Gerald Broussard
1989: Brian Mitchell welcomes Gerald Broussard coached offensive line
LOUISIANA La. -- If Brian Mitchell liked the 1988 football season, he should love the 1989 rendition with an experienced offensive line set to protect the veteran senior University of Southwestern Louisiana quarterback.
Several things have changed in one short year about the USL football team and the most notable from Mitchell's standpoint is that his offensive line has experience and playing time, a situation that is in direct contrast to the 1988 team.
"Nobody's feeling sorry for them this year," said USL offensive line coach Gerald Broussard, himself a former offensive tackle star for the Cajuns. "It's not like last year, when everybody knew they were young and needed to get better. They're expected to produce this year."
Broussard had started the 1988 season minus the top eight linemen who had graced his schemes and plans during the 1986 and 1987 seasons and Broussard had no place to turn. The Cajuns went to the Ilinois junior college ranks and pulled in guard Keith Zimmerman. And after fall practice started, defensive tackle LaQuinc Phillips was moved to offense to plug a hole and that was the experience that Broussard worked with throughout the campaign. He added Zimmerman and Phillips to a group of freshmen and sophomores and tried to pull the rabbit out of the hat each week. Some Saturdays it worked, others it did not.
Broussard may have done the best coaching job on the USL staff last year because his troops allowed the team to pull off a third straight 6-5 showing -- and it was not easy. When the offensive line was bad, it was very, very bad and when it was good, it played brilliantly at times.
Operating behind the makeshift line, Mitchell looked good enough to be named the collegiate "Outstanding Offensive Player" nudging past such stars as LSU's Tommy Hodson and Tulane's Terence Jones, both highly-rated quarterbacks.
Mitchell, running the Cajuns run-and-shoot offense to near perfection at times, gained 743 yards rushing on 180 carries and completed 129 of 273 passes for 1,807 yards and 8 touchdowns. Mitchell had a marvelous year with 2,550 yards total offense, an amount that should suggest he was not operating behind the inexperienced line he was.
"He's the best one (quarterback) I've ever been around," says Cajun offensive coordination Barry Wilson. "He's one of the few players I've ever coached that can control a game almost by himself. People have to concentrate all their efforts on stopping him, and that opens up a lot of things for us."
Broussard admits that his group was led down the primrose path last year. "They continued to get better all year long last year," Broussard noted. USL jumped out to 4-0 and 6-2 records but was overwhelmed by Alabama, Memphis State and Arkansas State down the stretch in the final three games.
"We played against some really good competition at the end of the season last year and I think we'll fare a lot better against quality competition this year, if for no other reason than we're older and more mature. They got their brains beat in some last year, and we've got a lot of punishment to deal out ourselves this year," Broussard said.
Louisiana Tech had one of the defensive lines that handled the Cajun offensive front last year, leading the Bulldogs to a 19-16 upset win over USL after the Cauns had four straight wins to start the season.
USL will entertain Louisiana Tech in a 7 p.m. contest Saturday night at Cajun Field.
Broussard is pleased that he has experienced depth to work with this season. He didn't lose a single player from last fall's aggregation and gained several who could add to the the depth of the line.
"We've never been two-deep (on the depth chart) before, even going back to when I was playing (early 1980's), Broussard said.
"That means there is a lot of competition for playing time. They all know that, and that has kept them working hard."
The depth chart going into the Louisiana Tech game has Chip Morgan (6-2, 250) and Troy Wingerter (6-3, 271) at center, Joe Harris (6-3, 276) and Louis Age (6-6, 324) at left tackle, Roderick Tripp (6-1, 258) and Jay Casey (6-0, 244) at left guard, Zimmerman (6-1, 263) and Adam Johnson (6-4, 294) at right guard, and Paul Norton (6-3, 275) and Jeff Kennun ( 6-3, 276) at right tackle.
Only Zimmerman is a senior.
Mitchell, no doubt, will be glad to look up in the huddle when the Tech game (and season) starts and see some familiar faces. He needs 519 yards in completed passes to become the fourth quarterback in NCAA history to to gain 2,000 yards rushing and 4,000 yards passing.
The Plaquemine star needs 476 yards rushing and and 519 yards passing to become the only NCAA player to reach the 2,500 rushing and 4,000 passing plateau.
There seems to be little doubt that Mitchell will get to know his offensive linemen quite well this season. In the pro ranks the quarterbacks with top-flight offensive lines buy the steaks each week. Mitchell may have to hit on hamburgers or the pizza man every now and then.
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The Advocate
Author: J.C. HATCHER
ACADIANA BUREAU
August 30, 1989
Quote
Re: After LA: Gerald Broussard
Re: After LA: Gerald Broussard
Originally Posted by snuffy
