Football: Hudspeth gives fans credit

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, November 6, 2012

With UL scoring a touchdown on Terrance Broadway’s 81-yard pass to Jamal Robinson on the final play of a 40-24 win at UL Monroe last Saturday, and plenty of fan interaction from both sides before, during and after the Ragin’ Cajuns’ key Sun Belt Conference victory, an already healthy rivalry got one dose hotter over the weekend.

UL coach Mark Hudspeth, whose Cajuns go out of the SBC to face Florida on Saturday, loves it.

"These games are the fun games," Hudspeth said of ones like that against UL’s only in-state rival in the Sun Belt. "The fans make it fun; obviously the teams on the field make it fun.

"College football needs big rival games," he added during his weekly media gathering Monday. "That’s what you sort of look forward to, and obviously we take a lot of pride in playing in these games. We put a lot of emphasis on these in the summertime."

The rivalry is real, Cajuns safety Rodney Gillis suggested Monday.

"There’s a lot of respect that’s earned throughout this game, a lot of trash talking going on throughout the whole season," he said.

But after plenty of chat-room and Twitter banter back and forth between supporters of the two programs, Hudspeth said fans "are the ones that make it, probably, more heated each year, now with social media and everything."

Fan support for UL was evident Saturday, when more than 2,000 Cajun faithful made the trip to Monroe — despite the fact Hudspeth’s 5-3 team was coming off consecutive Sun Belt losses to North Texas and Arkansas State.

By game’s end they were exchanging shouts of "Ragin’" and "Cajuns" across Malone Stadium, chanting "We are UL" loudly in unison while drowning out the remaining Warhawk fans.

"You’ve got to give our fans a ton of credit," Hudspeth said after the win. "They were loud, they were into the game. All our true fans, they hung in there with us."

Hudspeth’s Cajuns are now 2-1 during his two seasons at UL in games against in-state FBS opponents, 2-0 against ULM and 1-0 with a win earlier this season over Tulane of Conference USA.

Injury updates

Hudspeth suggested Monday that starting wideout Darryl Surgent should be good to go Saturday at Florida.

Surgent missed time, but returned, after hurting a shoulder at UL Monroe. He finished with five catches for 63 yards.

Hudspeth also said both starting wideout Javone Lawson (broken forearm) and starting quarterback Blaine Gautier (hand surgery) may be able to return for UL’s last two games, vs. South Alabama and Florida Atlantic, but neither is likely to be back in time for an important Nov. 17 Sun Belt home game vs. Western Kentucky.

Baer makes the cut

UL kicker Brett Baer on Monday was named one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza Award that honors the top college kicker in the country.

It’s the second straight year that the senior from Brandon, Miss., has made the cut from watch list to semifinalist.

Baer is 13-of-16 on field-goal attempts this season and 31-of-33 on PATs.

Other semifinalists include Florida kicker Caleb Sturgis, whom UL will face Saturday; Oklahoma State’s Quinn Sharp and Tulane’s Cairo Santos, both of whom UL faced earlier this season; and Brian Davis, a junior from fellow Sun Belt Conference-member Arkansas State.

TV talk

Mike Morgan will call Saturday’s UL-Florida game for the SEC Network, and ex-Gator Chris Doering will work as analyst.

Doering played in the NFL for Indianapolis (1996-97), Denver (1999-2000), Washington (2000) and Pittsburgh (2003-04).

Morgan calls college football games for FSN (Big 12 and Conference USA), ESPNU and CSS, and he is the television voice of the Atlanta Braves Triple A-affiliate Gwinnett Braves.

Lagniappe

A one-handed catch by Robinson on Saturday in Monroe was picked No. 6 among ESPN’s Top 10 college football plays for the day. Robinson started in place of Lawson, who had ESPN’s No. 1 college football play with a touchdown catch against Tulane. "» According to multiple media reports, UL Monroe quarterback Kolton Browning — who broke at least one bone in his foot in the first quarter against UL on Saturday — likely is out the rest of the regular season but may return if the Warhawks make it to a bowl game. "» Despite losing to UL, UL Monroe (6-3) received four votes from coaches in this week’s USA Today Top 25 poll — but none from writers in AP’s Top 25. And after beating Western Kentucky on Thursday night on ESPNU, Middle Tennessee improved to 6-3 and picked up two votes in this week’s USA Today coaches’ poll