There's no time for head-hanging this week, so says Louisiana head coach Rickey Bustle.

"The preseason's over," Bustle said Sunday before his Ragin' Cajun football team held an evening practice. "It didn't go how we wanted it to go, but we can't worry about that now. Our conference games start on a short week."

The 1-3 Cajuns, still smarting from a last-second 24-21 home loss to Central Florida on Saturday at Cajun Field, open Sun Belt Conference play in a rare Thursday night battle against league newcomer Florida Atlantic (0-5).

"Our motivation will be the short week we have coming," said sophomore linebacker Mark Risher, who had seven solo tackles with two for losses, a sack and a forced fumble Saturday. "It's hard, but we'll have to put this one behind us."

Risher, a product of St. Thomas More, was part of a defense that recorded five sacks on UCF quarterback Steven Moffett in the game's last 18 minutes. Those sacks - the first of the year for the UL defense - helped limit UCF to only 39 offensive yards in the second half before the Knights' late 51-yard march that set up John Brown's winning 28-yard field goal.

"Defensively, we gave a great effort," Bustle said. "There were a lot of big plays in the game, a lot of sacks and tackles for losses."

There were also key plays offensively, many of those provided by redshirt freshman quarterback Michael Desormeaux. Junior and three-year starter Jerry Babb suffered a sprained ligament in his right shoulder on Saturday's fifth play at the end of a 15-yard scramble.

Desormeaux came on and struggled on UL's first three possessions, but over the final two and one-half quarters the former Catholic-New Iberia standout hit 10-of-17 passes for 106 yards and rushed for 66 more.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com