Somebody Please Give Me a Ray of Hope

[rbilleaud]

I've been a Cajuns fan for going on 40 years - ever since I was old enough to go to games. Even with Brian Mitchell and Jake Delhomme, it was like we had superstars but didn't have the pieces to go along with them. Finally, this year it seemed like we were going to have a breakthrough with Fenroy, Cherry and Desormeaux and we almost did with the exception of a couple of losses that should have been wins; but I was impressed with the number of points our boys were able to score and we put up some pretty good numbers against K-State and Illinois. Now I'm feeling depressed again because it seemed like we had our moment and it slipped away. I don't see another group like we just had graduate coming down the pike and things are looking pretty grim. I don't even know who the next QB is going to be and if he's any good. I don't keep up with recruiting and all that - is there any reason to have hope for next season - and beyond?

[CajunZ1]

I don't see another group like we just had graduate coming down the pike and things are looking pretty grim. I don't even know who the next QB is going to be and if he's any good. I don't keep up with recruiting and all that - is there any reason to have hope for next season - and beyond? _

The answer lies in the middle.

Some here would lead you to believe that we're on the brink of becoming the next Southern Miss or East Carolina. That might be a stretch...

Others would make you believe that we got lucky with Fenroy, Dez, and Chery, and we're sure to fail next year. Don't listen to them.

We had something this year that we haven't had in forever. A team that played like a team. A team that had high school caliber players at linebacker due to unprecedented injuries, yet never gave up.

2009 is a make or break year for Bustle, and I'm sure he knows that. I choose to believe that this year's attitude change was not a fluke, and that the best is yet to come. Yesterday's benchwarmers will hopefully be tomorrow's stars.

And btw, the QB's name is Brad McGuire, and he won us the stAte game. I'm not too worried about him.

[cajunfan96]

_ The answer lies in the middle.

Some here would lead you to believe that we're on the brink of becoming the next Southern Miss or East Carolina. That might be a stretch...

Others would make you believe that we got lucky with Fenroy, Dez, and Chery, and we're sure to fail next year. Don't listen to them.

We had something this year that we haven't had in forever. A team that played like a team. A team that had high school caliber players at linebacker due to unprecedented injuries, yet never gave up.

2009 is a make or break year for Bustle, and I'm sure he knows that. I choose to believe that this year's attitude change was not a fluke, and that the best is yet to come. Yesterday's benchwarmers will hopefully be tomorrow's stars.

And btw, the QB's name is Brad McGuire, and he won us the stAte game. I'm not too worried about him. _

And why in the hell did Bustle not put Brad in when it was obvious that Mike was not 100% after the N. Texas injury. Bustle did not give us a chance to win with that decision. The playbook was limited after Mikes injury and was not opened up until the M. Tennessee game when we though that we only needed one win to become bowl eligible.

Why did Mike not have the knee procedure after the N Texas game? That would have given him 4 weeks recovery from the knee procedure. He would have been back for Florida Atlantic game?

[CajunZ1]

_ And why in the hell did Bustle not put Brad in when it was obvious that Mike was not 100% after the N. Texas injury. Bustle did not give us a chance to win with that decision. The playbook was limited after Mikes injury and was not opened up until the M. Tennessee game when we though that we only needed one win to become bowl eligible.

Why did Mike not have the knee procedure after the N Texas game? That would have given him 4 weeks recovery from the knee procedure. He would have been back for Florida Atlantic game? _

You must have been away for awhile, as all of this was addressed. But here's the cliffnotes:

Mike's injury was less severe than originally thought. It was only determined to be less severe once he was in surgery. Therefore, there was no way to know that the knee injury would have only taken 2-4 weeks recovery. I'm not a doctor, but apparently these type of knee injuries are impossible to diagnose until under the knife. A risk we couldn't take as it could have ended Mike's season.

As far as not playing Brad, there are many reasons for this. Number one, Brad was injured one of the weeks with a hamstring, and could not play, period. I believe this was the UTEP game? For the FAU game, Mcguire was still limited, and Bustle made the choice to play Dez. As for the Troy game, we would have lost that even if we had Drew Brees as QB.

There are many things to be critical of Bustle for, but the decisions with the QB was not one of them IMO.

[Cajunsmike]

The answer lies in the middle.

Some here would lead you to believe that we're on the brink of becoming the next Southern Miss or East Carolina. That might be a stretch...

Others would make you believe that we got lucky with Fenroy, Dez, and Chery, and we're sure to fail next year. Don't listen to them.

We had something this year that we haven't had in forever. A team that played like a team. A team that had high school caliber players at linebacker due to unprecedented injuries, yet never gave up.

2009 is a make or break year for Bustle, and I'm sure he knows that. I choose to believe that this year's attitude change was not a fluke, and that the best is yet to come. Yesterday's benchwarmers will hopefully be tomorrow's stars.

And btw, the QB's name is Brad McGuire, and he won us the stAte game. I'm not too worried about him.

