Louisiana College Football Roundup
Written by Dan McDonald
Monday, 26 October 2009 19:15
College Football News
How quickly things can change in the world of college football.
Only three weeks ago UL Lafayette was riding high, with an upset win over Kansas State propelling the Ragin’ Cajuns to a 2-2 record against a rugged non-conference schedule. Even back-to-back losses to LSU and Nebraska didn’t deter the Cajun faithful, who knew that the competition in the eight remaining games – the entire Sun Belt Conference schedule – wouldn’t be on the same level as the out-of-league slate.
Now, after two narrow wins over the league’s two worst teams (North Texas and Western Kentucky) and a 51-29 Homecoming pummeling administered by Florida Atlantic last Saturday, the positive vibes have been replaced by soul-searching.
“A lot of things are trying to pull us apart as a team,” said offensive tackle Jonathan Decoster, who returns to his South Florida roots this weekend when UL Lafayette travels to face Florida International. “We know this next month and a half is pretty much it for us.”
“We’re missing our swagger,” said defensive tackle Sharrick Moore, also a Florida product. “We need to get back what we had. Saturday was pretty much a reality check for us.”
The Cajuns’ defense was shredded by the Owls, to the tune of 624 total yards. The 372 passing yards was almost expected since FAU had thrown successfully in most of its 2009 games and in both of its last two games against the Cajuns. The 252 rush yards, on only 41 carries, was not expected.
“I wish there was a simple answer,” said Cajun coach Rickey Bustle. “We didn’t play well defensively. Our kids are embarrassed, our coaches are embarrassed. When you give up yardage like we have the last three weeks, it’s tough.
“I really believe it’s from the ears up. We looked at the film and we were doing the right thing a lot of times, and we didn’t finish the play. We didn’t tackle. Defense isn’t something that you just turn on and off … we have to remind our guys of the things we were doing well early.”
The same unit that held LSU (6-1, 4-1 SEC) to 330 yards and Kansas State (5-3, 3-1 Big 12) to 377 has now allowed 483 to Nebraska (1-2 Big 12) and 444 to North Texas (1-6, 0-4 Sun Belt) prior to last week’s debacle.
Bustle said the Nebraska game, a 55-0 loss in a week that UL Lafayette had 17 roster players sidelined with injuries, started the downward spiral despite the two wins that followed the Lincoln trip.
“Going there and not having a lot of players, we gave up a lot of yardage and it’s had an effect,” he said. “We need to get back to where we were before we went up there, when we were stopping the running game.”
The Cajuns are a slight underdog at FIU Saturday and will be an even greater underdog over the rest of their current three-game road trip at Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee. If the Cajuns don’t win two of those three, their chances at a Sun Belt title are likely gone and any remaining talk of postseason play will likely be silenced for another year.
Decoster found a bright point, though.
“The difference in this year and last year is that our destiny is still in our hands,” he said. “Last year we beat a couple of teams at the end and we had to hope that some other people lost.”
“The decision on all of that is still in our hands,” Moore said.
ALSO BACKED UP: Louisiana Tech’s hopes for postseason play also suffered a setback Saturday when the Bulldogs fell 23-21 at previously 1-5, 0-2 Utah State. Tech (3-4, 2-2 WAC) faces a gauntlet that includes much-improved Idaho, top-five-ranked Boise State, LSU, Fresno State and San Jose State to finish the season.
All but the Boise and San Jose games are on the road, where the ‘Dogs are 0-4 this year after generating only 273 offensive yards at USU last Saturday. Two turnovers and seven penalties in the first half helped the host Aggies build a big first-half lead.
“It was a bad first half. It was bad,” head coach Derek Dooley told the Shreveport Times. “We had the ball at midfield with a chance to win it near the end, but we need to come out and not make so many mistakes to start the game. Those mistakes just decimated us.”
Tech, coming off an Independence Bowl appearance last year, must win three of its remaining five – a daunting task against that schedule -- just to get bowl eligible. And then, the WAC might not have enough bowl slots available, even though Boise appears on its way to another BCS bowl game.
One of Tech’s three touchdowns came on Houma-South Terrebonne product Phillip Livas’ 100-yard kickoff return. It was the sixth kick return for a touchdown (three kickoffs, three punts), a Tech record.
“We have got to get the ball in his hands more,” Dooley said.
