The Book: 2003 Football

[Turbine]

Rushing Ranks in the Sunbelt

Name	Team	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Kevin Payne	ULM	4	87	398	99.5	4.6	3
Don Calloway	MTSU	4	51	260	65	5.1	0
Travis Smothers	UL	4	59	239	59.8	4.1	0
Antonio Warren	ARST	4	53	239	59.8	4.5	0
Malfred Shaw	IDA	4	57	228	57	4	0
Roy Bishop	UNT	4	44	223	55.8	5.1	3
Elliott Jacobs	ARST	4	21	213	53.2	10.1	3
Eugene Gross	MTSU	4	46	210	52.5	4.6	3
David Fiefia	USU	3	38	193	64.3	5.1	0
Patrick Cobbs	UNT	2	25	193	96.5	7.7	1
Shermar Bracey	ARST	4	30	179	44.8	6	2
Paul Dombrowski	NMSU	3	37	178	59.3	4.8	3
Zach Gerstner	IDA	4	38	177	44.2	4.7	0
Kevin Moore	UNT	4	44	167	41.8	3.8	2
Keith Mouton	NMSU	3	28	156	52	5.6	2
Andrico Hines	MTSU	4	38	126	31.5	3.3	1
Eric Higgins	NMSU	2	16	123	61.5	7.7	1
Clint Roy	ARST	3	19	107	35.7	5.6	2
Jerry Babb	UL	4	22	104	26	4.7	1
Travis Cox	USU	3	34	100	33.3	2.9	1
Kevin Davis	MTSU	3	21	99	33	4.7	2
Tony Joseph	NMSU	3	16	91	30.3	5.7	0
Tony Bostic	NMSU	3	7	83	27.7	11.9	1
Dwight Lindon	UL	3	21	71	23.7	3.4	1
Terrance Dunbar	ARST	3	6	67	22.3	11.2	1
Muammar Ali	NMSU	2	15	53	26.5	3.5	0
Brian Hicks	ARST	2	5	50	25	10	1
Steven Jyles	ULM	4	17	48	12	2.8	0
Buck Pierce	NMSU	3	25	47	15.7	1.9	1
Scott Hall	UNT	4	12	40	10	3.3	1
Chester Johnson	UL	3	10	38	12.7	3.8	0

[Turbine]

Receiving in the Sunbelt

Name	Team	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	Lng	TD
Kerry Wright	MTSU	4	24	368	92	15.3	71	2
Mack Vincent	ULM	4	21	261	65.2	12.4	30	3
Floyd Smith	ULM	4	18	242	60.5	13.4	34	1
Frederick Stamps	UL	4	16	219	54.8	13.7	33	1
Chris Cooley	USU	3	18	196	65.3	10.9	41	1
Chris Stallworth	USU	3	11	189	63	17.2	50	1
Orlando Winston	IDA	4	14	182	45.5	13	27	1
Mike Cox	ARST	4	12	159	39.8	13.2	28	0
Johnny Quinn	UNT	4	10	153	38.2	15.3	28	0
Andy Blount	UNT	3	6	130	43.3	21.7	43	2
Kevin Payne	ULM	4	13	128	32	9.8	20	0
Jerrin Holt	MTSU	4	10	125	31.2	12.5	29	0
Bobby Bernal-Wood	IDA	2	10	115	57.5	11.5	25	0
David Fiefia	USU	3	10	113	37.7	11.3	31	1
Bill Sampy	UL	4	7	108	27	15.4	30	0
Wardell Alsup	MTSU	4	10	107	26.8	10.7	22	1
Michael McCoy	IDA	4	8	102	25.5	12.8	33	0
Chris Lumpkin	NMSU	3	9	94	31.3	10.4	35	0
Jerome Stegall	ARST	3	5	90	30	18	33	1
Eric Bartel	UL	4	9	83	20.8	9.2	21	0
Zach Gerstner	IDA	4	8	73	18.2	9.1	17	1
Kenny Coleman	USU	3	6	72	24	12	26	0
Zach Muzzy	UNT	1	3	69	69	23	39	0
Michael Thrash	UNT	4	5	65	16.2	13	25	0
Ronshay Jenkins	NMSU	2	3	64	32	21.3	33	0
Preston Williams	NMSU	1	3	61	61	20.3	39	0
Sam Williams	MTSU	4	10	59	14.8	5.9	10	0
Larry Davenport	ULM	3	7	55	18.3	7.9	33	0
Barry Tolli	USU	3	3	53	17.7	17.7	40	0
Chuck Walker	ARST	3	5	51	17	10.2	17	0
Jeff Stowe	IDA	3	8	51	17	6.4	13	0

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — When Rickey Bustle has his weekly meeting with the Quarterback Club at noon today at the Cajundome Convention Center, the gathering will be well-named.

