MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The records will show for all posterity that Michael Desormeaux's option pitch to Booker Jenkins and the senior fullback's 6-yard run with that pitch was the difference in Louisiana's 13-10 victory over Middle Tennessee.

But it was a fourth-down play two and one-half minutes earlier that made it possible, and if Saturday is any indication it may have been the turning point in a season on the brink for a snakebit-until-Saturday Cajun football team.

The Cajuns trailed 10-7 and had been turned away twice on fourth down inside the MT 35 during the game, and with 3:18 left they faced a fourth-and-four at their own 48.

"Coach (Rickey) Bustle and I talked during the time out," said UL offensive coordinator Rob Christophel, "and I told him let's go for it. It's now or never, and he agreed."

Christophel went deep into the playbook and found something the Cajuns hadn't run all season, but something that he had confidence in.

It was a roll-out to the left by Desormeaux and a throwback screen across the field to Dwight Lindon.

"Rob had done a great job of setting it up the whole game," said receivers coach Brian Crist, who sent in the play to Desormeaux after Christophel called it from the press box. "We'd talked about that play since the first half. The defense had been holding them all night, and with what was going on, it was time to go for it."

"It's not really anything tricky. It's just a screen," Desormeaux said. "But it was a great call."

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com