DONE FOR: At least the Cajuns and the Bulldogs have a chance at playing past the regular season. Southern and an ESPNU national television audience saw the Jaguars’ chances end at the Prairie View A&M six-yard-line at the final horn Friday night.
PVA&M prevailed in a 16-14 decision that wasn’t decided until standout Jaguar receiver Juamorris Stewart was stripped after a reception and the Panthers recovered at their own six with 17.6 seconds left. Had Stewart – who had 12 catches for 162 yards in the game – held onto the ball, the Jaguars had an available time-out and would have had plenty of time to go for a game-winning touchdown or attempt a game-winning field goal.
The kick wouldn’t have been a sure thing since the field had been soaked by rain and was muddy in many areas, and Jaguar kicker Josh Duran has missed all five of his field goal tries this year including a 34-yarder early in Friday’s final quarter. But SU coach Pete Richardson said afterward that his team would have taken one shot at the end zone and then kicked it.
“We would have tried to get it to some solid ground, because it’s real soft in that area,” Richardson told the Baton Rouge Advocate. “A lot of it (Duran’s struggles) is just confidence. The issue is getting that confidence back in him, because he can do it.”
GAME OF THE WEEK: The best spectator game of last weekend was played at McNeese’s Cowboy Stadium, where the hosts survived a back-and-forth 36-35 battle with Southland Conference rival Southeastern Louisiana.
Cowboy quarterback Derrick Fourroux threw a five-yard scoring pass to Richard Connor with 39.7 seconds left, capping McNeese’s comeback from a 35-24 deficit. SLU, meanwhile, had trailed the ‘Pokes 24-7 late in the first half before the Lions scored 28 unanswered points.
“We had plenty of opportunities to score,” said SLU coach Mike Lucas, whose team lost for the first time in league play. “But we made too many mistakes against a very good football team in McNeese State.”
One of those mistakes came with 3:18 left when kicker Jeff Turner missed a 38-yard field goal, one that would have put SLU in front 38-30 and forced McNeese into a touchdown-and-two-pointer situation just to force overtime.
Fourroux promptly led the Cowboys on a 78-yard drive in only eight plays, completing three passes and gaining 17 yards on a scramble – at the end of which the Lions were tagged for 15 more yards on the dreaded horse-collar tackle.
“We’ve got the guy in there we want, no doubt,” McNeese coach Matt Viator said of the Erath native at quarterback. “He made a lot of plays running and throwing, so give him a lot of credit.”
Fourroux preferred to give Conner the credit for the game-winner.
“In the end zone, that was a hell of a catch,” he said. “He went down low and cradled it and caught it. That’s a big-time catch. We needed it.”
Both teams are 2-1 in SLC play, a game behind surprise unbeaten Stephen F. Austin. SLU still has the Lumberjacks to play, at home on Nov. 14.
COLONELS STRUGGLING: Central Arkansas tailback Brent Grimes, a native of Baton Rouge and former Redemptorist standout, ran for 155 yards and three touchdowns in leading the Bears to their 42-13 home win over Nicholls State last Saturday. The Colonels, who trailed 35-6 at halftime, were held to 253 offensive yards and have given up 42 or more points in five of their six losses.
Nicholls did get its third touchdown pass of the year, though, with LaQuint Caston throwing a 41-yard score to Anton Robinson. Robinson only touched the ball twice in the game and had two touchdowns, the other coming on a 42-yard run midway through the final quarter.
PIVOTAL FOR WARHAWKS: UL Monroe has been in the thick of some conference races at the halfway point a couple of times this decade, but the Warhawks have never been 3-0 since joining the Sun Belt Conference.
However, the three close wins over Florida Atlantic, Florida International and Arkansas State won’t mean as much if ULM doesn’t pull off an upset at Troy Saturday. The Sun Belt’s two remaining unbeatens square off at 6 p.m. at Troy – where the Trojans are 81-12-1 in coach Larry Blakeney’s 19 seasons.
The Trojans are also 22-3 against Sun Belt opponents over the last three-plus seasons.
ULM is 4-3 overall with five conference games remaining. If the Warhawks can go 4-1 in those games, even with a loss to Troy they would finish no worse than second in the Sun Belt and finish at 8-4. The question then arises is whether that will be good enough to go bowling … especially since ULM has been humbled in all three of its out-of-conference FBS games by a 133-47 margin.
