Fall Practice Days 1-15

[RaginEsquire06]

Appreciate you guys taking the time to go out, watch, and give your first-hand impressions of the team practices. You can only get so much info from print media. Thanks!

The practice conditions was nice today....Overcast with a steady breeze! Showed in the players performance...not much noticeable fatigue

[CajunNation]

I can't make it out to practice.

If I could go, I would want to check these things:

1)Backup O-lineman
Falter, Cutler, Talamo, Norman,--Any of these guys worth a darn?
Or, will the freshman signees have to play?

2)Can anybody besides Sampy catch the freakin' ball?

3)Who looks like they can really run the ball this season--Fenroy or Wallace?


It's not that I'm not worried about the defense. I am. It's just that all of the unknowns this season are on the offense. The 2-deep on defense is pretty much already decided.

[RaginEsquire06]

I can't make it out to practice.

If I could go, I would want to check these things:

1)Backup O-lineman
Falter, Cutler, Talamo, Norman,--Any of these guys worth a darn?
Or, will the freshman signees have to play?

2)Can anybody besides Sampy catch the freakin' ball?

3)Who looks like they can really run the ball this season--Frenoy or Wallace?


It's not that I'm not worried about the defense. I am. It's just that all of the unknowns this season are on the offense. The 2-deep on defense is pretty much already decided.

Since you can't make it to practice...I'll give you my take on the questions presented....1st, honest opinion...the O-line has looked terrible..starters or back ups...you really don't even need to point a specific person out! Much improvement is needed in this area! 2nd, Frenoy and Wallace both can run the ball! Both are built very similar...only real difference, Frenoy seems to run more aggressive than Wallace...doesn't shy away from contact. Wallace appears to be the faster back...also more elusive. IMO...Once they gain confidence and experience, they will be the best backs that we have had in a Cajun uniform....Hands down!

Wideouts...inconsistent at this point, however...flashes of good athletic ability and toughness have been displayed....no one individual has really separated himself from the pack! Freshman J. Cherry(?) appears to be a future bright spot!

Understand none of this amounts to a pile of " " if the displayed abilities don't transfer over once full contact begins....anyone with a modest amount of talent can look great absent the fear of someone trying to knock your head off!

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns practiced for the first time in full pads on Friday. The practice featured two team periods in addition to a middle drill.

The middle drill consists of the offense versus the defense in a full-speed, full-contact situation were every play is a run.

"Middle drill is all run and the defense knows it," said offensive line coach Ron Hudson. "You have to be able to run the ball offensively, while the defense believes that they have to stop the run.

"I think it's the best drill we have and the players get pumped up for it."

The players were excited for middle drill, especially the offense who may have felt they were pushed around on Thursday.

"I thought the offense got better today," Hudson added. "The reason being the defense got after us yesterday (Thursday) and we didn't respond to it.

"Today the guys raised their level of intensity to match the defense and because of that played a little more physical. We were sound in running the football."

Thursday's work in shoulder pads led way to only a small transition to full pads.

"To the players, the first day of pads was Thursday," Hudson stated. "You can do the same things in shoulder pads as you can in full pads. The defense really got after us Thursday and Friday was our day to respond and grow a little.

"Our intensity and focus was better today and I think we had a little more fun."

As well as the offense performed early on, the defense made a late charge. The two team periods featured first down situations and passing under pressure.

The defense was able to limit the offense to no gain on four of the seven first down attempts and added three sacks in the seven pass under pressure drills.

"The defense stepped up their tempo near the end of practice in the team periods," Hudson commented. "We stayed the same and they got the better of us.

"We didn't protect the quarterback and didn't do a good job picking up the blitz."

The Cajuns will have the first of four two-a-day practices on Saturday beginning with an 8:30am session. The afternoon workout is slated for 3:30pm

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns football team experienced their first two-practice day on Saturday. The Cajuns worked for two hours over a hot morning session, and then returned for an afternoon practice under more mild temperatures.

Rain and lightning delayed the afternoon practice about 30 minutes, but kept the heat to a bearable level.

