University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
2008 Fall Camp Week 2
8/17/2008 5:00:00 AM | Football
The offense was hot early, but eventually the defense turned the corner and had a good outing.
“We did everything as far as the script was concerned,” head coach Rickey Bustle explained. “We got good work. I thought our offense came out early and made some big plays. The defense was kind of down and we gave up a big run and a big throw.
The defense stuffed the offense on the first two series, but the offense rallied to get the early momentum. Michael Desormeaux hit speedster Jason Chery with a 64-yard deep pass that sailed over the defense for an easy score.
Desormeaux finished 12-of-18 passing for 192 yards and one score. Back-up
Freshman quarterback Blaine Gauthier was 6-of-6 passing for 90 yards and ran six times for 53 yards, including a two-yard rushing score.
Chery and Green led all receivers with three receptions apiece. Chery had a team-high 83 yards.
Tyrell Fenroy kept the offense rolling as he rumbled 43 yards for a touchdown on his second carry of the day. Fenroy was limited to just three carries, earning 55 yards. Back-up Yobes Walker had a team-high 12 rushing attempts for 47 yards. Matt Dupre led three other running backs with eight carries, finishing with 35 yards and a pair of four-yard scoring runs.
The offense continued to drive the ball over the next three series until an errant snap led to a fumble recovery by linebacker Daylon McCoy. McCoy's recovery pushed the momentum toward the defense that would carry over for the remainder of the scrimmage.
The next series saw a three-and-out by the offense thanks to consecutive sacks by the defense.
“All of a sudden the momentum changed,” Bustle stated. “Our defense stepped up and started playing with more emotion. We made a mistake there on a snap where we had a drive and we lost the football. We were down there with the number one unit on the goal line and turned it over. We've got to straighten those things out.
Masson was the favorite target of the Cajuns defense, as he was sacked eight times, including six times in the first half. The defense finished with nine sacks.
Freshman Emeka Onyenekwu recovered another fumble for the defense to keep the offense under wraps.
“The defense started out a little bit slow,” Bustle said. “They picked it up and I think the momentum just switched like it does in the game some times.
“One of the things we're harping on is getting those turnovers. I saw stripped balls today, which is good for the defense and bad for the offense, but that is something that we want to create defensively.
“It's something we are emphasizing, and I think you get what you emphasize. We're emphasizing five turnovers a day in practice.
“You take the good things and you build on them, and you correct the bad things. And sometimes on film things aren't ever as good or bad as they seem, so the obvious things we can correct hopefully, and just keep building on them.”
The Cajuns will practice on Monday and Tuesday afternoon before holding their final fall scrimmage on Wednesday. Wednesday will mark the conclusion of fall camp, as the team will start their game week preparations a few days early.
Ragin' Cajun's football continued in full swing Thursday, ending outside the Leon Moncla Indoor Practice Facility with a varsity period, focusing on several different areas of the game.
Though not quite as intense as Tuesday's drills, Thursday's practice showed definite improvement since Monday.
“We made some significant strides,” tight end coach Troy Wingerter said. “Every single day, that number [of errors] reduces, from the first day we started, it has gotten less and less and less, almost exponentially. Watching these guys get better is really awesome.”
In the team practices, progress is apparent as the group tries to find ways to come together before the first game in sixteen days, on Aug. 30 at Southern Miss, including exercises specifically designed for team building.
“The fast and furious pace of the defense is a real big boost, a real big tempo boost, a real big excitement boost for the team,” Wingerter said. “With the team building exercises we're doing with [passing game and quarterbacks] coach Munoz at night, you can see there's a level of accountability that exists with each other that hasn't existed as much in the past as it does right now.”
Despite the progress, there is still work to be done.
“Unfortunately, today was riddled with inconsistencies,” Wingerter said. “Some of that's got to do with a lot of young guys, but a lot of these young guys have played, so there's no excuse. The bottom line is that the good teams aren't just good when it's Saturday night. They're good every day and in every practice.”
The Cajuns practice on Friday at
Practice ended with an extended varsity period that began with third down plays. Each of the offensive unit's only converted 1-of-6 opportunities of varying length.
“The defense dominated the third down battle,” head coach Rickey Bustle said. “The first team offense only picked-up one first down and they have to get better at that.”
Following the third down drills, the teams battled one another in a game situation inside the 30-yard line. The offense scored on three of their four possessions.
“We ran a sudden change at the defense,” Bustle explained. “It's a situation where the offense needs to get into the end zone, but the defense needs to shut them down.
“After having a tough time on third downs, the offense did a great job to score.”
There were nearly as many penalty flags thrown in Wednesday's short varsity session as there were in Saturday's 117 play scrimmage.
“We had too many flags,” Bustle stated. “A couple of them were motion things that we need to get worked out. The coaches should be able to fix a lot of the problems.”
The team will continue to practice during the rest of the week at 3:30 p.m. leading up to Saturday morning's scrimmage at 8:45 a.m.
Play of the Day...True freshman Ladarius Green of
The full pads from Monday's practice were lightened to should pads on Tuesday. The change, coupled with several outspoken coaches of the previous day's lackluster effort, helped the team bound back.
“The morning (walk-through) was very good,” linebackers coach Tim Rebowe said. “We spent a lot of time on individual work... the guys came out determined. They knew that we didn't have a good day yesterday and things were very positive (on Tuesday).
“We came back in the afternoon and got after each other a little bit. Both sides of the ball had good thing happen.”
The Cajuns veteran leaders were ready to police any subpar effort, but weren't needed. The entire team was energized and focused from the onset of practice.
“I saw a lot of guys step up,” Rebowe stated. “They didn't have to get on guys. The workmanlike attitude and encouragement helped fuel everyone.”
Both the offense and defense are still installing plays and packages which make for mentally and physically challenging practices. The team is expected to have everything in by Saturday's scrimmage.
“The guys need to get into their playbooks,” Rebowe added. “Hopefully next week is fine tuning.”
The Cajuns will practice the rest of the week at 3:30p.m. Saturday's scrimmage is slated to begin between around 8:45a.m.
Injury update: Offensive lineman Nasser Jamal, who sustained a serious knee injury in the first half of Saturday's scrimmage, is out indefinitely. He will be re-evaluated in one month.
In what was scheduled for an early ending of practice on Monday turned into extra conditioning for
The Cajuns worked 11 periods in full pads before ending on a sour note with conditioning.
“It was disappointing,” running backs coach Brian Jenkins said. “Disappointing as a football team (and) disappointing as a practice. Just disappointing.
“It was the worst practice of camp.”
The Cajuns were never able to find their focus after enjoying the previous 48 hours away from the practice field.
“I hope we never return to this point because we're never going to do it if we have many more practices like this,” Jenkins added.
“I think the guys didn't handle their day off correctly. With anything you do, when you get a break, you have to come back with focus.
“It's not the coaches ? it falls on the players. They have to find a way to come back more focused.”
The Cajuns look to rebound on Tuesday. The team has a walk through slated for 8 a.m. and will practice at 3:30 p.m.
“Tomorrow has to be a great one because we are operating from behind,” Jenkins stated. “Whenever you a practice like this (on Monday), you end up operating from behind.
“We are going to keep demanding the best, demanding they stay focused and demanding everything that they've got in them. They have to find a way to come back tomorrow and get back what we lost.”
