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Mr. Stephen Morella

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108 Chartwell Lane
Lafayette, Louisiana

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Email: smorella@cpa-arm.com

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Nov. 25, 2016

Like so many other Lafayette young’uns, Stephen Morella savored his fall Saturdays at Cajun Field.

But he rarely sat in the stands, and perhaps less frequently knew the score between UL and whatever opponent it was facing.

“We would go to the games all the time,” Morella said. “But, I mean, when you’re young, you don’t really watch the game.”

Rather, the grassy end zone hill closest to the Ragin’ Cajun locker room was the place to be.

“It was always up and down the hill, playing, throwing the football, hoping it didn’t roll onto the field, just stuff like that, not so much paying attention to the game,” Morella said.

“Everybody would go,” he added. “That was the spot.”

One Cajun player after another would walk down the concrete tunnel leading from the locker room to the field before each game, and afterward they’d walk back it up, and all the time in between the kids not yet their age would run and slide and chase each other and play catch with nary a care to keep them down.

As they romped, countless among them imagined the day they too would walk down and up that tunnel.

Morella, however, was not one of them.

Yet there he will be Saturday, when in the final home game of his fifth year at UL the 4-6 Cajuns will play host to 6-4 Arkansas State needing two wins in their final two regular-season outings – also including a Dec. 3 trip to UL Monroe – to become bowl-eligible for the fifth time in six seasons.

“I don’t think I ever imagined it,” Morella said, “which is why I feel so lucky. I feel very lucky.”

This story, then, is not about the dream that always was.

Rather, it is a tale of what really is.

It was around the time of his junior season that Morella, then an undersized defensive end at Lafayette High, started to ponder the notion that perhaps he too could actually play for the Cajuns.

“Then it became somewhat of a reality,” he said. “But before then I never would have thought (it)… which is why I feel so blessed to have the opportunity.”

Even after that junior season, though, there was a road block.

He broke his leg during the ensuing summer, prompting multiple surgeries and about two years’ worth of recovery and rehab.

Whatever speed Morella had that might have allowed him to play linebacker at UL or maybe a smaller school was sapped, so he decided to join the Cajuns – as a walk-on deep snapper.

It ultimately was an easy call.

“I didn’t want to go anywhere else,” Morella said. “I really wanted to be here, in Lafayette and at UL.”

It wasn’t until his third year in the program, however, that Morella actually played a game for the Cajuns.

The date was Aug. 20, 2014, and UL was playing host to Southern University in front of the third-largest crowd – 36,170 – to ever watch a game at Cajun Field.

Morella remembers everything about walking down the tunnel, on the leg he once snapped, and onto the field to face the Jaguars.

“I was so nervous I didn’t know what to do with myself – as I imagine a lot of people are their first collegiate play,” he said. “But that’s the fun thing about it. … All that emotion.

“I remember trying to absorb as much of what was going on around as I could.”

Loud music. Cheering fans. Screaming teammates.

He heard, and recalls, it all.

“I remember it was so new and so different that I just wanted to pick up every little thing about it that I could,” Morella said, “knowing there’s only a limited amount of time you can do that in life.

“So I wanted to pick up every little sensation abut that moment.”

With Morella snapping to holder Jake Guidry for a PAT and three made Hunter Stover field goals, UL beat Nevada 16-3 to win its fourth straight New Orleans Bowl at the end of that 2014 season.

UL kicking crew of Artigue, Morella, Guidry keeps calm

Time passed, and heading into the 2016 Morella was going to be both be snapping for Stevie Artigue on extra points and field goals and snapping to Steven Coutts on punts.

What made this season most-different than the prior two, however, is that in 2016 Morella has been toiling as a Cajun scholarship player.

“It was big,” Morella said of being awarded what he long had wanted.

“That’s been one of the goals since I started playing, and it didn’t come easy, you know? It was not easy. I know that. And I feel lucky to have gotten it. But it didn’t come easy.”

Did Morella mention it wasn’t easy?

He did indeed.

“But I’m very grateful for it,” Morella said.

Cajuns head coach Mark Hudspeth, who doubles as UL’s special teams, was glad he could finally give it.

The fact he did, however, wasn’t something Hudspeth mentioned to media members until just a few days ago.

“I’m gonna be proud (Morella on Saturday),” Hudspeth said, “because here’s a guy … that walked onto this football team, became the starting snapper, worked awfully hard, got put on scholarship his senior year, has been an integral part of our team.

