The Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana held spring practice number nine on Wednesday afternoon. The skies threatened rain the entire practice, but held off so the team could compete on a dry surface.

Wednesday’s workout started on the practice fields, but moved to Cajun Field at the midpoint. The team had a physical middle drill period prior to moving to Cajun Field. Once on the game field, the Cajuns had a special teams period, two skeleton periods and then saw extended live work.

The live session featured 18 series that started on second down. The live work concluded with two goal line series from the six-yard line.

The first and second team offenses each took nine second down reps from varying distances. The offense would then follow through with its third down play if stopped short of a first down by the defense.

The offense picked-up a disappointing eight first downs, with two of those coming via a defensive penalty.

“We came out slow (in the middle drill),” tight ends coach Troy Wingerter said. “The coaches got on the guys a little bit to try to get them focused and try to get them to come off the ball.

“We didn’t get enough offensively and we got on the guys a little more. Then we’re sloppy on the game field, and we still don’t get (the results). Everything was raw and looked unpolished.”

The tide turned in the short yardage goal line series. The offense scored touchdowns on both drives that started from the six-yard line.

“When it came down to crunch time (on the goal line), we were able to get into the end zone,” Wingerter added. “You want to see guys being physical on the goal line and I thought we were finally pretty physical.”

The Cajuns will practice on Friday at 3pm in preparation for the second scrimmage of the spring. Friday’s practice is expected to be a review of Wednesday’s live work.

The team will scrimmage at Cajun Field on Saturday at 10am.

Injury Update: Cornerback Tim Jackson (hand) was re-evaluated on Tuesday. Jackson will see limited participation for the rest of spring practice. He will only take place in non-contact drills. Fellow redshirt corner Rodney Gillis (knee) has a more serious injury. Already out the rest of the spring, Gillis is not expected to be ready for the start of the season and could miss a significant portion of the 2009 campaign.

UL Press