UL’s 2005 opponents were a combined 62-62 in 2004. The Cajuns are 86-86-4 all-time versus their 2005 opponents.

University of Louisiana football players and coaches may have been more excited than normal to begin spring practice Saturday.
After all, that group had been gathering for 6 a.m. conditioning drills since early February. That made Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. kickoff much more palatable.

“We’ve had those ‘Red Dawn’ sessions the last couple of weeks to prepare for this,” said Ragin’ Cajun head coach Rickey Bustle. “It wasn’t just the players that were anxious to get started ... the coaches were pretty happy, too. We’d been beating UPS in the morning.
“But those early workouts have helped our agility. We’ve gotten stronger and a little faster, and I think a combination of those workouts and the weight work we did has led to that increase.”

With the dawn workouts a thing of the past, 83 players went through Saturday’s two-hour session that opened up a series of 14 spring practices.

NCAA regulations limit teams to non-contact drills in the first two spring sessions, and the Cajuns will hold their second no-pads practice today at 2:30 p.m. Contact drills will begin Monday.

“We’re doing a lot of teaching in these two days,” Bustle said. “We’re pretty much re-learning our offense and defense, and for some of the guys it’s pretty much learning on the run.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com