|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Football: Amazing endurance; UL offensive line has made 180 straight startsTim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, November 27, 2013 UL center Andre Huval (71) and guard Terry Johnson (72) have been part of the incredible endurance and consistency the Cajuns’ offensive line has displayed in the last three seasons. / Leslie Westbrook/The AdvertiserSince Mark Hudspeth took over as head coach at UL in 2011, 36 games have passed and never has a Ragin’ Cajun offensive lineman missed a start. In fact, two of UL’s current starting five – senior center Andre Huval and junior guard Daniel Quave – have both started all 36. In sum, that’s 180 games without a miss for a five-man unit coached by Ragin’ Cajun assistant coach Mitch Rodrigue. Perhaps it is one of those things better left unspoken. But the more and more Hudspeth thinks about it, he can’t help but allow a word or two on just how amazing the feat is. “Not a one,” he said. “That’s unbelievable.” Considering the wear-and-tear an offensive lineman endures over the course of an NCAA FBS college football season – and just what a grind it can to play week in and week out in the trenches, where shoulders are constantly turned, ankle holding up big bodies are twisted and knees take a pounding – it really is. Even some Cajun linemen struggle to explain how they’ve managed to do it. After giving it a go, though, they look upward first. Then they peer straight into a UL strength-and-conditioning program overseen by Iraqi war veteran and former United States Army Senior Special Forces Communications Sergeant Rusty Whitt. “God’s looking after us, I guess you can say,” Huval said. “I guess we’re living right.” “I can’t my finger on it,” Quave added. “It’s just that God’s been good to us in keeping us injury-free. That’s the main thing. And even though we do get the little nicks and bruises, we know how to push through it.” For that, Whitt and his strength staff are on the receiving end of a lot of the credit. “He does a great job preparing our guys,” Hudspeth said. “You look at our team in general, we haven’t had hardly any injuries – knock on wood.” After almost three full seasons with just two regular-season games and one in a bowl still to go this year, the UL streak – one within another for an 8-2 team that has won eight in a row heading into Saturday’s key Sun Belt Conference home game against in-state rival UL Monroe – is something akin to being in the seventh or eighth inning of a no-hitter. No one wants to say too much about it. But some can’t help themselves. “We acknowledge it, but we don’t really dwell on it,” said tackle Mykhael Quave, Daniel’s younger brother and the owner of 23 consecutive starts himself since the start of 2012. “I don’t believe in jinxes or anything like that,” Huval added, “but that’s just kind of understood.” What perhaps is not fully understood by many on the outside is just what on the inside goes into making it happen. Winter, spring and summer conditioning is critical. But so is maintaining in the weight room during the fall from September through December. Willpower plays a part too. “It could be attributed to the work we’ve done offseason – training hard, and training physical,” Huval said. “You know, that may have something to do with it. But a lot of it is playing through injuries. “I mean, we’ve been banged up the last three years. We’ll come out for a couple plays, and get re-taped or something, and we’re right back at it. But, mainly, we’ve just been blessed.” Blessed, yes. But also well-prepared and willing to do whatever it takes, the Quave brothers suggest. “It’s just a want-to – not allowing little things, the distractions, of a long season, and the banging and the toughness of it, to get to you,” Daniel Quave said. “They do a really good job keeping us in the weight room, doing flexibility throughout the season, and during the offseason core stability,” Mykhael Quave added. “All the joints that most o-linemen hurt throughout the year – we really focus on getting after those throughout the offseason and in between games just so we can avoid getting nicks and little injuries.” It’s not Huval and the Quaves who have answered the bell, however. Guard Kyle Plouhar was a senior when Hudspeth arrived, and he did not miss a start that year. Neither did UL’s other starters in 2011 – Huval, Daniel Quave and tackle Leonardo Bates and Jaron Odom. Huval, Daniel Quave, Bates and Odom kept it going in 2012, when Plouhar exited and Mykhael Quave entered as a freshman redshirt. Bates and Odom were seniors last season, and this season guard Terry Johnson and tackle Octravian Anderson have stepped in to join Huval and the Quaves and keep the streak going. That can make things tough on current UL reserve offensive linemen like Jarad Martin, Daniel Lemelle, Evyn Perry, Greg Siener, Jeremy Sparks and Zach Tarver, who are called on infrequently because the starting five is so darn dependable. But coming out of the corner time and time again really is a source of satisfaction for Cajun starters who count on each other to keep the man next to him up. “You just want do it for that person,” said Daniel Quave, who adds that “having somebody keep you accountable” is as important as anything. “I guess we just feel a sense of pride with how hard we work in the offseason, and we want to give it everything we’ve got every game,” Huval added. “We don’t want to let some little nick or some minor injury hold us out – because you train 365 days a year, and you get 12 games to play. That’s a pretty outstanding ratio, when you think about it. You just don’t want to let anything go.” CAJUN IRONMEN: A look at the streak of consecutive games without miss a start for UL offensive linemen in the Mark Hudspeth coaching era since the start of 2011: OT Octravian Anderson* – 10 straight since the start of this season UL offensive linemen* – 180 straight since the start of 2011 * Active this season
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
