The Book 2008 Football

[RaginRash]

_ Here's some video of Desormeaux at Thursday's practice:
http://www.kadn.com/sports/ragincajuns/31167689.html _

lovin these vid clips!

[NewsCopy]

  For a while, Corey Leonard wondered when he would catch a break.

South Carolina recruited him to play quarterback out of Covington High in east Louisiana, but coach Lou Holtz retired after the 2004 season. New coach Steve Spurrier decided to go in another direction.

Leonard then had his heart set on going to Ole Miss, but coach David Cutcliffe was fired after the 2004 season. The new coaching staff talked about moving Leonard to safety before eventually losing interest and pursuing other recruits.

After careful consideration, Leonard finally narrowed his choices to UL and Arkansas State. Initially, he was going to commit to play for the Ragin’ Cajuns. But when Leonard came to Lafayette to tell the coaches of his decision he learned that St. Thomas More’s John Hundley committed to UL one day earlier.

The rest of the story

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • October 18, 2008

[NewsCopy]

  When Brad McGuire decided to sign with UL over Florida International and Southeastern Louisiana in 2007, this was the ultimate moment he was waiting for. The scenario is just a little different than the redshirt freshman would have liked.

Starting quarterback Mike Desormeaux remains questionable for the Ragin' Cajuns with a sprained right knee suffered in last week's 59-30 win over North Texas. That means McGuire could lead one of the nation's top offenses in his first collegiate start at 6 tonight against Arkansas State at Cajun Field.

"This is why I came here, to play and help us win a championship," McGuire said. "I think that's why coach (Rickey Bustle) brought me here, to help take us to the next level. It's not great circumstances. I wish it wasn't under these circumstances.

The rest of the story

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • October 18, 2008

[NewsCopy]

  Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns are back home, finally, and a crowd of some 25,000 is possible when they host Sun Belt Conference rival Arkansas State at 6 p.m. today at Cajun Field.

Just having coach Rickey Bustle's squad in town is news. They opened the season playing five out of their first six games on the road. The fact that their record is 3-3 and 2-0 in Sun Belt Conference play adds to the anticipation.

"It's a perfect script for starting the season and being where you are right now," Bustle said. "Obviously, a lot of things can change in one Saturday, but we're in the hunt. That's what you work for all summer and all fall - you play five of six on the road and you're in the hunt. Now we get to play at home, and we're excited about that."

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown • bbrown@theadvertiser.com • October 18, 2008

[zephyr]

For what its worth, I'm going to give my thoughts on what will be a great atmosphere this weekend and ask a couple of things from the Cajun faithful.

Please understand the circumstances that surround this game. There will be a lot of fans in the stadium this weekend deciding to show their support for a team that is obviously playing well right now and is on a roll offensively. However, here are a few points that need to be mentioned.

1. We may be starting a freshman QB = While I, like many here, believe that McGuire has really nice talent, he is not Desormeaux at this stage in his career. He may be a better pure passer but this offense requires more than just a strong arm. He will lack the poise of Des and he just hasn't had a lot of time under center running the offense full time. There is a big difference between coming in for a series and having to prepare to play an entire game and adjust as it goes and Defenses preparing for you rather than the other guy.

2. Our LB corp is decimated by injury. I know that everyone out there knows this but it is important to point out that we've lost 4 potential starters or actual starters at LB from spring until now for various reasons. Now, we are forced to play players that may not be ready or 3 weeks ago were assuming they'd redshirt. Our starters now weigh 210, 225, and 215 lbs respectively. I don't think this is what anybody envisioned as our LB corp 3 weeks ago and we have some very physical offenses to play in the upcoming weeks starting tonight.

3. This team is not the same team that played McNeese last year in that debacle. They are much more focused, have gone through a great offseason to prepare physically and Desormeaux has grown as a QB not to mention the insertion of some really nice freshman talent.

The reason for this post is hopefully, with everything that has happend the past couple of weeks to this team in regards to losing personnel, that we as fans can actually re-evaluate our expectations a bit. Before the injuries, I believed this team was playing well enough to get to 8 wins. Now, I'm not thinking that. I am hoping for it and everything that 8 wins would bring like a potential bowl game and boost in recruiting. However, I have to take a step back and examine my expectations and realize that if this year turns out to be another 6 win season, should I be extremely disappointed? I don't think so.

Coach Bustle and his staff has shown an ability to make adjustments at halftime which was one of my biggest complaints about him until this season. This team, before injuries, showed a marked improvement over last year and that this unit can be a fine unit for the next several years for sure. The playcalling and overall scheme on offense and defense seemed to be much better this year allowing us to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers on offense which seemed to be lacking at times in the past.

The fact is coach Bustle's contract runs through 2011 and if we seem to have a letdown from this point out, I hope that everyone looks at this season as a whole and realizes the level of play increased tremendously. I'm hoping the enthusiasm for which I can see around the program right now remains and the fans stick with the team. I'm not throwing in the towel by any means but rather, I just want to prepare people for the fact that maybe we don't win tonight, maybe we only win 1-2 games from here on forward. Is it going to go back to a Bustle bashing session? I hope not. This team and program have come a long way this year and deserve our support and respect.

[HOUCajun]

_ For what its worth, I'm going to give my thoughts on what will be a great atmosphere this weekend and ask a couple of things from the Cajun faithful.

Please understand the circumstances that surround this game. There will be a lot of fans in the stadium this weekend deciding to show their support for a team that is obviously playing well right now and is on a roll offensively. However, here are a few points that need to be mentioned.

