Still staggering

[NewsCopy]

  ATHENS, Ga. — Wondering what's the next step for UL following Saturday's 55-7 loss at No. 23 Georgia to open the season.

The loss of senior linebacker Grant Fleming to a broken left hand early in the second quarter against the Bulldogs was a devastating turn of events for the Ragin' Cajuns (0-1) and their veteran defense.

The rest of the story

[ULGrad@HOU]

JP, the quotes in your article are very telling. A reflection more on the coaching staff than the players. Not good.

[Just1More]

I was suspicious when we all of the sudden showed up for game 1... totally different from years' past... with all starting players healthy. To me, it made we think that our coaching staff deliberately kept our practices far less physical. That may account for the comments of Masson and Green. I am not sure.

I think that Masson and Green would differentiate between coaches not having the players play as physical and attitudes they may have observed during the fall. I thought it very strange that all of our top WRs had some sort of nagging injury... and two freshmen were getting all the reps during practice... and somehow none of those injuries kept these guys out of game 1. Even Bustle made a comment about it.

I am not sure if it was a coaching move to not be physical or not involve some starters in order to be healthier... or the players themselves.

I'm as disgusted as anyone else about the GA appearance. I felt the defense did everything well except tackle (that even sounds funny to me). If the second man, much less the first man, to have touched a ball carrier would have only held the guy up for a gang tackle... we would have cut GA's gains per play in half. I am actually not concerned defensively, if somehow these players take it upon themselves (I don't blame coaching for it) to tackle properly, hit and wrap up.

The offense got burned for playing straight up ball with GA. We were simply outmanned on the line and we never had a chance. We will not see better DEs this year. That said, I'm not sure what our QB, backs and WRs are about yet. Our "spread offense" against GA was a bowl of jello. One big glob of wiggle and slow to form muck. I think it could change overnight against lesser opponents. We shall see.

Anyhow, I still think our coaches lowered the physical standards for play at fall camp so that we would be healthy to start the season and I think some players used a cramp to keep from taking any practice hits. It culminated in a lack of readiness for a very powerful and good GA team.

[ULtimateCajun]

What worries me is that the starting quarterback is saying they aren't practicing as hard as the should.


igeaux.mobi

[Just1More]

_ What worries me is that the starting quarterback is saying they aren't practicing as hard as the should.


igeaux.mobi _

He was wise not to be more specific. We have a long season to go and GA was the best team, by far, that we'll face. It is time to take the L and move on to the next game.

This next game is a whole lot more important than the GA game. We can bury that GA game in hurry... or we can bury ourselves.

[tdncz]

2006: Bustle must go.
2007: Bustle Must GO.
2008: Bustle MUST GO!
2009: BUSTLE MUST GO!!
2010: BUSTLE MUST GO-- NOW!!!!!!

[zephyr]

_ What worries me is that the starting quarterback is saying they aren't practicing as hard as the should.


igeaux.mobi _

This concerned me as well. I don't know exactly what was meant by that and I don't assume that the players got lazy as by all accounts, they worked their butts off in the weightroom this offseason to get ready. However, I sure hope coach Bustle sees that this offense is not fitting the personnel. The spread option offense is fine and I think we should run a version of it for sure. However, the zone read is not what these players do well IMO. I just posted in another thread about Tulsa's offense and they are as dynamic as they come. In a way, I think you could compare the strengths of the Cajuns to what Tulsa does and that is involve their skill people and get them in space. They run variable sets and seem to always have someone in motion prior to the snap. They also allow their RB's to get to the outside and make plays instead of running behind a jelly butted guard who is getting pancaked by the defense's starting SS.

[CAJUN_LXA685]

Mason's statement about practices says it all. It says that this coaching staff is o.k. with taking a loss, it is o.k. with being average.

[ManAboutTown]

The defense played well, especially when they were rested early on. Guys were where they needed to be, and as was said earlier, just didn't make the tackles. You can't arm tackle an SEC team. Having said that, I have a major problem with playing our "all Sun Belt" cornerbacks 10 yards off of the receivers on every play. Did anyone else notice this? I mean, from time to time, bill would come up and give about a 5 yard cushion, but the overwhelming majority of the time, we conceded the 5 - 7 yard routes in that game. We've done this for years, and its hard to watch. IMO, you're telling your opponent "look, I'll give you the short stuff, just don't burn me deep; my safety help is not good enough." I would have rather watched Murray go deep on every play than watch them nickle and dime us to death. Another note on defense: Lance Kelly is just awful. That was some really bad safety play. Soft, slow, late to everything, and who can forget the juke by Murray 6 yards away that actually WORKED on Kelly. My god, that was embarrassing. He single handedly cost us at least 10 points.

Offensively, it was almost comical. Our entire unit looked like it was playing at a different speed, obviously much slower speed. The offensive line had no prayer, Masson looked slow, indecisive, and threw the ball with zero confidence (who could blame him when he is wearing a defensive lineman the whole game and his WRs couldn't catch a cold). I thought when Blaine came in the game, it was obvious that he was a far superior athlete. Passer? The jury is still out on that, but he looked more decisive. He looked like the speed of the game wasn't too much for him. Lastly, we can't run the zone read if Masson is scared to run the football. It will just not work. You're taking half of the threat away from the scheme.

Overall, I'm just really disappointed. I'm sick of being a laughing stock.

[CajunNation]

This concerned me as well. I don't know exactly what was meant by that and I don't assume that the players got lazy as by all accounts, they worked their butts off in the weightroom this offseason to get ready. However, I sure hope coach Bustle sees that this offense is not fitting the personnel. The spread option offense is fine and I think we should run a version of it for sure. However, the zone read is not what these players do well IMO. I just posted in another thread about Tulsa's offense and they are as dynamic as they come. In a way, I think you could compare the strengths of the Cajuns to what Tulsa does and that is involve their skill people and get them in space. They run variable sets and seem to always have someone in motion prior to the snap. They also allow their RB's to get to the outside and make plays instead of running behind a jelly butted guard who is getting pancaked by the defense's starting SS.

If the staff was sitting on the gameplan, so be it, but if this is the scheme we will run all year, we better find another year of eligiblity for Fenroy or Desmo.

We need to open it up, bigtime. Bustle should search far and wide for the Cajun playbook, circa. 2003-2004, A.S.A.P.

[CajunProud]

_ If the staff was sitting on the gameplan, so be it, but if this is the scheme we will run all year, we better find another year of eligiblity for Fenroy or Desmo.

We need to open it up, bigtime. Bustle should search far and wide for the Cajun playbook, circa. 2003-2004, A.S.A.P. _

Maybe he needs to call Lewis Cook and ask him how to run a successful offense.

[duggie85]

_ Maybe he needs to call Lewis Cook and ask him how to run a successful offense. _

Please tell me this is a joke