Football: Cajuns get their “swagger” back after win

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, November 6, 2012

For more than two weeks, they were down in the dumps. Doubting themselves. Wondering if losses at North Texas and Arkansas State were aberration, or the portrait of a team tearing at the seams.

After beating UL Monroe 40-24 on Saturday in Monroe, however, the Ragin’ Cajuns couldn’t be feeling much better — even knowing what awaits, a visit Saturday to nationally ranked Florida.

"We’re pretty excited right now. We have a lot of confidence right now," running back Alonzo Harris said Monday. "We kind of feel like we got our swagger back, so it’s gonna be a competitive ball game."

"We can only beat ourselves," safety Rodney Gillis added. "If we go down and do everything right, and expect to win, we’ll do it."

So goes the confidence of a UL club that had little of it after back-to-back Sun Belt Conferences losses, ones that left the now 5-3 Cajuns curious if they could contend in their own league this season, let alone compete against an SEC Florida program that after beating Missouri on Saturday is now ranked No. 7 in the AP Top 25 writers’ and USA Today Top 25 coaches’ polls and No. 6 in the latest BCS standings.

It all changed after the win in Monroe, where sophomore quarterback Terrance Broadway was in on five touchdowns — four through the air, including two to Jamal Robinson, and one on the ground.

"We went through somewhat of a tough two-game stretch," Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth said, "and our guys stayed together, kept working, stayed the course.

"We believe in the direction we’re going, and we believe in what we are doing."

Mid-to-late October and the first couple days of November, though, really were tough times for a team that opened 4-1 with wins over FCS Lamar, Troy, Tulane and Florida International, and only a loss at Oklahoma State.

On top of the North Texas and Arkansas State losses, reserve defensive lineman Darrell Green and special teams player Eric Ferguson both were removed from the roster following their arrest on a sexual battery charge and starting linebacker Qyen Griffin and backup safety T.J. Worthy both were were suspended for the ULM game for undisclosed violations of team rules unrelated to the Green-Ferguson incident.

In the same stretch, UL lost starting slot receiver Harry Peoples for the Arkansas State game due to a shoulder injury and starting wideout Javone Lawson for multiple games after he broke a forearm vs. ASU.

"(These) past couple weeks have been tough. We’ve been dealing with a lot of adversity," Gillis said. "We had a lot of injuries and other things that have been bringing the team negative energy.

"But I think the best thing is we stayed focused," he added. "We just had our mind set on that one game — to get that W."

And UL got it against ULM, prompting Hudspeth to say during his weekly gathering Monday that he was "very proud of the way our football team responded."

"It was all about pushing through it," he said, "and continuing to get better."

For that he credited mostly an offense that went 77 yards or more on each of its six scoring drives in Monroe, including a key 99-yarder late in the third quarter and for much of the fourth quarter that lasted 17 plays and nine minutes and 33 seconds before Broadway finally found tight end Jacob Maxwell in the back of the end zone.

Hudspeth said Broadway, who was making his fourth straight start in place of injured Blaine Gautier, played "his best game as a Cajun, by far" as UL produced 607 yards in total offense during what was "one of the best offensive performances I’ve been a part of."

"We felt like we got our football team back on track a little bit," Hudspeth said Monday. "We saw guys make plays, we saw guys do their jobs. We saw a team play for four quarters. "» We saw some great individual performances.

"But probably the most-satisfying part," he added. "was Terrance Broadway. "» He put the team on his shoulders, and played the game to win."

And now Broadway must shoulder what even Hudspeth has to admit is quite a tall task.

"We’ve got a very tough test," the Cajun coach said, "down in The Swamp."