“Those guys I love.”

Hudspeth began his own college career as a walk-on at NCAA Division II Delta State, and eventually earned some scholarship money.

“To see him (Morella) come as far as he has come,” the Cajun coach said, “has been real rewarding, along with rest of our seniors.”

On Saturday, he and UL’s other outgoing upperclassmen will make the walks – down for pregame warmups, up to the lockerroom, down to play, up for halftime, down again, up to peel off the pads – on one final occasion with helmet and cleats.

For Morella, the experience – he suspects – will be bittersweet.

The grassy hill he once played on is gone now, recently replaced by about 6,000 new end zone seats.

The price of progress.

The kids all slide and roll and pass and play and hope now on the hill over the other Cajun end zone.

But the tunnel is still there.

“I think it will be a lot of emotion going on,” Morella said.

“It’s been a long ride. Playing in the same place so many times, I think it will be weird to go out there knowing this will be the last time ever.”

As he does, Morella probably will treat each and every step like he did those first few against Southern.

“I’d like to think I’m gonna try to do the same thing,” he said, “probably for a lot of the same reasons.

“That’s a very individualized moment. There’s not many things in life that happen like that, so I want to be present and absorb as much of that as I possibly can – because after that, that’s it.”

* * * * *

Football: Cajun snapper Morella finds spot after breaking leg

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, November 5, 2015

Stephen Morella can’t be sure what would have happened.

He was an undersized defensive end at Lafayette High, and perhaps could have walked on or even signed somewhere as a linebacker.

But a broken leg, sustained during the final summer practice prior to his 2011 senior season, changed all that.

“At the time,” the 5-foot-11, 231-pound Morella said, “I had decent speed and size.

“But after I broke my leg, a lot of that went out the window, because it was such a critical injury that it took two years to get back to 100 percent.”

So after missing his entire senior season with the Lions, and after multiple surgeries, Morella walked on at UL as a snapper with the Ragin’ Cajuns.

With former Cajun snappers Matt Rosenbalm and John Broussard both around in 2012, Morella was limited mostly to snagging balls while redshirting as a freshman.

That was fine, especially since the leg would not have allowed him to do much more anyway.

Both this season and last, though, the now fourth-year junior has been UL’s snapper for both PATs and field goals.

UL went 9-4 and beat Nevada in last year’s New Orleans Bowl. The Cajuns are 3-4 this year as they prepare to play at Georgia State on Saturday.

And Morella — who works with two fellow locals, kicker Stevie Artigue of Lafayette High and holder Jake Guidry of Carencro High, could not be happier things turned out like they did.

“I have no regrets. I love where I’m at,” he said. “I love what’s going on over here. I’ve been a part of some great wins, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

* * * * * * * *
Football: UL kicking crew of Artigue, Morella, Guidry keeps calm

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Oct. 4, 2015

They are three locals, and beyond the essentials — a solid snap, a proper hold, a kick through the uprights — perhaps the best part about it is the collection of personal fans in the stands.

“I love it,” UL’s Stephen Morella said. “All of our parents are always at the games.”

Morella, a fourth-year junior snapper, and Stevie Artigue, a true-freshman kicker, both are from Lafayette High. Jake Guidry, a fifth-year senior holder, is from Carencro High.

Two former Lions and an ex-Bear, oh my.

Before this past summer, however, the trio — responsible for three first-half field goals in UL’s 30-24 Homecoming win over in-state rival UL Monroe last Saturday night at Cajun Field — had never before worked as a unit.

Morella and Artigue overlapped for a year at Lafayette High, but with Morella missing his senior season because of a broken leg, the two never played on the field together.

Morella snapped and Guidry held for the Cajuns last season, though, and that’s been critical.

“That’s the first part,” Guidry said. “If you can’t get the snap and the hold, you can’t really make the kick.”

But UL’s kicker last season was another local, Hunter Stover, a Notre Dame High product.

So when Artigue joined Guidry and Morella earlier this year, and the three got together just a few short months ago, a new leg of the triangle had to be welcomed into the fold.

How rough was it?

Because of a team rule that prevents true freshmen from talking with the media, Artigue can’t speak for himself. Morella and Guidry, though, give voice to their new teammate.

