Venable reaches final home game
Three years ago, head coach Rickey Bustle was wrapping up his first season as head coach of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajun football team and Justin Venable hobbled to midfield on crutches.
Venable, who tore a ligament in his right knee during that season, was being honored in the final home game of 2002 as one of the seniors on Bustle's first unit.
Saturday evening, unless something awful happens between now and the 6 p.m. kickoff against Florida International, he'll make that walk again - this time, without the crutches - to be honored as a senior playing his final regular-season home game.
"The emotions will be high," Venable said. "I'll probably shed a few tears with it being the last home game."
The emotions may be high, but so will the confusion for many.
How does a player, one who walked the senior walk in 2002, turn around and do the same thing in 2005, at age 25? The numbers don't add up. NCAA personnel would be aghast.
"I sort of figured by now I'd already have a career doing something," Venable said. "I didn't think I'd be playing football."
But he is, and he's playing a key role as the deep snapper in all UL kicking situations - ironically, the same role that his father played for four years nearly a quarter-century ago.
"But I only did it for four years," said father Lee. "No way I'd have put up with what he's put up with for that long. I'd have quit 50 times."
What the younger Venable has put up with is three knee surgeries and a broken jaw, each of which effectively put him out of action for all or most of four different seasons.
Venable's collegiate odyssey began in the spring of 1998 when he signed with the Cajuns and then-head coach Nelson Stokley out of Acadiana High, where he was one of the state's top linebackers. But a torn ACL ligament suffered in the Louisiana High School All-Star game on July 24 sidelined him for his natural freshman season.
He played in nine games in 1999 as a freshman, but not as much as he hoped under new coach Jerry Baldwin. Then, another torn knee ligament before 2000 spring practice shelved him for that season, and the jaw injury came after limited playing time in the first two games of 2001.
Under NCAA rules, players have five years to get in four playing seasons, so Venable, Bustle and his new staff figured that 2002 was his swan song. And, wouldn't you know ... a knee injury, this time his right ACL, ended his 2002 hopes in the third game at Houston.
By the time Venable hobbled to midfield for the 2002 senior honors prior to the Arkansas State game, he'd missed 42 of a potential 56 games.
"The first four or five years I didn't get the playing time I'd expected," Venable said, "and it was pretty hard. There was a new staff coming in that was committed to turning the program around, and I wanted to be there when it happened."
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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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