Bustle!!!

[USLJim]

_ Ricky Bustle must be let go at the end of this year if not before. Our administration must pony up the dough and pay a real coaches salary and start a new era in Cajuns Football. This move should have been made last year. _

Always the athletic department fork out the money, always the wealthy alum fork out the money. If you want Bustle gone, I suggest you fork out a couple of thousand dollars to release him. All I read is let someone the University needs to do it. Hey until we get everyone involved in a RCAF, I can't see spending a couple hundred thousand dollars on something like this. Granted, I am disappointed also, but where are we gonna get that kind of money at this point with all the uncoming improvements to Cajun Field, Baseball, & Softball. You want to jeapordize having those improvement delay so you can fork out a couple $100,00o away. I am still not convinced we are gonna have a bad season. I was at USM, and was disappointed but we have 11 games left.

Geaux Cajuns

[Damon]

The other thing I noticed is that there are very few postings this week on this board following the USM game. I fear total apathy is finally settling in. If apathy does in fact settle in among us diehards, there is little hope for the rest of Lafayette and Acadiana. The university would do well to address this matter soon.

This is why you will see no movement on the coaching situation until post-season 2010.

No one cares any more. No one, that I can see, is organizing a private fund to fire/hire because, as fans, we feel it will be fruitless.

[CajunZ1]

_The other thing I noticed is that there are very few postings this week on this board following the USM game. I fear total apathy is finally settling in. If apathy does in fact settle in among us diehards, there is little hope for the rest of Lafayette and Acadiana. The university would do well to address this matter soon. _

The lack of posting is more of a function of the hurricane than apathy. However, your point is still valid.

Microcosm of UL sports:
We score and make it 28-14 with momentum possibly shifting. Less than 2 minutes left... Our defense folds like a lawn chair and we go into half down three scores. Even for a die hard closet optimist like myself, the game was not worth watching anymore after that.

One of my LSU buddies decided to bet on the UL game so he listened to it on the radio, and he made this comment: "UL's commentator seems like he will just flip out at any moment... and understandably so"

I thought that was funny. Is that how you felt Jay? Cause lord knows I did!

[TheRaginCajun06]

I was fortunate enough to be attending UL at the beginning of Bustle's Era.

So much promise and hope going into the seasons. We had huge pep rallies and Cajuns football was a buzz. Slowly but surely that all got away from us. The last few seasons have been horrible. The nail in the coffin to me was the loss against McNeese. That was our chance to show the world we were ready to play. I thought before that I would never see a sell out at Cajun Field. Now my best chance of seeing that atmosphere is at a local high school game.

It's over for Bustle. He had his chance and a long chance at that. Now is the time to bring in someone with fire and passion.

I'll never forget a conversation I had one night with some OL at the Bulldog. I asked them if Bustle was tough on them. I asked because it seems he's always making excuses for the players. The response I got was that he doesn't strike any type of fire into the players. One guy told me that his high school coach would have screamed and yelled and made them run for hours if they made some of the mistakes made at UL. Even the team is complacent with losing. It's really become a culture. We aren't supposed to win this week, so if we lose it's no big deal. That's what it feels like.

[zephyr]

_ Always the athletic department fork out the money, always the wealthy alum fork out the money. If you want Bustle gone, I suggest you fork out a couple of thousand dollars to release him. All I read is let someone the University needs to do it. Hey until we get everyone involved in a RCAF, I can't see spending a couple hundred thousand dollars on something like this. Granted, I am disappointed also, but where are we gonna get that kind of money at this point with all the uncoming improvements to Cajun Field, Baseball, & Softball. You want to jeapordize having those improvement delay so you can fork out a couple $100,00o away. I am still not convinced we are gonna have a bad season. I was at USM, and was disappointed but we have 11 games left.

Geaux Cajuns _

I am also not convinced that our season is lost....Yet. I truly believe these young men can turn it around and that we do have enough talent to make some things happen. However, it is going to cost us a lot more than a couple hundred thousand dollars to correct the current situation. If you want a truly worthy coach to come here, you're going to need to spend in the neighborhood of at least $400,000 and really it needs to be more like $600,000. Jeff Bower has been a popular name coming to mind but his salary at USM was $700,000 plus incentives and not counting his asst. coaches. I don't think we pay that for our entire coaching staff. This administration AND the supporters need to be prepared to do what is necessary to put up rather than shut up if we want a better coaching staff....

[zephyr]

_ This is why you will see no movement on the coaching situation until post-season 2010.

