LAFAYETTE — Kickoff for the 2005 college football season is this weekend, as far as Rickey Bustle is concerned.

Sunday is the first day of the contact period for recruiting, and the University of Louisiana head coach plans to be on the road that morning.

“2005 began Saturday night, as far as we’re concerned,” Bustle said Monday on his way into a recruiting meeting with his staff. “Frankly, I’m anxious to get on the road and start recruiting.”

The Cajuns lost five of their last six games in a 4-7 campaign, numbers that place even more importance on a recruiting process that will pick up steam in a hurry.

Bustle has already received four verbal commitments from high school players, and is only a couple of weeks removed from the signing period for mid-semester junior college players. He said Monday that four spots are available for mid-term signees, and that he hopes to sign anywhere from two to five junior college players in this class.

The Cajuns can sign up to the NCAA-maximum 25 to national letters of intent this year, and Bustle said as many as a half-dozen of those grants will likely go to inside and outside defensive linemen.

“We’re pretty much just like everybody there,” he said. “We’re looking really hard at the defensive line, but we’re also looking at everything. Every position has at least one scholarship available.”

Bustle said the late-season struggles, including back-to-back 13-10 losses to Troy and UL Monroe to finish the season, have not deterred the positive comments his staff has received on recruiting phone calls to this point.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com