I lived and died all over again with all of the games you mentioned.
I guess the good news is that there was never more than one of these horrible defeats in a year, although the impact of them made them hard to forget.
That's a yardstick with which to measure the progress of the Bustle years. There's a lot less to correct than there was when he got here.
Just one better game on top of what we've had in future years will make a big difference in the life and perception of this football program.
nice write up, I was at the Houston game and I can agree it's up there, I would say it was the best Cajun game I have ever been to
I was at the Houston game as well, and I remember being on cloud 9 after the game. I actually felt kind of bad for the houston players, I remember seeing one of the cougar players outside the stadium slam his helmet to the ground and the insides of it pop out. Still, after the game, we went to a Bennigans and put on we are the champions and had a few beers...man that was so much fun.
I was at 7 of the 10 games on the list, with all the home games and made the trips to the houston and the ULM game in 2005 (which was also so much fun, I remember finding out that ASU beat UNT to win the conference halfway through the game, and pretty much everyone was like, screw it, I don't care, if we don't go to the New Orleans bowl, I just wanna make sure they don't go).
I think I would agree with everything on the list, except I think the WKU loss would probably be #1, as that killed all momentum, all support, and all hope in the team unfortunately.
If I could add one game as an honorable mention, I think that the NMSU game on thursday night in bustles 2nd year. I remember there being very few people at the stadium, and everyone was down, and I remember hitting the game winning field goal with 8 seconds to go in the game and it was such a huge lift, it helped lead us to winning 4 of our last 5 games that season, including the #5 game on the most memorable list.
Those were good picks, Jay! I might add one to each list: the win over UAB early in Bustle's tenure and the loss to UCF at home when we seemed to have a chance to win a big game (I believe Babb was injured early and Desormeaux came to see his first significant action at QB).
Isn't it great when you've been to all home games mentioned?
That is a key game changer moment, there were a few, I will pick a moment in time that sort of sealed Rickey Bustles resume.
After going 6-6 in 2006 (a year that would be used as a source of pride later) Rickey Bustle fired his top two coaches, and started his program over.
All 6 games were vs Sun Belt Schools.
I noticed Bustle never lost 4 straight games to end a year, probably helped sustain his job a bit.
In those final 6 games of 06 the kicker losss was the defense only giving up 16 and the offense only putting up 7 vs UNT.
The defense was very good in three of those games and stuggled greatly in 3 of those games. I haven't looked at turnovers.
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