The defense dominated the morning work, including an impressive showing in the team third-down period.

The trend continued in the afternoon, with the defense getting the better of the middle drill.

"It was hot and humid in the morning," said defensive line coach Shawn Quinn. "The defense really got it going in the morning during the live work.

"We came back in the afternoon with some full speed work in the middle drill.

"Our goal is to be consistent in practice. Everyone expects to get better each practice."

The offense made some good plays in the team run-play-action period. Quarterback Jerry Babb made a pair of good plays scrambling from defenders, while running backs Chester Johnson, Booker Jenkins and Josh Harrison each had a good burst when their number was called.

"The offense has been pretty vanilla thus far, so it gives the defense an edge," Quinn explained. "They haven't put all of their stuff in, so we haven't seen very many formations.

"We are working on the fundamentals right now. This is the time for it and we need to have the basics down in order to be a good football team."

With several classes familiar with the Cajuns systems, it has been easier for the coaches and a smoother transition for the newcomers.

"We are fortunate to have some older players that have been in the program for a few years," Quinn added. "Those good guys have done an excellent job of showing the new guys how to work hard and prepare in practice.

The Cajuns will practice on Sunday prior to Fan Day.

Fan Day will be this Sunday, August 14 from 6-7 p.m. at Cajun Field. Admission is free and fans are invited to join the Cajuns for autographs, photos and fun.

Head coach Rickey Bustle and the entire Ragin' Cajuns football team, as well as head volleyball coach Amy Kraljev, head soccer coach Scot Wieland and head cross country coach Lance Veazey will be on hand with their respective teams.

Borden's will help fans beat the heat with complimentary ice cream sandwiches. Acadiana Bottling will also be giving away Pepsi products to help fans stay cool and hydrated.

The first 500 children will receive an All-Sport Autograph Book given away courtesy of Borden's, Acadiana Bottling and McDonald's. These autograph books are a great way to get signatures from your favorite UL players.

Fans are encouraged to park on the east side of Cajun Field and enter the playing surface through the tunnel.

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns football team worked for the seventh straight day of camp on Sunday, and third straight day in full pads.

The team enjoyed a shorter practice, working through 11 seven-minute periods. The Cajuns had been practicing over 12 nine-minute periods.

The final period was a team session in third down situations. The seven-play work was declared a draw, as the offense converted on three tries and was stopped by the defense three times. One play was deemed to close to call.

"Practice went much better for the offense today," said wide receivers coach Brian Crist. "We were crisp today and did a good job on third down.

"The competition was good. Regardless of who wins, we need to have good competition in practice to make both sides better.

The showing on offense was an improvement from the first two days in full pads, as the defense was decisively better early.

"The first day of two-a-days (Saturday) was not that good because a lot of the young guys started to get tired and then maybe felt sorry for themselves," Crist stated

The wide receiver position may be the youngest on the team, as four sophomores, six freshman and one junior college transfer have composed the 11 receivers in camp thus far.

"The young receivers are working hard and not making many mental mistakes," Crist said. "I was initially concerned about the large number of newcomers and how they would blend with the young group that we already have. They've done a great job blending together and have worked hard. They need to continue to work hard.

"The toughest part about coming in as a new wide receiver is the amount of memorization required. Nobody is going to tell you what to do, you just have to know."

The Cajuns toughest week of camp is ahead. The team will have two-a-day practices on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of this coming week. Tuesday and Thursday will feature morning weight sessions, followed by afternoon practices. The tough week also includes the team's first two scrimmages of the fall.

UL will scrimmage on Wednesday, August 17 at 3:30pm and Saturday, August 20 at 1pm. Both scrimmages will be held at Cajun Field. Fans are invited to attend all practices and scrimmages.

With full contact drills in place, several players are starting to experience the aches and pains of camp. Freshman running back Deon Wallace did not compete over the weekend with a neck strain. Several players have been bothered by heat exhaustion and cramps. Joe Bradley was limited over the weekend with a shoulder injury. Ray Givens (finger) and Julian Harris (back) have been recovering from injuries suffered earlier in the week and are both day-to-day.

