Spring Practice: Saturday March 24

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UL's football squad went through the motions Friday, and will get back to serious business this morning. The Ragin' Cajuns held an 11-period practice Friday, its 10th of spring drills, and used it to prepare for today's second full-scale scrimmage of the spring session. That scrimmage is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at Cajun Field and is open to the public. Today's scrimmage will include heavy emphasis on special teams, an area that took up a significant portion of Friday's one hour and 45-minute practice. The Cajuns didn't hold team periods Friday. "We wanted to get some good quality work but stay high and protect ourselves prior to the scrimmage," said UL safeties coach Tim Rebowe. "We got some good work in, and the guys were smart with how they practiced." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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Went to the football scrimmage this morning and did not like what I saw offensively. It seems they are trying to make Michael Desormeaux a pocket passer. I would like to see them run more plays with Mike rolling out with a moving pocket and the receivers running crossing routes. I like when he gets out of the pocket and improvises on the move.

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Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns 11th spring practice and second scrimmage was a one-sided affair in favor of the defense. The Cajuns offense, who had dominated the first spring scrimmage, was stifled all day. The defense set the tone on the first play, as Michael Desormeaux’s pass was tipped and intercepted by Daylon McCoy. The offense came back with their best two drives of the day. A 12-play, 61-yard drive under the direction of quarterback John Hundley stalled at the nine-yard line. Hundley was 5-of-5 passing for 51 yards, leading the team into the red zone, but he misfired on his last two attempts. Desormeaux led UL on a 10-play, 38-yard drive that ended at the 22-yard line. The drive’s key was the ground game, as the Cajuns ran for 29 yards on six attempts. A 10-yard holding penalty ultimately stalled the drive as the Cajuns couldn’t recover from first-and-20 at the 33-yard line. “The defense came out to play,” said head coach Rickey Bustle. “The offense wasn’t ready to play. “The defense had all the emotion and all the intensity. It was a one-sided game.” Although the quarterbacks wore gold non-contact jerseys the defense was credited with three sacks and also tipped or batted down several passes. The defensive line controlled play almost the entire day, consistently breaching the line of scrimmage. The defense was guilty of four penalties, while the offense was whistled for three infractions. “There were too many penalties,” stated Bustle. “We have to work harder to clean that up and be more focused.” There were a total of 79 snaps during the scrimmage, not including 16 special teams plays. The first team ran 41 plays, while the second team had 38 plays. The Cajuns will enter the final week of spring football with practice on Monday. The team is expected to work on scrimmage corrections and install their two-minute offense. Wednesday’s practice will begin on the practice field before moving to Cajun Field for some live work on the two-minute drill. Friday will be a very light workout in preparation for the spring game on Saturday. The team will not be divided for the spring game, rather it will be similar to a scrimmage with the offense vs. defense. The Cajuns remaining spring practice schedule: Monday, March 26 – 3:30pm Wednesday, March 28 – 3:30pm Friday, March 30 – 3:00pm practice, 7:00pm banquet Saturday, March 31 – Spring Game @ Noon LOUISIANA SI

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UL's defense had a point to prove Saturday, and the result was a dominating performance in the Ragin' Cajuns' second full-scale football scrimmage of spring drills. The defensive unit, one which was manhandled one week earlier in an offense-controlled scrimmage, virtually shut down the Cajuns' offense in a 79-play session at Cajun Field. The only points scored in the entire scrimmage were two Drew Edmiston field goals in a special teams session prior to scrimmage plays. "Finally," said new UL defensive coordinator Kevin Fouquier. "Our kids really stepped up. We might not have done everything perfectly correct, but you can always swarm to the ball and we did that. That makes up for a lot of mistakes." Not many defensive mistakes were apparent. UL rushers were held to 84 yards on 35 carries and the Cajun quarterbacks threw for 128 yards on 16-of-32 completions, only two of which went for more than 14 yards. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com