After all, Bustle is sure to be questioned about UL Lafayette’s quarterback picture heading into Saturday’s Sun Belt Conference game at North Texas.

His Cajuns were thrashed 48-14 at Minnesota last weekend, a score that surprised no one.

But amid the damage was an encouraging relief performance from senior Eric Rekieta at quarterback, one certain to provoke speculation after freshman Jerry Babb suffered his second straight subpar outing as the starter.

Rekieta hit 13-of-23 passes for 141 yards in the Metrodome, finding Travis Cones for a four-yard touchdown in the second period and Fred Stamps for a two-yarder in the final three minutes of action.

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[OldBullDog]

I read about the game saturday and it seems to me the defense got to Bab early and often and the running game was not much to write home about. Does anyone else feel that the linemen that went down last week, I can't think of his name. Does anyone else feel that the linemen who had an ACL torn was a missing cog in the ULL wheel this past weekend? I do but I'm not dumb enough to think UL would have won with him in the game but from what I was told he was going to be missed. I guess they were right. Can someone tell me who he is and what will happen to his year will he be redshirted? If I don't find out by noon my buddy will tell me tonight.

[OldBullDog]

Thanks in advance.

[NewsCopy]

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Ragin’ Cajun senior receiver Fred Stamps has caught a pass in each of his 36 career games at UL, but he hasn't had the best of luck against Minnesota.

Heading into Saturday night’s meeting, Stamps had just three catches for 33 yards in a pair of previous meetings with the Golden Gophers.

Stamps had a pair of grabs for 19 yards here on the artificial turf in 2001, and one catch for 14 last season at Cajun Field.

THE NUMBERS GAME: The University of Minnesota has 45,615 students. UL mentors around 15,000 these days.

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[TheScout307]

I cant tell you how excited i am about this game , i think bustle will have our guys ready for this game , i also think we have a great chance winning this game as well, Im sure UNT will be over looking us and now that erick will be playing i am very excited, i will be there

[CDeb]

Here are Louisiana coach Rickey Bustle's comments from Monday's press luncheon:

Here are coach Bustle's comments from today's press luncheon regarding the QB situation:

“Eric (Rekieta) will start the game against North Texas. He deserves a chance to perform. Jerry (Babb) has done a fine job. Saturday night, I think that Eric stepped up and showed us a spark. That’s why I feel that he deserves that opportunity. We have had the plan all year to play two quarterbacks. In this one, I want to give Eric a legitimate opportunity to show what he is capable of. This is no slap on Jerry, because I’m very pleased at what he has done so far. He (Babb) has struggled a little in the last two games. Our plan last week was to play Eric in the second quarter. We did that and he took us down field and scored. We need something to kick start us and he did that the other night. I challenged everyone to come out and play in the second half. Eric in particular did a nice job. It may be his personality; he’s kind of laid back. If you listen to him too long you might doze off a little. He may have that knack to connect on a personal level with the team. We’re not going to have a controversy over who is or is not playing; I just want to be fair to Eric on this one.”

“We went into the second half of this game playing against a lot of Minnesota’s back-ups which are good players. They are probably more in line with what we’ll see this weekend. I knew that we could get some quality work offensively and defensively.”

[geauxboy]

There are some personnel changes that may put better players in position to make plays.

[RaginFan2]

"There are some personnel changes that may put better players in position to make plays."

Such as ...?

[geauxboy]

I hope Stamps & the other receivers are is put in a better situation to make plays. There are a couple of other positions that are being upgraded in my opinion which I have to reserve comment on at this time.

[Cajunologist]

I hope Blappert will be moved back to defense. Anyone at the spring game saw him on almost every single play. We was awesome, now why was he moved to offense (TE) at the beginning of the season only Bustle can answer that one.