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns football team racticed outside and indoors on Monday to complete the second of four two-a-day practices. The Cajuns worked for two-plus hours outside on the practice field in the morning, but were forced inside to the Cajundome Convention Center for a shortened afternoon session.

The morning work was the team's fifth straight in full pads and featured a 30-minute high paced team period consisting of 15 plays. Running back Abdule Levier had the biggest play of the morning, breaking multiple tackles during the team period en route to a 40-yard touchdown run.

"I thought it was a physical morning practice," said running back coach Brian Jenkins. "Each side was looking to make a statement. It was productive."

"Our team period was at game pace and it was good to see several guys respond. I think the defensive line and secondary did a good job.

"There was a very good effort all around."

Heavy rain forced UL inside in the afternoon and resulted in three lost periods, including the team third down period. The squad scaled back to work in helmets and shoulder pads.

"Some people may see (lost time outside) as a negative," Jenkins added. "We use our time wisely and I think it may be something we needed.

The close confines led to more individual work between each coach and their position players.

"(Going indoors) allowed us time to scale back, rejuvenate our legs and work on our fundamentals," Jenkins stated. "We did more walk-through work, slowing things down and teaching a little more. The young guys were able to understand better with the slow pace."

The Cajuns practice on Tuesday at 3:30pm in preparation for Wednesday's scrimmage. The team will work Wednesday morning at 8am before scrimmaging at Cajun Field at 3:30pm.

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns enjoyed their final day of preparation on Tuesday before the first official scrimmage of the fall.

The Cajuns worked for 11 periods in full pads, plus a conditioning session over warm, but dry conditions on the Cajuns practice field.

UL will have a light workout in shorts at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning in one last exercise before the scrimmage. The team will scrimmage at 3 p.m. at Cajun Field.

Tuesday's work featured a defense dominated middle drill and an offense dominated pass-under-press period.

"We had a pretty good day defensively," said Cajuns cornerbacks coach Terry Sims. "The defensive line and linebackers had a good middle drill. They've made up their minds to play hard positive football every play."

The first play of the pass-under-pressure period saw quarterback Jerry Babb connect with wide receiver Cory Frederick up the middle for an uncontested touchdown. Babb's next pass had wide out Kevin Robbins deep on the left side but Robbins was bumped by the defensive back in what appeared to be defensive pass interference.

"Pass under pressure is a tough drill on each side," Sims explained. "The ball comes out quick and the defensive backs have to react quickly and break."

The rigors of camp have taken its toll, as several players are limited by minor injuries. The Cajuns secondary felt that pain during the pass-under-pressure drill.

"We struggled a little bit in the secondary because there are some guys hurt right now," Sims said. "There are some new guys back there getting a few more reps for the first time. They have a little more mental work to do to catch up.

"I don't think that you can ever look at an injury as a positive, but we are able to work some guys that we are going to need down the road.

"Everybody is fighting through the fatigue and making plays. The biggest thing is that they (the team) are sticking together. They've been doing it since day one."

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns underwent their first official scrimmage of the fall on Wednesday afternoon. The scrimmage was scheduled for 104 total plays with the first and second team offense and defense slotted for 35 plays each. The third team was scheduled to run 14 plays with the special teams running 20 drills.

Due to the extreme temperatures, some of the sessions were cut a little short.

"I think there was good effort out there," stated head coach Rickey Bustle. "I think they fought through [the heat]. I saw a couple of guys get tired out there and we had some guys get dinged up, but I thought they fought through it well. We ended up with about a hundred snaps, and I thought it was a good first scrimmage."

Fullback Dwight Lindon was notable catching the ball out of the backfield. Freshman tailback Tyrell Fenroy also made some impressive plays running and catching the ball for the offense.

Junior quarterback Jerry Babb showed poise both running and throwing the football. Babb scrambled for some good yardage when pressured by the defense. Throwing the ball, the Lafayette native was right on target, but defensive break ups and dropped balls stifled his completion totals. Babb was limited in his reps to give the coaches a look at some younger players.