No one cares any more. No one, that I can see, is organizing a private fund to fire/hire because, as fans, we feel it will be fruitless. _

If you are referring to Bustle's contract, that is not necessarily true. He has an extended two years ONLY if he meets certain criteria like getting a winning season and/or winning conference which would probably coincide with one another. If he has a losing season this year, we can fire him without any financial penalty.

[Damon]

If you are referring to Bustle's contract, that is not necessarily true. He has an extended two years ONLY if he meets certain criteria like getting a winning season and/or winning conference which would probably coincide with one another. If he has a losing season this year, we can fire him without any financial penalty.

Sweet.

Never thought I'd say that about a coach. Like others have said, I feel bad for the players who play hurt, bleed, and sweat for our entertainment with a sorry-a**ed leader.

[rhineaux]

_ If you are referring to Bustle's contract, that is not necessarily true. He has an extended two years ONLY if he meets certain criteria like getting a winning season and/or winning conference which would probably coincide with one another. If he has a losing season this year, we can fire him without any financial penalty. _

Here is a copy of the contract. Perhaps I'm an idiot, perhaps it's all the legal jargon, or perhaps both, but after reading through it rather quickly, I still don't have any idea when this guy's job is up. It says he was retained in January 2007 for 61 months, but then says he can't be extended past 2010 or 2011.

Bustle Contract

[Clutch0364]

_ Here is a copy of the contract. Perhaps I'm an idiot, perhaps it's all the legal jargon, or perhaps both, but after reading through it rather quickly, I still don't have any idea when this guy's job is up. It says he was retained in January 2007 for 61 months, but then says he can't be extended past 2010 or 2011. _

To me it sounds like this is the last year on his contract! It makes it seem like his contract ended last year but he was retained for this season.

[rhineaux]

_ To me it sounds like this is the last year on his contract! It makes it seem like his contract ended last year but he was retained for this season. _

If you say so. :-)

For what it's worth, from what I remember everyone around here talking about at the beginning of last season, he had the 2008 and 2009 seasons remaining on his deal. One of the reasons people were giving for not firing him after last season was that he still had 2 years left on the deal, and we couldn't afford to buy out two years. But, i don't remember anyone every mentioning a 2007 extension.

And speaking of buy-out, note that in the contract that it states that he must make an effort to find another job in D-1 coaching, and if he does, then our obligations are lessened by the amount he is paid in his other job. If he doesn't make that effort, then we can terminate the deal.

[BeauCajun]

_ Here is a copy of the contract. Perhaps I'm an idiot, perhaps it's all the legal jargon, or perhaps both, but after reading through it rather quickly, I still don't have any idea when this guy's job is up. It says he was retained in January 2007 for 61 months, but then says he can't be extended past 2010 or 2011. _

That was the original contract signed in 2002. An extension was added a couple of years ago.

[cajun4life]

Always the athletic department fork out the money, always the wealthy alum fork out the money. If you want Bustle gone, I suggest you fork out a couple of thousand dollars to release him. All I read is let someone the University needs to do it. Hey until we get everyone involved in a RCAF, I can't see spending a couple hundred thousand dollars on something like this. Granted, I am disappointed also, but where are we gonna get that kind of money at this point with all the uncoming improvements to Cajun Field, Baseball, & Softball. You want to jeapordize having those improvement delay so you can fork out a couple $100,00o away. I am still not convinced we are gonna have a bad season. I was at USM, and was disappointed but we have 11 games left.

Geaux Cajuns

Look Jim I am a former athlete at UL. I have played both football and track here. This is an embarrassment to the university, its alumni, former athletes, supporters as well as Acadiana. You want me to pony up the dough, thats fine, I would in a heartbeat if I had the money to write off like some business' as well as the wealthy families who live in Acadiana. I am not fortunate enough to do so. I do donate my time, effort and sweat to this program anytime I can. I volunteer to help as much as I can.

You want to spend the money on the sports that win? Hell, so do I but that would mean we have to drop football just like Lamar did. We need football to win and win consistantly. In order for us to do that we must pay the going rate, and $196,000 ain't it. The average salary is over $500,000 for NON-BCS schools. The average recruiting budget for football alone is over $600,000 per year on the D1 level. So excuse the ____ out of me when I say we need to go out and pay coaches what they are worth and pony up the money to win.

We are a Mom and Pop school going out of business because we are stuck in the great depression mindset. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. WE PAY FOR ____ SO WE GET STUCK WITH ____!!!!! DEAL WITH IT!!!!