Hudspeth explains postgame rant

[NewsCopy]

After UL fell 30-8 last Saturday night at South Alabama – finishing the season 8-4 and as Sun Belt Conference co-champ, but failing to win the title outright because of the loss – Ragin’ Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth turned a one-question, on-field postgame radio interview into something of a rant.

“I’m not gonna let tonight taint what this football team has done,” he said, in part.

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[basinbear]

This story should have been pursued the day following the game. Time to move on in my opinion...

[angeleast]

agreed basin. They say coaches dont listen to sports radio and fan sites like ragin pagin. But certain comments he made indicate that he does and has taken some statements to heart

[basinbear]

I can assure you angel that both Martin Hall and Reinhardt drive monitor our board. They know that a lot of the fans on this board are RCAF members and long time diehard fans.....sometimes things that are stated on this board are emotional. Fans do that. I believe that Hud knows that he is working at a University where Alumni and fans are very passionate... and deeply appreciate what he has done for our University... especially now when he and the staff have delivered a taste of what we have always believed that we can be....onward....to kick Tulane's azz

[angeleast]

here here !!!!! no argument here basin

[cajunfan337]

We love you HUD!

[Redgineer]

agreed basin. They say coaches dont listen to sports radio and fan sites like ragin pagin. But certain comments he made indicate that he does and has taken some statements to heart

I mean where else could he 'hear' negative comments during the game, the fans in the stands? Maybe I doubt it.

[zephyr]

I understand how Hud feels. However, there was really only one game for which we truly played great football for a consistent amount of time and that was the ASU game. The team showed what they were capable of doing when playing well and focused. That sticks in everyone's mind, especially when other games are not so pretty. I don't think its "negative" for a fan to say "man, I'm glad we won that game but our defense played horrible" because its been obvious that the play on the field the past 5 weeks or so was a little off and at some point, that's going to jump up and bite you. Also, any negativity he may be speaking of coming from this board is not coming from bandwagoners, at least not from what I've seen. Its come from all of us who are in the stands every saturday and donating our money to the cause. I didn't like his rant then and I don't particularly like his reasoning now but like BB said, its time to move on

[zephyr]

I mean where else could he 'hear' negative comments during the game, the fans in the stands? Maybe I doubt it.

I tried to ask a few people who were at the USA game but really got no true answers to the question BUT, during the game in the 4th quarter when we finally scored the TD and got a couple of first downs, it sounded like there were some sarcastic chants coming from the crowd. I have no idea if that was from our fans or from the home side but that's what it sounded like to me. Hud mentioned the fans that traveled during his rant and I'm not sure he was being sarcastic or not when he thanked them for coming. We would have to ask some of them if that was the case.

[Hammer58]

"But that’s football. And, man, I love our fan base, because they’re passionate. I want ’em to want us to win, really bad. Because it could be where they didn’t care, and that would really be worse.”

Exactly! It could be worse. Go check out the toolame, Nichollls, Northwestern boards among others to see examples of the non-existent or non-caring" "fanbase". Just look at gameday photos of their home stadiums and all the empty seats to see how it could be without thus passionate fanbase.

[Bigbuf]

I understand how Hud feels. However, there was really only one game for which we truly played great football for a consistent amount of time and that was the ASU game. The team showed what they were capable of doing when playing well and focused. That sticks in everyone's mind, especially when other games are not so pretty. I don't think its "negative" for a fan to say "man, I'm glad we won that game but our defense played horrible" because its been obvious that the play on the field the past 5 weeks or so was a little off and at some point, that's going to jump up and bite you. Also, any negativity he may be speaking of coming from this board is not coming from bandwagoners, at least not from what I've seen. Its come from all of us who are in the stands every saturday and donating our money to the cause. I didn't like his rant then and I don't particularly like his reasoning now but like BB said, its time to move on

I think his comments were aimed at people just like you. We had a record breaking season and it's just not good enough for you because we didn't have a shut out defense.

We had only one defensive first team all sunbelt, one second team and one honorable mention. We only had three senior starters returning and with Gillis getting hurt, the defense was throw into a unusual line up. We had 3 out of 4 starter on the D line returning and only two other wise on the D and one of those got hurt and was out for the season. Also with injuries to Tig, Chris Hill and Anayama the LB corps were constantly getting moved around. There were injuries at all areas of the D and it's tough to build a cohesive unit with all that going on. But hey it's football and injuries will happen.....but as fans we should look at the WHOLE year not just a few choice areas that you think will confirm what you think.

These players and coaches have accomplished more than anyone else before them and they deserve all the praise and admiration we can give them for giving us such times of plenty and the deserve none of the hate and negativity that this board seems to love to spew.

I'm with coach....haters start jumping....we can't afford the drag you are putting on our high speed bus!

[Duggie35]

I understand how Hud feels. However, there was really only one game for which we truly played great football for a consistent amount of time and that was the ASU game.

The way I see it, anytime our team scores 1 more point than our opponent, I consider that a great game! I especially feel this way after having suffered through the dark days of the toothpick era.