You might want to check out the history of the series.
http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data.hp?teamid=3052
Better defenses than USM did not intimidate our offense last year when we were healthy. The issue as in the past two seasons is not offense, but defense and special teams.
The offense is not geared to catch up, and once we get down then turnovers are highly likely like all teams with all kinds of offensive schemes.
#5 doesn't happen until the coaches grow a pair and actually pretend to use the downfield passing game. We threw for 250 yards against Ohio last year and they did a great job of throwing to the backfield esp. Wallace along with some nice downfield throws. I didn't see them attempt that once again the rest of the season
While I think there have been many times in our FB history where we have been very competitive with Southern Miss, our W-L record has never been very good against them. We've had numerous close losses (along with with a number of blow-outs), but darn few W's. I do remember beating them, but your implication was we used to (at one time) beat them (or any of those teams) regularly is wrong, with the exception of Tulsa and East Carolina. However, I do agree with you that we used to be more on par with the likes of those teams than we have been in the past decade or so.
RICE
'82-89---3-1 record
EAST CAROLINA
'77-'90---6-4 record
TULSA
'77-'92---5-4 record
MEMPHIS
all time 4-9 record, but
'84-96---4-5 record
TULANE
all time 4-20 record, but
'83-95---4-5 record
SOUTHERN MISS
all time 11-38-1 record, but
'82-93---4-6 record
What can be gleamed from this? Well, for one thing, it shows that from the beginning of FBS play in 1982 to the mid-90's, UL was a legit, competitve FBS program.
I also believe that for most of the next decade after the mid 90's we were not a legit, competitive FBS program. The reason for that is not that these other programs greatly improved their programs and we couldn't keep up. The reason for this is that WE QUIT TRYING on an administrative level.
That's a huge difference, and Cajun fans have a right to be angry about it.
The fact is that we DID beat some of these programs regularly and were even with others, and now that the main obstacle to our return to this level of play has been removed, I wholeheartedly expect UL football to get back to where we once were.
Well I agree with you that we are down from what we were a decade or so ago. And that we have a right to be unhappy with the current status quo. But I don't think a 5-4 or 4-5 record in an arbitrarily varying window can be considered "regularly beating" those teams. I do think it means being very competitive with them. BTW, when I looked back at USM series (thanks to SpreadEagle), I noticed we beat USM the first 7 games of the series, only allowing a TOTAL of 13 points. However, since then they have a 38-4-1 record against us. That leads me to think that this season we will give them all they want, but succumb at the end. However it goes, I plan to be at Roberts Stadium to see it. I think everything is in place for us to give them a helluva game.
I said "some" of these caliber teams. Consider our record versus these teams:
RICE
COLORADO STATE
UNLV
TULSA
FRESNO STATE
EAST CAROLINA
.for these years:
'77-'90---21-8 record
You can call it whatever you like, but that's more than just being competitive.
I think what the other poster was getting at is that for a couple of decades, Cajun fans could go into a game with any of the schools we've been talking about in this thread and expect to if not win it, at least play a good competitve game. We didn't sit around and discuss ways we could somehow surprise them and steal it.
The mindset back then was the same mindset we have today in regards to our conference mates. Although, we haven't done a very good job in this regard either lately .
As for the USM game this season, if our pony is doing its "one trick" very well, we have a chance. If not, it could be a long night.
Are you seeing this CajunZ1?
![]()
I can't believe that lines are out on these games this far out
And were getting a lot more love then ULM and N Texas are getting on there lines.
There are currently 33 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 33 guests)