The Book: 2002-03 Louisiana Football season

[Cajun1997]

Many of us Cajun fans crack on ULM because they share the "UL" with us and some would love to see them sink back into 1-AA but love them or hate them their attendence is horrible and there is no excuse.

9/14 vs. McNeese State 10,091
9/21 vs. Arkansas State 9,375
10/5 vs. Tulane 11,645

total average=10,370 (first year 1-AA FIU is averaging 10,836)
4,630 below the needed 15,000 average

The people of Monroe and the students at ULM have to know their team is in danger of dropping back to 1-AA, it seems (to me) they just do not care.

[Cajun1997]

Arkansas State Indians
4-3 overall 2-0 in conference
avg home attendence= 16,218 (the way they are playing this should be better)

Lets throw out 3 of their 7 games, 2 blowout losses to Virginia Tech and Illinois and their win over 1-AA UT-Martin.

Wins
Tulsa 21-19
ULM 33-21
MTSU 13-7

Loss
San Jose State 33-14

In these 4 games against "like" teams they are 3-1 and have scored 81 points (20 points a game) while allowing 61 points (15 points a game).

Overall, they are much better than many people predicted. They will play a tough Ole Miss team this weekend, I will be there to scout them out.

[Cajun1997]

10/12 @ New Mexico State
10/19 @ Middle Tennessee
10/26 North Texas
11/02 Idaho (HC)
11/09 Arkansas State
11/16 @ Arkansas
11/23 @ ULM

Look at that 3 game home stand against SBC teams. We need to fill Cajun Field for each and every one of those games. I see no reason why we cannot go 6-1 and finish the season 7-5 overall and 6-0 in conference and play in the New Orleans Bowl December 17th. It could happen, remember North Texas last year? After losing to ULM they won 5 in a row to earn the SBC spot in New Orleans.

[NOCajun]

Nice that we're still out of the list, but we're going to have to really get our $^|t together for conference in order to STAY out of it!!

[Cajun1997]

I know that predictions are made over at Delphi (as I put mine in there as well) but there seems to be a few people who visit here that I never see post over there so why not?

My guess

Louisiana 24
New Mexico St 21

The NMSU message board:

Go Aggies

[Cajun1997]

Oct. 7, 2002

Glover Has Big Game - Wins Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Week

Sophomore linebacker Richard Glover (Las Cruces, N.M./Onate HS) registered a career high 17 tackles, returned an interception 17 yards for a touchdown and knocked UTEP starting quarterback Jon Schaper out of the game in the second quarter in the Aggies 49-14 romp over the Miners.



NMSU Official Athletic Site

[1stTake]

Mexico State 41
UL 38

[Cajun1997]

1 Air Force 5-0 Falcons have been waiting a year for a chance to pay back BYU.

2 Bowling Green 4-0 These Falcons are closing in on Air Force.

3 Marshall 3-1 Herd should have no problem this week against Buffalo.

4 Louisville 3-2 Cards need to get over FSU win and focus on Tuesday game at Memphis.

5 Southern Miss 4-1 Eagles head to South Florida before C-USA stretch run begins.

6 Boise State 4-1 Broncos look like solid WAC contender after win over Hawaii.

7 BYU 3-2 Cougars rallied from 27-point deficit to beat Utah State.

8 Fresno State 3-3 Bulldogs toppled former Mid-major No. 2 Colorado State last week.

9 Colorado State 4-2 Tough schedule should have Rams prepared for Mountain West season.

10 Arkansas State 4-3 Good week for Arkansas State to catch Ole Miss napping.

[Cajun1997]

as I said last week (do not remember on what board), I am happy for ASU and the fact they have 4 wins and are doing well. That said, they do not deserve to be #10 on this poll. They are 4-3 overall 2-0 in conference with wins over ULM, Tulsa, MTSU and UT-Martin. Let me give you just one example of a team that should be ranked ahead of them. San Jose State, 4-2 overall 2-0 in the WAC with wins over Illinois, SMU, UTEP and yes ASU. Not only has San Jose State beat ASU they defeated Illinois 38-35 while Illinois beat ASU 59-7. I know this poll is just for fun and really does not mean much but if your going to bother doing it, hell do it right.

[cajuntbob]

Glover's dad is the D-line coach for NMSU, He is also named Rich, and was a former All-American at Nebraska.
Played in the NFL also. He recruited my son when he
was in High School. This young man has all the right
genes and toutoring required to be a great player.
You are so right that someone should account for his
whereabouts at all times.b Holds the NCAA record for unassisted tackles in a game for a D-lineman (22)


Go Cajuns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Beat DEM Aggies!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cajun1997]

Throw out the first game from 2001 (Nicholls State) & 2002 (Texas A&M) and the numbers improve

2001
72 CMP 155 ATT 713 YARDS .46 CMP % 3 TD's 5 INT's

2002
55 CMP 112 ATT 657 YARDS .49 CMP % 2 TD's 4 INT's

[Cajun1997]

I think we have thrown more than Coach Bustle would have liked due to running game not getting it going yet

213 attempts 387 yards for only 1.8 yards

Even against UAB and Houston we have only
78-201 for 2.6 yards

I know Coach Bustle stated when he took over that he wanted a 1000 yard rusher. Jerome Coleman now has 228 yards on 79 carries, 2.9 yards per carry. He is on pace to have 547 yards this season. However, I think we will see Coleman's carries go up (he has only carried the ball more than 14 times in one game once this season) as well as his yards. With the exception of UNT & Arkansas, no other defense we will face will even come close to the defense of aTm or LSU. My longwinded point is, I think we will see JVC, Coleman, Stamps and the rest of the offense start improving quickly as the level of competition comes closer to our current level.