Tech's Intervention

[rhineaux]

_ Here's another POV. The problem was an inability to execute by our players with injuries (like Mike D) and those we had on the field as substitutes for our starters. UTEP was definitely beatable. Coaching, playcalling, the alignment of the stars and planets over Cajun Field really had little to do with the outcome. _

RF2 is right. The offense didn't put points on the board in those three losses because of bad coaching decisions and poor game planning. Bustle admitted as much to Josh Parrott on December 1st.

Now on a three-game losing streak, UL (5-6 overall, 4-2 Sun Belt) saw its offense bottom out in last week's 48-3 loss to Troy. Desormeaux had his best rushing effort since getting hurt with 136 yards, but Fenroy was held to 23 yards. The Cajuns finished with a season-low 255 yards and failed to score a touchdown for the first time since 2006. That came one week after being held to seven points through the first 52 minutes of a 40-29 loss to Florida Atlantic.

After evaluating last week's game film with his fellow coaches, including first-year offensive coordinator Ron Hudson and first-year passing game coordinator Jorge Munoz, head coach Rickey Bustle came to one conclusion.

"I think that thing (offensive play-calling) has kind of snowballed a little bit toward being too predictable," Bustle said. "That's why I'm saying that we've got to open our playbook back up and do some things and get other people involved in the game.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Jorge or Ron. It could happen to anybody."

[HoustonCajun]

_ You are correct! Also, the coaching was problematic. I really didn't see good adjustments being made. Maybe they were made, but whatever they were, they didn't work. _

The coaching staff waited until the last game vs. MTSU before deciding that the offense was too predictable and we needed to open up the playbook a little more. We did and won the game. Where were they 4 games back? UL made no adjustments until it was too late. And that, unfortunately has been the mark of this coaching staff for 7 years.

[DestinCajun]

RF2 is right. The offense didn't put points on the board in those three losses because of bad coaching decisions and poor game planning. Bustle admitted as much to Josh Parrott on December 1st. _

Nice coachspeak.


The offense was predictable against everybody we beat too. Nobody stopped us until Dez's knee injury plus a few injuries to OLs. Fenroy was also hurt a bit as well at times.

Running offenses are by nature kinda predictable. Watch Ga. Tech against LSUAMCBR.

Defense was playing much better this season until the injuries caught up with us. Look at the Illinois game. The difference was Dez getting stripped and the ball which was then run in for a TD. The Illinois offense got 13 on the Cajun defense. Kansas St got big help from some crappy calls after it made big stops.

No sir, we had too many hosses were in the barn at one time.

Now, if all you say had happened without all the injuries then I'd be forced to agree.

[MetryCajun]

_ Nice coachspeak.


The offense was predictable against everybody we beat too. Nobody stopped us until Dez's knee injury plus a few injuries to OLs. Fenroy was also hurt a bit as well at times.

Running offenses are by nature kinda predictable. Watch Ga. Tech against LSUAMCBR.

Defense was playing much better this season until the injuries caught up with us. Look at the Illinois game. The difference was Dez getting stripped and the ball which was then run in for a TD. The Illinois offense got 13 on the Cajun defense. Kansas St got big help from some crappy calls after it made big stops.

No sir, we had too many hosses were in the barn at one time.

Now, if all you say had happened without all the injuries then I'd be forced to agree. _

I missed this. When we were at full speed on defense I saw one good performance (ILLinois). Once we started getting injured, I saw one good performance(ASU) and one OK performance(FIU). In fact you could make a case the injured D was better than the full speed D. The one constant we had was not existant line play. Injuries or not our D was horrible again this year. Just like it has been since the mid-90's.

Also, I think you are beiing too kind to the offensive coaches. Des limped throught the last 5 games. Only in the MTU game was the play calling unpredictable. The results speak for themselves.

[rhineaux]

_ Nice coachspeak.


The offense was predictable against everybody we beat too. Nobody stopped us until Dez's knee injury plus a few injuries to OLs. Fenroy was also hurt a bit as well at times.

Running offenses are by nature kinda predictable. Watch Ga. Tech against LSUAMCBR.

Defense was playing much better this season until the injuries caught up with us. Look at the Illinois game. The difference was Dez getting stripped and the ball which was then run in for a TD. The Illinois offense got 13 on the Cajun defense. Kansas St got big help from some crappy calls after it made big stops.

No sir, we had too many hosses were in the barn at one time.

Now, if all you say had happened without all the injuries then I'd be forced to agree. _

You're making my argument for me.

Of course our offense was predictable before, nobody was stopping it. We were getting by with about 10 different plays per game (or so it seemed). Then Des gets injured. We all agree about all of that. There is no denying that when Tom Brady went down, the Patriots offense wasn't going to be breaking the same records they broke last year.

