2007 Football preview and offseason fan talk

[gridiron]

_ Maybe just maybe our defense is better than we first thought? lol Our defense is all about attacking and that can cause a lot of probs early for the offense.

My thinking too.

[RCAJUN90]

WTH, who said they could use "USC"??!!!

It's not their legal name! That has to be against the law!!

Don't they know they aren't THE "USC"?!!!

Blah, blah, blah...

I think you should give the name thing a rest. Football season is just around the corner. The only name I want to here is winner.

[CajunT]

The tackle position on the Cajun defense isn’t very big or physical, but in the new defense quickness is more important. The Cajun Red Zone takes a look at the athletes that will contribute on the depth chart at the defensive tackle position for the 2007 season.

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=345&f...=3397&t=881947

[gamecock19]

The rivals link is the best place to get good football chat. of course we have our share of idiots as does everyone, so if you encounter them i apologize in advance. Southern cal is legally "USC" and actually ironically we are " The USC". LOL hoping for a good game with no injuries.

[gamecock19]

Ok. Well I will try to clear it up as best i can. First Mitchell has appealed the Athletic Departments suspension. His appeal is based on his and his advisors claim that he dropped the class in question and thats why he stopped going. Now if he is out he will be replaced by chris smelley who is a great student and highly touted prospect. not tested though. Garcia is the freshman QB that is redshirting this year. He did have troubles in the spring off the field but comes from good family and will be fine. Chris hail is the CB that is suspended NOT Carlos thomas. Thomas is fighting to start in the opener and will play a lot either way. Spurrier ran the score up before because the depth was so strong, not sure that is the case here yet. hope that sheds a little light on it. anyways. take care

[gamecock19]

Well I have to say. That Article is from the university paper and written for students by a student. That being said, with our history we dont tend to overlook anyone. You guys will be respected. to give you a breakdown

DL - Is returning 4 starters(including Norwood who didnt start but led team in sacks so he played a lot), but excitement is on four new guys. little misleading because 1 is coming from JC, 2 from prep school, all tru freshman but all been in school since January. So went through winter conditioning, Spring ball, and Summer conditioning. Lots of size and speed. True two deep here.
LB - Led by Jasper Brinkley at MLB Around 260 and very , very fast. His Twin brother moves from DE to OLB despite an outstanding season last year at de. and Rodney paulk(all SEC freshman team) at other OLB. second team has former starters, so should be depth here also.
Secondary - Should be best group. Strong 3 man rotation at CB. return all SEC freshman SS. and return starter from last year at FS, but starter from 05 is now back and will be 1st team.

QB - Think we have 2 maybe 3 that can get it done.

RB - Strong point of team. Boyd and Davis will be one of the best tandems.

WR - really just returning kenny mckinley. Loads of young talent but no one has proven a thing.
TE - Again Young Talent but unproven
OL - Tackles are good, but interior line is not doing well it seems. so if your tackles are good, def some opp there.

now all that said. The Game is played between the white lines. We will see how it transitions from paper to the grass. We traditionaly do not play well in openers. Will we take a step this year. Who knows. Good Luck and heres to a game with no injuries.

[NewsCopy]

UL's football squad began its final phase of preseason practice Thursday, officially opening its preparation for the Sept. 1 season opener at South Carolina. The Cajuns, who held their final full-scale scrimmage Wednesday afternoon, spent several periods working against scout-team competition in Thursday's two-hour practice. The scout teams simulated looks expected from the Gamecocks in the 6 p.m. (CDT) opener at Williams-Brice Stadium. "We're starting to take a look at what they're doing offensively and defensively," Cajun coach Rickey Bustle said of South Carolina, "but we also wanted to work a heck of a lot on special teams. We started working on all the special situations that come up ... today was just sort of a combination of everything." "Today was kind of an introduction to USC's base stuff," said defensive coordinator Kevin Fouquier. "We didn't do bad ... we've seen a lot of things they do from our own offense. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

South Carolina may have suspended its starting quarterback, but UL's football coaches said Thursday that wouldn't change any of their preparations for the Sept. 1 season opener in Columbia, S.C. Blake Mitchell, a three-year letterman who started 17 games over the past two seasons, was one of three players suspended Thursday for the opener against the Ragin' Cajuns for missing summer school classes. Mitchell, backup tailback Bobby Wallace and backup cornerback Chris Hail had previously been suspended from the team's first two fall practices for missing classes. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[Hammer58]

_ Ok. Well I will try to clear it up as best i can. First Mitchell has appealed the Athletic Departments suspension. His appeal is based on his and his advisors claim that he dropped the class in question and thats why he stopped going. Now if he is out he will be replaced by chris smelley who is a great student and highly touted prospect. not tested though. Garcia is the freshman QB that is redshirting this year. He did have troubles in the spring off the field but comes from good family and will be fine. Chris hail is the CB that is suspended NOT Carlos thomas. Thomas is fighting to start in the opener and will play a lot either way. Spurrier ran the score up before because the depth was so strong, not sure that is the case here yet. hope that sheds a little light on it. anyways. take care _

Speaking just as a football fan in general and not necessarily as a Cajun fan, I think the perception of Spurrier running up the score is because he tends to leave his starters in (or at least he did in the past at FLA) when the game is already well in hand. If he goes to backups once he has a comfortable lead and the backups are still able to score, well shame on us. When we last played Texas Mack Brown had Vince Young in there well into the third quarter ( I f memory serves my correctly) when the game had long been decided and one of our LBs put a shot on him that had him slow getting up. I think Mack must have soiled his shorts because he quickly pulled YOung as he should have. It was stupid to leave him in the game that late and smacked of running up the score. Texas' season could have gone down the drain if Young had been seriously injured and Mack would only have himself to blame.

[DestinCajun]

_ I think you should give the name thing a rest. Football season is just around the corner.

Don't hold your breath. Won't happen.

[DestinCajun]

If he goes to backups once he has a comfortable lead and the backups are still able to score, well shame on us.

That's about as fair as it gets now. You can't expect the back ups to go into the game, execute the team's offense and not to try to score. Not in this day and age.

[DestinCajun]

Hopefully the old axiom-"you play like you practice" won't happen against SC. _

Hold that thought for practices the week of the USC game.