The Book: 2003 Football

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. -- Rickey Bustle knew the potential for something special existed Saturday night, as his University of Louisiana at Lafayette football ran onto Cajun Field.

Last-minute ticket booth sales were unusually brisk and spectators even flooded the grass hills to sit above the end zones, soaking up an atmosphere charged with expectations.

Louisiana Tech's synchronized passing game and ULL's own mistakes quickly diffused any chance to extend that excitement.

Tech sent many of the announced 24,211 scurrying for early exits after the Bulldogs took a 27-3 halftime lead.

After a 34-3 loss, Bustle was almost apologetic for the way the Cajuns' effort disappointed the largest home crowd in nearly eight years.

"There was a great crowd and a great atmosphere at Cajun Field tonight," he said. "We felt like this was something to build on, but it just didn't work out for us."

Against Tech, ULL hoped to sustain an effort the Cajuns received the previous Saturday night in a 14-7 loss at South Carolina.

Instead, many of the problems haunting ULL the past several years reappeared. Inconsistency offensively, missed tackles and ill-timed penalties combined to deliver ULL's five loss to Tech in as many meetings.

Tech controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides, limiting ULL's rushing game to 103 yards on 23 attempts, while Bulldogs' quarterback Luke McCown was sacked only once on 33 passing attempts.

McCown and three senior wide receivers controlled the game clock for 35:11 and amassed 470 total yards, an average of 6.4 yards per play.

The rest of the story

By BOBBY ARDOIN
Special to The Advocate

[Oldman]

yes, i am disappointed.....but i don't have a panic button because i am a true cajun fan. i understand what you are saying, but i would hope you could understand and see that things are moving in the right direction, we have a redshirt freshman Qb who will get better and i would probably say a little nervous playing his second game in 2 years, family and friends in attendance. we are a better team then we showed saturday and we will bounce back, if you want to press your button go ahead but i say to you, a true cajun fan wouldn't do that. we had a bad game, we have 10 more with a good coach and staff. tech have guys whose been playing for 4 years togather!!!....so go ahead.

[EVCajun12]

Another positive I saw, Dwight Lindon had a solid game at running back.

[EVCajun12]

I was disappointed, but we ran into a good La. Tech team with a QB that will play Sundays, and a solid group of receivers. They hit our weak spot right now on defense, our secondary. We are young there, and it seemed we were shuffling new DB's in all night looking for a good combination. I have no doubt Bustle will have the players attention this week, and I expect a much better performance this week. I will be there, no doubt, and I know we will be ok. One home loss is not the end of the world. This team needs our support, we are a part of this team too, I hope we all keep coming out.

[Turbine]

I'm not picking on, or blaming, the WAC officials but I find it ironic that aside from penalty first downs the advantage on getting first downs was not much.

LA Tech 19, UL 14

I also find it ironic (they are related ironies) that LA Tech was penalized 1.7777 more times than Louisiana was.

LA Tech 16, UL 9

Is ironic the word I want here? Those 7 extra penalties only amounted to 10 more yards in penalties.

LA Tech 114, UL 104

Actually none of that stuff up there is ironic it's just true. The really ironic thing is that 7 of UL's 9 penalties gave LA Tech a first down and kept potential scoring drives alive.

But NOT ONE, not a single one of LA Tech's 16 penalties through the course of a 60-minute contest game gave Louisiana a 1st down. Not a singe one.

I do find that ironic.

I guess you (Those WAC-ky officials) gotta know when to call em.

[RedBug58]

:confused:

That's a nice way to put it. Anyone speaking truthfully about the WACky officials would have to be edited on this board. Some of those calls were totally unbelieveable.

[CajunRebel]

For your info, I havent pressed the button yet, and I don't want to. But im very concerned about this offense. I think our D is good enough to win some games, but if we want to win some we are going to have to do much better on offense. No question about it.

[CajunRebel]

I don't blame the refs for the loss, but they did break our back early on. If they hadn't made those early calls, it would have been a much closer game.

[NewsCopy]

Bustle pleads with fans to hang tough with Cajuns.

LOUISIANA La. — Remaining patient is hard for fans to do.

It’'s not easy for coaches, either.

Ragin’ Cajun backers want Louisiana to get in gear and make 2003 a successful season, and after a 0-2 start the Cajuns will have to hurry to make that happen.

No one knows that better than head coach Rickey Bustle.

“I would ask the fans to hang with us,” said Bustle, whose squad fell 34-3 to Louisiana Tech in last Saturday’s home opener before 24,221 fans at Cajun Field.

“I know they’ve heard that 1,000 times before, but if they like any part of the positive things that are going on with the program, I’d ask them to stick with us. We’re going to make this thing right.”

The Cajuns host 1-1 Houston on Saturday before encountering a grueling three-week stretch of road games at Minnesota, North Texas and Oklahoma State, so positive reinforcement is crucial this week.

“Coaches have to be patient, too,” Bustle said. “We want to win now, because you never know when that chemistry will be right and things will start clicking.”

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[big hurt]

I guess you think you are pretty funny. As I stated in a previous post, I quit coaching because my family liked to eat every once in a while. My quitting doesn't mean I forgot everything about the game.

I know I know more than you. Reality speaking, the cajuns win 3 games maybe 4. You live in a fantasy world if you believe they will do any better. The bad thing is Bustle will leave if he doesn't win. The man isn't God. He can't work miracles. He is a good coach.

By the way, where's your rash, hopefully not on your tiny _______.