The point I'm trying to make, and the reason I am losing my patience with Bustle, is that he didn't do anything to change the offense enough to where other teams couldn't just key on Fenroy. They kept calling the same Zone Reads time after time, and it resulted in very poor offense and a 3 game losing streak. Then, after having so little success for 3 straight weeks because those opponents stopped them or slowed them down the same way, he finally decides that something needed to be changed. That lack of judgement is a big reason why the team is not preparing for a bowl game right now. They needed two wins in 4 games against tough, yet beatable, teams. And not only did it not happen, but two of them were in extremely convincing fashion.

I understand that this team had significant injuries on both sides of the ball. It happens to every team, every season...perhaps not as extensively as it did to UL this year. That is something you can't control. But, you can control what you do in spite of the injuries and what moves you make to mitigate their affect. And in that newspaper article I quoted above, Bustle admits that he did nothing, or at least not enough, to mitigate those affects. That is one of the main reasons why I have very little confidence that Bustle will ever take us farther than he already has on a consistent basis.

[Just1More]

_ Hold on a minute. We couldnt bring 800 fans to Troy with a SunBelt championship on the line but we are sure that we would have brought 20,000 to Shreveport for a game against La. Tech?

I think your number is highly inflated. The only time we ever traveled big was for those fun games against Tulane in the superdome almost 20 years ago. More than half of those fans were there for the party in New Orleans. _

Many would go to the Indy Bowl never considered the trek to Troy. I saw friends at the Tulane games who live throughout Texas and Florida. They would have made plans for Shreveport... no doubt about it. Troy is a heck of a drive to the middle of nowhere. Shreveport is a short drive from Acadiana for the first 10k who would have been there to "party in Shreveport". It would have been the first bowl in 38 years... we were all going.

[Just1More]

_ That's exactly my point! The coaches, after seeing Dez unable t execute, should have tried other approaches. I know Maguire was hurt, too, and that Masson didn't have game experience. But at least they could've tried him for s few series. Also, maybe run the "Wild Chery" formation more. Something, anything to try to spark the offense. I think the lack of offense (in several games) put too much pressure on our defense. Anyway, that's water under the bridge. _

Agree. Why was the "Wild Cajun... wild Chery" not thought about and used for UTEP? Mike was already hurt. Why not the Richie throw... why not the Mike in the slot with Chery alone in the backfield with only a blocker like MTSU? Going into MTSU our coaches said that we would have to "change some things up", "try a few new things"... why did that occur to them so late in the situation? UTEP was definitely winnable. We line a hobbled QB up in a shotgun on a 4th and 1... after a TO... give me a break. But... yes... water under the proverbial bridge... again.

I'm not saying that Bustle needs to be fired... but instead of holding coaching camps, he needs to be sent to a few. I want a gutsy coach at the level MD was a gutsy QB. I can take losing when everyone, including the coaches, were splitting out of the skin for the win... but just showing up with your skills from 15 years ago just does not cut it anymore.

[Zeebart21]

_ Many would go to the Indy Bowl never considered the trek to Troy. I saw friends at the Tulane games who live throughout Texas and Florida. They would have made plans for Shreveport... no doubt about it. Troy is a heck of a drive to the middle of nowhere. Shreveport is a short drive from Acadiana for the first 10k who would have been there to "party in Shreveport". It would have been the first bowl in 38 years... we were all going. _

Look at his posting history, he isnt one of us. Take what he says with a grain of salt.

Z

[Just1More]

_ Look at his posting history, he isnt one of us. Take what he says with a grain of salt.

Z _

Grain taken. None of these cats can fool an old fool. I love my fellow homers... but these other tools are major league entertaining... especially the supposed intellectuals. It takes a small mind to run around big on someone else's forum.

[DestinCajun]

_ You're making my argument for me.

Of course our offense was predictable before, nobody was stopping it. We were getting by with about 10 different plays per game (or so it seemed). Then Des gets injured. We all agree about all of that. There is no denying that when Tom Brady went down, the Patriots offense wasn't going to be breaking the same records they broke last year.

The point I'm trying to make, and the reason I am losing my patience with Bustle, is that he didn't do anything to change the offense enough to where other teams couldn't just key on Fenroy. They kept calling the same Zone Reads time after time, and it resulted in very poor offense and a 3 game losing streak. Then, after having so little success for 3 straight weeks because those opponents stopped them or slowed them down the same way, he finally decides that something needed to be changed. That lack of judgement is a big reason why the team is not preparing for a bowl game right now. They needed two wins in 4 games against tough, yet beatable, teams. And not only did it not happen, but two of them were in extremely convincing fashion.

I understand that this team had significant injuries on both sides of the ball. It happens to every team, every season...perhaps not as extensively as it did to UL this year. That is something you can't control. But, you can control what you do in spite of the injuries and what moves you make to mitigate their affect. And in that newspaper article I quoted above, Bustle admits that he did nothing, or at least not enough, to mitigate those affects. That is one of the main reasons why I have very little confidence that Bustle will ever take us farther than he already has on a consistent basis. _

A team doesn't simply change its offense in the middle of the season and I can only make a case based on what I saw on the field. We were not able to execute due to a significant number of injury hampered players and players lost to injury. The difference I see and you obviously don't is the degree to which we were impacted by injuries. It wasn't the two or three players on either side of the ball that every team has to deal with over a season. It was the entire LB corps minus Zanders. It was Mike Desormeaux the main cog in our offense and several linemen at various times.

