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Mr. Derek Morel

Home:
2012 Ormand
Destrehan, LA 70047

Work:

Home Phone: 337-739-0612
Work Phone: --
Fax: --
Email: morelderek@hotmail.com

Football: Win special for Morel

September 08, 2004 –

Cajun linebacker relished 14-7 victory over brother
Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

September 8, 2004

LAFAYETTE — That face across the line of scrimmage was a familiar one for UL Lafayette’s Derek Morel.

Morel and younger brother Connor were on opposite sides when the Cajuns opened the 2004 season against Northwestern State last Saturday, Derek at linebacker and Connor at quarterback for the visiting Demons.

“He kind of gave me a wink and smiled when he came on the field,” Morel said of Connor, who hit 4-of-4 passes for 18 yards in limited action.

“It was weird. Since we’ve been growing up, we’ve always been together. I was the receiver and he was the quarterback. So, playing defense against him was a little different.

“But once the game started, he wasn’t my brother any more. He was the opposing quarterback.”

The Cajuns prevailed 14-7 before a crowd of over 22,000, a good number of whom are members of the Morel clan.

“We had more family members than we knew what to do with afterwards,” Morel said. “I’m looking forward to seeing him continuing to improve.”

The Cajuns’ Morel is on his own path of improvement, getting more of a role as a sophomore after limited duty in 2003.

“Last year I was mostly a special teams player,” Morel said. “To be able to play defense, and even starting this year, is really nice.

“We went into the game well-prepared by the coaches. We felt we had every angle covered. We had guys flying around and making some serious plays.

“Coach Pry (defensive coordinator Brent Pry) always tells us that things happen around the football.”

The end result was a hard-fought victory as the Cajun defense bent but refused to break in its new 4-3 alignment designed to limit big plays.

“Defensively,” said head coach Rickey Bustle, “we’ve got to get more production from our up-front guys. Our linebackers and defensive backs were making a lot of tackles.

“I think we played hard in the first half, but didn’t tackle that well. Then in the second half we tackled better.”

That will be a premium again this week as the Cajuns travel to play Louisiana Tech in Ruston. Tech drilled Nevada 38-21 on Monday behind an eye-catching rushing attack led by Ryan Moats.

“With their running back and offensive line, it’s a big task,” Morel said.

“It doesn’t look like they’ve lost a step in their running game. We have our work cut out for us.

“We’ll start preparing for them as soon as we can.”

There won’t be any family members across the line from Morel this week. Just an old rival ready to test the UL defense once again.