only needed 9 receptions to move into 2nd all time now he still needs 6. Don't the coaches realize that if he does good it will be easier to recruit his replacement? Get Stamps the ball.