In essence you're saying if we had done something different or played a healthy third string QB, we would have been successful. That's arm chair coaching after the fact. I think the bottomline here is you've decided we need to fire Bustle and you create whatever rationale is handy to support that.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Holy Trinity couldn't have come in and won here these past few years and Rickey. Bustle was apparantly the only person nuts enough to take on the job. The reality is yes he can now be evaluated but I didn't see anything on the field that warrants firing him (which we're not going to do anyway).

I'll admit because I cannot see the future that you might eventually be proven correct about Bustle but I don't see it right now, not based on this season's final results and where we are in terms of returning players next season. Check with me after the 2009 season.

[DestinCajun]

Look at his posting history, he isnt one of us. Take what he says with a grain of salt.

Z _

There's a lot of that going on these days. The baseboard comes loose and roaches slink out in droves.

[rhineaux]

_ A team doesn't simply change its offense in the middle of the season and I can only make a case based on what I saw on the field. We were not able to execute due to a significant number of injury hampered players and players lost to injury. The difference I see and you obviously don't is the degree to which we were impacted by injuries. It wasn't the two or three players on either side of the ball that every team has to deal with over a season. It was the entire LB corps minus Zanders. It was Mike Desormeaux the main cog in our offense and several linemen at various times.

And you wondered why I made the comment about “excuse-laden posts.”

I said nothing about changing an offense, I said the play calling was vanilla. You can use the injury excuse all you want, but even the coach doesn’t agree. In the MT game, the offense scored almost as many points in one game than they did in the previous three, not to mention Des breaking personal passing records. Now do you think it’s more likely that this was because Bustle finally adapted to the situation (the offense WAS more diverse, you can go back and compare film and see for yourself), or do you think that all the Cranberry Sauce from Thanksgiving fixed everyone’s bobo’s?

In essence you're saying if we had done something different or played a healthy third string QB, we would have been successful. That's arm chair coaching after the fact. I think the bottomline here is you've decided we need to fire Bustle and you create whatever rationale is handy to support that.

I never said anything about a 3rd String QB. Call it arm chair coaching if you want, but after the extent of Des’ injury became known, it was obvious that something was going to have to be done differently. Nothing changed…the coaches didn’t adapt…and when we played the 3 toughest opponents with the 3 best coaches, the offense quickly bogged down. You may think that this rationale is created because I want the coach fired, but if that’s the case, then Bustle’s quote must mean that he wants himself fired.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Holy Trinity couldn't have come in and won here these past few years and Rickey. Bustle was apparantly the only person nuts enough to take on the job. The reality is yes he can now be evaluated but I didn't see anything on the field that warrants firing him (which we're not going to do anyway).

I'll admit because I cannot see the future that you might eventually be proven correct about Bustle but I don't see it right now, not based on this season's final results and where we are in terms of returning players next season. Check with me after the 2009 season. _

You are obviously much more patient than I am. Nobody questions that he had an uphill climb when he came aboard, but even in the 4 seasons that you say he can be judged upon (however in another thread yesterday you said he could only be judged on the 07, 08, and 09 seasons), he still has a losing record. And, you’ve still never told me what he has accomplished (not ‘we will be healthy and experienced’ or ‘such and such will be more experienced’, something that actually has merit that might go on his resume) that makes you think that this program will ever get beyond 5-7 wins under Bustle. And, considering he does win 7 games next year, which would automatically extend his contract, then what are we left with? Hoping that he can build off of that in 2010? Three seasons after his first 6 win season, he still hasn’t surpassed that mark. The point I’m trying to make is that we have to draw the line somewhere. I understand that some of the fans on this board don’t like to talk poorly about coaches, but at some point this school and this fan base needs to look in the mirror and ask themselves “When are we going to start acting like we want to be winners?” “When are we going to do what it takes to be successful?” “When are we going to quit hoping that a coach can turn something around and quit making excuses for them because they're good people?” As someone said a few days ago, this Ath Dept needs to start being run as a business, not as a charity that's afraid to rock the boat in fear that their volunteers might leave.

At the end of the day, it is what it is. Bustle will be kept on for at least another year, and the Football Program will continue to move laterally while other programs are moving forward. Some Cajun fans will stick around and hope that something changes, others might get more proactive and speak out (hopefully to the right people, not just on the boards) about the lack of growth, and the already large Apathetic Fan Group will gain more members that are tired of excuses and the lack of initiative from the Admin.

I'm getting tired of the subject, and I'm sure everyone else is too, so I've said my last word in this thread. Thanks for the argument, Destin.