Cajuns ready to move on to real opener

[NewsCopy]

The exhibition's over now. You know, the one that everyone knows what's going to happen, the one that in the overall scheme of things doesn't really matter. The Louisiana Ragin' Cajun football team will be more remembered more for how they play the final 10 games of the 2005 season than what happened in last Saturday's 60-3 crunching by Texas. That's why Saturday's contest at Eastern Michigan may actually be more important than the season opener, since it could set a tone for 10 straight games that could all be called toss-ups. "The rest of our schedule's very competitive," Cajun head coach Rickey Bustle said Monday. "There's some good teams, but I've been in this deal a long time and they (Texas) may be the best team I've ever faced." Bustle started stressing that very point to his squad immediately after the loss. "You have to be realistic," he said. "I've always been honest with our guys. But I also told them that North Texas lost to that team 65-0 in the first game last year and wound up in a bowl game. "I'm glad we've got that one done now. I'd hate for us to be playing well and have that happen in the middle of the season." That doesn't figure to happen again. After Eastern Michigan (0-1), the Cajuns play three straight home games including the Sun Belt Conference opener against Florida Atlantic on Oct. 8. That game kicks off seven straight league games that covers the remainder of the season. Eastern Michigan, on the other hand, gets its shot at a major power one week after Saturday's game, with the Eagles going to meet Michigan on Sept. 17 before playing eight straight Mid-American Conference games. EMU's already let one chance at a non-conference win slip away, falling at Cincinnati 28-26 last Thursday. "They played Cincinnati close," said Cajun quarterback Jerry Babb, "so we know they're a good team. You always make the most improvement between the first and second games, and for us we saw what we need to do to improve. There's nothing like game situations to show you that. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[Tripple Threat]

I hope the $500,000 the university received from UT was directed in the right place, because those guys did not need to be put through that pain while they were already distracted by more important issues. Who makes the call to push through and play that game? Who makes the call to cancel that game? Is the the money so important that our players had to risk injury when there minds and bodies were required to be somewhere else?

I didn't expect us to score more than 14 and that was if we were lucky. Texas will dominate most teams that they play; I don't think it's a poor reflection of our team. It's to bad the team had to go through that. Hopefully they can get over the loss quickly and move on.

The whole situation is upsetting...

Priorities were in the wrong place!