Football: UL football continues block-party tradition – Cajuns at W. Kentucky next Saturday

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • October 12, 2009

UL’s tradition of blocking kicks under head coach Rickey Bustle continued in a 38-34 win over North Texas last Saturday.

In his first action since hurting his ankle in the season opener, receiver Richie Falgout burst through the line untouched and blocked Will Atterberry’s punt late in the second quarter. Andrew "Rico" Joseph scooped up the ball and scored on a 33-yard return to give the Ragin’ Cajuns a 24-10 lead with 4:41 to go before halftime.

"I thought the punt block was tremendous, especially to return for a touchdown," Bustle said. "The guys executed well. We had worked on that block for two weeks. I felt like we would have blocked it."

It was the 38th blocked kick for UL since 2002. That’s good for third in the nation behind Fresno State (45) and Texas (41) over that span.

The Cajuns have scored touchdowns on seven blocked kicks during that stretch. It was the first block returned for a score since Korey Raymond’s blocked field goal against Florida Atlantic on Oct. 20, 2007.

UL hadn’t scored on a blocked punt since Johnny Felders scored on an 18-yard return after a Jason Chery block against North Carolina A&T on Sept. 23, 2006.

Odds and ends

UL cornerback Dwight Bentley nabbed two interceptions, marking the 18th time that had happened in program history. It was the third time that a Cajun had intercepted two passes in Sun Belt play, joining C.C. Brown (Idaho in 2003) and Gerren Blount (North Texas in 2007) "» Saturday’s game featured two of the six combos of sons playing for their fathers in the Football Bowl Subdivision: Bustle and left guard Brad Bustle, and UNT’s Todd Dodge and quarterback Riley Dodge. The other four combos are Colorado (coach Dan Hawkins and quarterback Cody Hawkins), Fresno State (coach Pat Hill and strong safety Zak Hill), Memphis (coach Tommy West and receiver Turner West) and South Carolina (coach Steve Spurrier and receiver Scott Spurrier) "» UL has trailed in the first quarter in all five games this season and 12 of 17 games going back to 2008 "» The Cajuns have eight interceptions through five games. They had nine in both 2008 and ’07 "» Bustle is now 3-2 at home when trailing at halftime.

The Cajuns won the turnover battle, 4-1. They had committed three turnovers in each of their previous three games and had six takeaways going into the weekend.