Spring Football Near Midway Point, Team Holds Scrimmage #1

[NewsCopy]

  Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns football team held their seventh practice of the spring which included conducting their first scrimmage of 2009 on Saturday at Cajun Field. The squad ran 118 plays over 17 periods underneath clear skies with a temperature in the mid-to-upper 60s nearly the entire time.

The scrimmage was designed so that each series would be limited to seven plays, regardless of outcome. The first team offense battled the first team defense and they alternated series with the second team offense and defense squaring off in between.

Saturday’s scrimmage was the first practice this spring in which the quarterback was live.

“I saw a couple of young running backs make some great runs and our quarterbacks make some good decisions,” said head coach Rickey Bustle. “There were some good plays defensively, also, and there was pressure put on the quarterbacks.”

Quarterbacks Brad McGuire and Chris Masson took snaps with the first team. They alternated the first four series then McGuire was under center for three of the final four first team sets.

The defense was able to contain the offense in the first half. The first two first team series ended with a sack. On the third first team series, the defense delivered a pair of pass breakups.

The first team defense picked up their third sack on their fourth series. Two plays later it was an interception by Orkeys Auriene near the goal line that capped off a solid first half by the defense.

The first half of the scrimmage was capped off by a touchdown pass for the second team offense as Blaine Gauthier connected with Marlin Miller on a 43-yard score during a second team period.

The offense gained steam in the second half crossing midfield and moving inside the 30-yard line four times. The offense posted a handful of plays that gained 20-plus yards.

“We made some plays offensively and defensively, we just didn’t finish quite as well as I wanted to,” Bustle said. “I want us to compete a little more.

“It’s obvious that some people are still learning, but I will expect us to make a lot of improvement next week.”

Running backs Undrea Sails and Draylon Booker handled the majority of the carries for the first team offense.

Tyler Albrecht made a 50-yard field goal during the field goal period and was good from 47 yards during the fourth series of the second half.

There two injuries of note as Rodney Gillis (knee) and Julian Shankle (hand) suffered injuries which leave them doubtful to return for the remainder of spring drills. In addition, eight players who had been participating in spring drills were held out of the scrimmage.

The Cajuns will practice next week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The week concludes with another scrimmage being held on Saturday, March 28.

UL Press

[zephyr]

Man I like Gillis. I'm afraid he's got the dreaded ACL injury and he'll miss a lot more than just spring. He was looking really good out there in coverage and I was happy with him last year before he redshirted.