Backup QB is likely to be Blane Gauthier from Lutcher. He was redshirted this year. I expect him to challenge McGuire for the starting job. From his HS films and practice performance, he has shown the potential to be special. We do lose the three playmakers but all other eight starters will return on offense and 9 starters return on defense. We have a chance to be better next year than we were this year due to more overall experience.

[DestinCajun]

And btw, the QB's name is Brad McGuire, and he won us the stAte game. I'm not too worried about him.

Something tells me that somebody who's "been a Cajun fan for 40 years" would know Brad Maguire's name and might be able to spell Jason Chery's correctly. Be that as it may, we also have a kid named Blaine Gautier, who will play some QB next season as well. Given the propensity we show for injuries to QBs, I hope they both play a lot.

[Cajunsmike]

And why in the hell did Bustle not put Brad in when it was obvious that Mike was not 100% after the N. Texas injury. Bustle did not give us a chance to win with that decision. The playbook was limited after Mikes injury and was not opened up until the M. Tennessee game when we though that we only needed one win to become bowl eligible.

Why did Mike not have the knee procedure after the N Texas game? That would have given him 4 weeks recovery from the knee procedure. He would have been back for Florida Atlantic game?

Brad McGuire had a groin injury which affected him after the Ark. State game. That is why he did not play more late in the year. Desormeaux made the decision himself not to have surgery until the season ended.

[leeman]

And who was that really good qb we had before that once no name desormeaux took over?.. how fast we forget. Your ray of hope?.. tomorrow is another day

[Cajun92BSEE]

Go to Rivals.com and check out the sunbelt recruiting stats under NCAA football recruiting. We are at the bottom of the list and not even close to anyone else in our conference.

Not sure how indicative this is of our future success, but I'm not very hopeful. Why isn't there more effort on the recruiting front? Schools we claim to be out in front of seem to be kicking our butts in this area. How can you ever hope to achieve success if you don't put some effort into recruiting?

If someone can explain this, please do. I'm not an expert in this area and there may be other sources that paint a different picture, but I really don't like what I'm seeing.

[Zeebart21]

_ Go to Rivals.com and check out the sunbelt recruiting stats under NCAA football recruiting. We are at the bottom of the list and not even close to anyone else in our conference.

Not sure how indicative this is of our future success, but I'm not very hopeful. Why isn't there more effort on the recruiting front? Schools we claim to be out in front of seem to be kicking our butts in this area. How can you ever hope to achieve success if you don't put some effort into recruiting?

If someone can explain this, please do. I'm not an expert in this area and there may be other sources that paint a different picture, but I really don't like what I'm seeing. _

Last year our class was ranked last in the Sunbelt by Scout. This is the same class that brought us Ladarius Green, Derrick Dean, Pierre Hill, and Chris Richard, among others. All contributed in a big way.

I looked at Utah's class from a few years back...no one rated higher than a 2*.
I use to think Scout and Rivals were the gospel as well........ live and learn

[wcd35]

_ Go to Rivals.com and check out the sunbelt recruiting stats under NCAA football recruiting. We are at the bottom of the list and not even close to anyone else in our conference.

Not sure how indicative this is of our future success, but I'm not very hopeful. Why isn't there more effort on the recruiting front? Schools we claim to be out in front of seem to be kicking our butts in this area. How can you ever hope to achieve success if you don't put some effort into recruiting?

If someone can explain this, please do. I'm not an expert in this area and there may be other sources that paint a different picture, but I really don't like what I'm seeing. _

Ok, I know your not an expert, but seriously. Let me give you a hint, don't go by Rivals stats. We do not have a Rivals website, therefore our recruits do not get updated.

On Scout, we have a site and a person (CajunT) that updates it with interviews and rumors and even puts the commitments up.

Lastly, both of these sites spend little to no time on recruits that are close to 3 stars or below (by their opinion.) You cannot judge recruiting in the Sun Belt, MAC, etc based on stars on a recruiting website. I mean seriously, Tyrell Fenroy was a ONE STAR RECRUIT on Scout. That is enough argument right there.

This recruiting class, like the last couple, will be good. But it is always hard to gauge a recruiting class for a mid-major before they are on the field.

Have hope, we have good players coming soon.

[Clutch0364]

_ Go to Rivals.com and check out the sunbelt recruiting stats under NCAA football recruiting. We are at the bottom of the list and not even close to anyone else in our conference.

Not sure how indicative this is of our future success, but I'm not very hopeful. Why isn't there more effort on the recruiting front? Schools we claim to be out in front of seem to be kicking our butts in this area. How can you ever hope to achieve success if you don't put some effort into recruiting?

If someone can explain this, please do. I'm not an expert in this area and there may be other sources that paint a different picture, but I really don't like what I'm seeing. _

Once you get outside of the top 25 of the recruiting ranking it is a wash in my opinion. Most of the guys non-bcs programs go after and get, do not get much attention from the national media. The star system is the best way right now to look at recruits but not that great of a system. This recruiting class will be better than last years and last years class gave us a lot of good minutes last year, including 3 starters.

Look at it this way Fenroy was a 2 star recruit and look what he did for us.