Building a team can be a gradual thing, in schemes, personnel and attitude, and Rickey Bustle is starting to see the results of his previous three years as head football coach of Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns.

"We're working harder now," Bustle said Thursday. "We've talked about being a team, something we also touched on last year, and probably 96 percent of the players on the team are people we brought in.

"They're excited. It's their team now. They're the ones who are formulating the team."

Bustle has posted records of 3-9, 4-8 and 4-7 in three years at the helm, and the team is starting to fit in better with his offensive and defensive schemes.

One place that is apparent is at quarterback, where starter Jerry Babb will be moving into his junior year with redshirt freshman Michael Desormeaux pushing for playing time after 2004 backup Luke Sniewski left.

"Our quarterbacks now are becoming very similar," Bustle said. "They're all athletic, so we can do a lot of the same things. Last year that wasn't the case with Jerry and Luke.

"Michael, coming up, is as good or better an athlete than Jerry is. He doesn't have the experience yet. And John Hundley, who we signed from St. Thomas More, is in that type mold."

Catholic-New Iberia product Desormeaux is a good enough athlete to help at more than one position, but is strictly behind center for now.

"Right now," Bustle said, "he's totally focused on quarterback. Fifteen days of spring is not enough time to do anything else. He's done a nice job. He's very athletic.

"Michael's got a great personality about him. He walks around like he's 35-40 years old, which is good. Last week he showed a lot of poise in our first scrimmage."

The rest of the story

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com