1. We may be starting a freshman QB = While I, like many here, believe that McGuire has really nice talent, he is not Desormeaux at this stage in his career. He may be a better pure passer but this offense requires more than just a strong arm. He will lack the poise of Des and he just hasn't had a lot of time under center running the offense full time. There is a big difference between coming in for a series and having to prepare to play an entire game and adjust as it goes and Defenses preparing for you rather than the other guy.

2. Our LB corp is decimated by injury. I know that everyone out there knows this but it is important to point out that we've lost 4 potential starters or actual starters at LB from spring until now for various reasons. Now, we are forced to play players that may not be ready or 3 weeks ago were assuming they'd redshirt. Our starters now weigh 210, 225, and 215 lbs respectively. I don't think this is what anybody envisioned as our LB corp 3 weeks ago and we have some very physical offenses to play in the upcoming weeks starting tonight.

3. This team is not the same team that played McNeese last year in that debacle. They are much more focused, have gone through a great offseason to prepare physically and Desormeaux has grown as a QB not to mention the insertion of some really nice freshman talent.

The reason for this post is hopefully, with everything that has happend the past couple of weeks to this team in regards to losing personnel, that we as fans can actually re-evaluate our expectations a bit. Before the injuries, I believed this team was playing well enough to get to 8 wins. Now, I'm not thinking that. I am hoping for it and everything that 8 wins would bring like a potential bowl game and boost in recruiting. However, I have to take a step back and examine my expectations and realize that if this year turns out to be another 6 win season, should I be extremely disappointed? I don't think so.

Coach Bustle and his staff has shown an ability to make adjustments at halftime which was one of my biggest complaints about him until this season. This team, before injuries, showed a marked improvement over last year and that this unit can be a fine unit for the next several years for sure. The playcalling and overall scheme on offense and defense seemed to be much better this year allowing us to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers on offense which seemed to be lacking at times in the past.

The fact is coach Bustle's contract runs through 2011 and if we seem to have a letdown from this point out, I hope that everyone looks at this season as a whole and realizes the level of play increased tremendously. I'm hoping the enthusiasm for which I can see around the program right now remains and the fans stick with the team. I'm not throwing in the towel by any means but rather, I just want to prepare people for the fact that maybe we don't win tonight, maybe we only win 1-2 games from here on forward. Is it going to go back to a Bustle bashing session? I hope not. This team and program have come a long way this year and deserve our support and respect. _

I agree with much of what you say except the 1-2 win part. Mike D's injury is not season threatenig and the Cajuns should win at least 3 more games with this offense. Like you though I'm hoping for more!

[zephyr]

I'm just hoping people realize that this team is going to have to win with pure offense the rest of the year. This is a lot to ask of those guys. They have little room for error. BTW, we face a tough second half of the year. We have Troy, ASU and FAU who are all really physical teams. FIU is very physical and is much better than people thought they'd be. They did beat the Toledo team by double digits at Toledo that rolled into the Big house and beat Michigan last week. UTEP is offensively very good and is going to be better than most of our conference teams if not better. That is a great challenge we face as well. I just don't want the same negativity that we heard after the USM game to be here if this team can't maintain its ways.

[CajunZ1]

Put it this way. If we win today I will be extremely surprised. If we lose I will understand. If we get killed I'll be dissapointed.

Expectations are officially lowered -

Hopefully this crowd can instill confidence in our young QB and make some SERIOUS noise on defensive third downs. Who knows? We may be witnessing the blossoming of a QB and a defense tonight!

[CajunDreDog]

Put it this way. If we win today I will be extremely surprised. If we lose I will understand. If we get killed I'll be dissapointed.

Expectations are officially lowered -

Hopefully this crowd can instill confidence in our young QB and make some SERIOUS noise on defensive third downs. Who knows? We may be witnessing the blossoming of a QB and a defense tonight!

I am worried that the majority of the crowd does not understand all that is going on, and if we lose does not show back again this season! As said by many this week, this game is not a do or die game...do most avg "Joe the Plumber" fans realize that?
igeaux.mobi

[MetryCajun]

_ I'm not throwing in the towel by any means but rather, I just want to prepare people for the fact that maybe we don't win tonight, maybe we only win 1-2 games from here on forward. Is it going to go back to a Bustle bashing session? I hope not. This team and program have come a long way this year and deserve our support and respect. _

If this is the case, bashing will resume. Teams that win 4 or 5 games do not get a lot of accolades, no matter how hard they try. Like HouCajun said, we have the offense to win games. We just need our Defense to play "average". If the Defense cannot make the stops, people (rightly or wrongly) will say it was another disappointing year.

FWIW, I would be shocked if we only won 2 games the rest of the year.

[Just1More]

It's ok to express your thoughts, but the elevated fanship expected today isn't reading this board. The reactions that winning bring are not accelerated by this forum, nor is any deceleration following losing prevented by this forum. I'm cool with it... I'm one of the culprits... but we are preaching inside the incubator.

The only things that "Joe the Plumber" and "Gerry the Banker" and "Cindy the Pediatrician" hear about is the buzz of the swarm... they ask what's going on... and they come out to see and join in the buzz. The buzz will go up if we win and go down if we lose.

Sorry, no amount of fan preparation on the injury facts is going to change that fact.

We have to do like TEAM X out there in anywhere America... suck it up, play ball, and do what it takes to win.

[RCAJUN90]

_ I am worried that the majority of the crowd does not understand all that is going on, and if we lose does not show back again this season! As said by many this week, this game is not a do or die game...do most avg "Joe the Plumber" fans realize that?
igeaux.mobi _

Guys do you realize you are already expecting to lose? We are not playing Ohio State today. We are playing ASU. If this team plays like they have been, missing Des will hurt but they will still pullout a win. That is what winners do!