“It wasn’t that bad, because Stevie is a great kicker. He was a great kicker in high school,” Morella said. “So he had that going for him. And me and Jake already had a year under our belt (together).”

“The timing issue really wasn’t a big problem,” added Guidry, who has been holding full time since 2013 and has doubled this season and last as UL’s punt team snapper. “He (Artigue) came in and really just started hitting on all cylinders.”

It did take a full summer, though, for the three to refine things.

Their work together started with OTAs, when they’d spend 45 minutes or an hour each day doing nothing but trying to perfect their routine, and continued in August with preseason practice.

“By the end of camp,” Morella said, “it’s almost like you’ve done a thousand reps.

“Timing is not necessarily something you ‘start to work on.’ It’s more of something that the more you do it, it comes naturally. At first your timing is gonna be a little slower than you want to be.

“The more time you spend together, the more times you do it,” Morella added, “the more fluent it becomes, and it gets to the point where you don’t even have to think about it. You just do it. Bam, bam, bam.”

Specialty players like Artigue, Guidry and Morella aren’t always doing drills and scrimmaging with their teammates, so spending quality time together during the season helps too.

“They’re with each other whole practice,” Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth said, “so you can develop some chemistry pretty quickly and get your timing down to where you’re really good.”

The transition from Stover to Artigue meant minor adjustments and a new leader of the three-man band.

“Stover was in charge of everything going on,” Guidry said.

“(Artigue) is doing very well for being a true freshman. But I kind of try to show him the way we do things over here, and he’s really adapted well.”

The biggest change for the three boils down to how Guidry places the snap.

“I try to adapt to how (Artigue) likes the lean of his ball,” Guidry said. “Me and Morella, we’ve got a little spot that we like to go to on his snaps — where I like ’em, where he likes to snap ’em. As long as we get that all together, we’re good.”

And UL has been good much more than not on field goals and extra points this season.

Artigue is 22-of-23 on PATs, missing 1-of-6 in a Sept. 12 win over Northwestern State.

He is 5-of-8 on field goals, including makes from 40, a career-high 41 and 33 yards against ULM in addition to a 31-yarder in a season-opening loss at Kentucky and a 26-yarder in the win over NSU.
Tight end Evan Tatford (88), snapper/holder Jake Guidry
Tight end Evan Tatford (88), snapper/holder Jake Guidry (right) and the Cajuns take the field against Arkansas State in 2014 (Photo: Advertiser file photo)

The misses came from 49 yards in a win over Texas State, 41 yards in a loss at Arkansas State and 37 yards in the second half against ULM.

The hooked 37-yarder was a potential game-winner in a pouring rain with just less than five minutes to go against the Warhawks, but one Cajun possession later Brooks Haack connected with Jamal Robinson on a 64-yard touchdown pass that helped UL improve to 3-4 heading into Saturday’s visit with Georgia State in Atlanta.

“If he doesn’t hit a kick,” Guidry said, “it’s just, ‘We’ll get ’em next time. Can’t leave our head down. We’re gonna get our chance again.’ … I tell him that after every time something doesn’t go our way.”

Artigue, however, doesn’t often need pep talks.

He arrived at UL, on scholarship, with four makes over 40 yards including a long of 52 during his senior season at Lafayette High.

“Stevie sort of won (the job) by default (because of injuries to Dylan Scheurich and Carlos Alvarez),” Hudspeth said, “and then just never looked back and is really hitting the ball extremely well.”

“He’s real confident,” Guidry added. “I mean, whenever we go out for a kick I have no doubt he can make it. If Coach Hud throws us out there, I feel like he thinks we can make it too.”

The state of Artigue’s coolness under pressure?

“I’d say as good as you’re gonna get, especially for a true freshman,” Morella said. “Confidence wasn’t something he was lacking (upon arrival at UL).”

Morella suggests there might have been some nerves for Artigue, though, for the Cajuns’ season-opener in front of 62,933 at Kentucky’s Commonwealth Stadium.

“After that,” he said, “I don’t think confidence has ever been a real issue for Stevie.”

The result for the parents — Morella’s Robert and Leslie, Guidry’s Karl and Susan, Artigue’s Mike and Carlyn — is fewer jitters than one might otherwise suspect.

Still, the tension when all three trot out for a field goal attempt is just high enough that having all the parents seated together at Cajun might be ill-advised.

“I think that would too much nerves, in one area,” Morella said. “The place would set on fire.”