"We know where Jerry is," commented Bustle. "He got some snaps, but we wanted to get Michael [Desormeaux] in there and see what he could do."

Redshirt freshman Michael Desormeaux showed marked improvement running the offense as he was able to run the first and second team. The second year quarterback threw the ball well and was able to scramble affectively against the defense.

"I thought [Desormeaux] did a nice job," Bustle said of his young backup quarterback. "I thought he made a couple of nice throws that didn't get caught. He had a guy open in the middle that he didn't make a good throw on, but again that goes back to consistency."

The offensive units as a whole exhibited potential, but were stopped by dropped balls and penalties.

"I have got to be patient," Bustle said of his receiving corp. "They are young, but there was an older guy that dropped one too. You have to have a lot of focus on that football to catch it and I think the heat affected some of those young ones because they got themselves open. We have just got to make catches."

The defense did a good job of keeping the offense honest, but some big plays by the offense spotlighted some consistency issues.

"Defensively I thought we were pretty good for the most part," commented Bustle. "We kept giving up that one long run or that long pass play. We just have to get where we are consistent."

Senior defensive end Eugene Kwarteng had two tackles for loss on consecutive plays. Linebacker Mark Risher was equally impressive during the scrimmage. The sophomore had a tackle for loss and then nearly intercepted a pass.

"This was our first live [scrimmage] and overall I was pleased with the efforts on both sides."

The Ragin' Cajuns will practice on Thursday and twice Friday before their second scrimmage on Saturday. The scrimmage is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Cajun Field.

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Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns football team moved indoors for Thursday’s practice. Forecasts called for threatening weather near the start of practice, so the Cajuns ventured to the Cajundome Convention Center.

Unfortunately, only mild rains fell and the weather cleared midway through practice.

“Forecasting the weather is really tough,” said safeties coach Tim Rebowe.

“We made a decision to move up Wednesday’s scrimmage because the forecast called for bad weather – and it ended up being a beautiful day.”

Once a decision is made to move indoors and practice begins, it’s rarely changed. Too much time would be wasted moving practice equipment and auxiliary personnel. In addition, all 105 players would have to move back across the street into the locker room to change from indoor shoes to cleats. The entire process would waste valuable practice time.

“It too difficult to move back outside,” Rebowe added. “Some of us coaches) noticed the weather clearing up, but the guys were intense and focused and I don’t believe too many took note.”

One day after a physically demanding scrimmage, many players secretly welcome the break an indoor practice provides.

“Being indoors gives the guys a bit of a break from the tough grind of practice,” Rebowe stated. “The pace is slower (inside), we move quickly outside. We do more walking and talking inside.

“The players were very focused inside. Doing our correction work (today) helped them a lot.”

Nearly half of Thursday’s practice was devoted to team correction and individual correction periods.

“A big part of practice was scrimmage corrections,” Rebowe explained. “We made some mistakes in the scrimmage but I liked the fact that they guys (on defense) went after the ball and went full speed.

“When the guys are focused, we are able to teach more indoors and they learn a lot. Our team pays attention and wants to learn. Because of that we are further along now than we were at this point last year.”

The Cajuns will practice twice on Friday in preparation of Saturday’s scrimmage.

The team will workout in full pads in the morning with a full slate scheduled. The afternoon should be a little slower because it will be prep work for the scrimmage.

The scrimmage, held at Cajun Field, has been moved up to 8:15am on Saturday.

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns enjoyed their final two-a-day practice session on Friday. The Cajuns worked a morning session in full pads in the heat at the Cajuns practice fields. The afternoon session saw the team move inside the Cajundome Convention Center to work in shoulder pads.

The morning featured a middle drill, two pass skel periods, a run-play-action team period and a pass-under-pressure team period.

"The morning started out very well," said Cajuns tight ends coach Troy Wingerter. "Middle drill was intense; we had a lot of guys running around making plays."

The morning heat started to take its toll on the weary Cajuns just past the midway point of practice following middle drill.

"The guys get fired up for middle drill, but then things started to lag," Wingerter commented. "It was very warm out there."

UL moved inside for the afternoon after heavy rain showers saturated the practice field.

"We still have some live-action things that we need to get in," Wingerter said. "We've made the most of the time and place where we've been able to practice. The varsity periods were still good and we got a lot out of them."

The Cajuns will have their second fall scrimmage on Saturday at 8:15am at Cajun Field. The scrimmage was moved to the morning after the intense heat during the first scrimmage on Wednesday.

"We have a number of players dinged up," Wingerter explained. "We're at the end of two-a-days and this is how things go. It helps a lot of the young guys get valuable experience."

Four players will not participate in Saturday's scrimmage. Joe Bradley (hamstring), Mike Canon (back), Brandon Cox (knee) and Justin Taylor (knee) are definitely out. David Lewis (foot) is doubtful, while a quintet of players are questionable, including Eddie Brown (heat), Will Chance (knee), Travis Ferguson (shoulder), Ryan Finney (quad) and Kale Wildbur (calf).

On a positive note, Chancellor Roberson (head), Kevin Robbins (foot) and Deon Wallace (neck) all return to action after missing the first scrimmage.

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Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns had their second Scrimmage of the fall on Saturday morning. The 8am start still found hot and humid temperatures rising near 90 degrees with a heat index close to 100.

The scrimmage was scripted for 110 plays, but was considerably shorter. All 14 scripted special teams plays were completed, while only 72 of the 96 offensive plays were completed.

"It's win lose out there," head coach Rickey Bustle said. "Its good to see some plays being made on the field. The intensity was higher than our last scrimmage."

The Cajuns first team offense moved the ball well under the direction of quarterback Jerry Babb. Babb finished the day 5-of-8 for 82 yards and touchdown. Two of Babb's three incompletions were dropped balls.

Kevin Robbins hauled in a pair of receptions, including a 26-yard scoring strike from Babb. Jordan Jackson had an outstanding 20-yard reception from Babb. The 6-foot-6 sophomore made a leaping catch on first down with the offense backed-up on their own 10 yard-line.

Nine different running backs had touches, producing four rushing touchdowns. Chester Johnson opened the scoring for the offense with a one-yard plunge. He was followed by a two-yard scamper from Tyrell Fenroy. Abdule Levier produced a four-yard score, while Deon Wallace added a six-yard touchdown. The running backs, including true freshmen Fenroy and Wallace, did a good job at times making the defense miss.

Levier led all backs with 10 carries for 29 yards.

All four rushing touchdowns came after the offense started their drive six yards from the end zone.

"We started off a little slow offensively, but we came around during the goal line," Bustle added.

The defense did a good job stopping the offense away from the red zone. The defense recorded eight tackles for loss, four stops for no gain, two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

"I was pleased with the defensive effort," Bustle stated. "The two interceptions were nice to see and the defense really bottled the offense at times."

Michael Adams had three highlight reel plays on defense. A fumble recovery by Jarrett Jones was returned 15 yards before a lateral by Jones to Mark Risher. Risher moved the ball forward seven more yards before he pitched the ball to Adams. Adams made a quick spin move to shake his pursuers before racing 60 yards for a touchdown. Adams also had a 50-yard kick-off return and an interception with a 15-yard return.

"(The defensive touchdown) was a great play by the defense to keep the interception alive," Bustle commented.

Derek Morel had the Cajuns other interception which he returned 20 yards.

The Cajuns will begin their in-season work week starting on Sunday with a 7:30pm practice. The team will have Monday off during the season and will use this coming Monday (the first day of school) as an off day to allow players to have academic meetings.

UL will have their final scrimmage of the fall on Wednesday afternoon.

Notes: Cajuns starting left tackle Jesse Newman was carted off with an apparent knee injury. Newman was injured on the fourth to last play of the scrimmage after a pile of defenders converged on the ball carrier during a goal line drill. The initial diagnosis by team doctors is a sprained knee. Newman will be re-evaluated on Monday.

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