Football: Cajuns eye part of Sun Belt title

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • November 24, 2008

TROY, Ala. – For UL’s football team, the hopes and dreams of winning an outright conference title – program’s first in 38 years – disappeared with Saturday’s 48-3 loss to Sun Belt foe Troy at Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium.

While the Trojans clinched at least a share of its third consecutive league championship, a small piece of optimism resonated for the Ragin’ Cajuns (5-6 overall, 4-2 Sun Belt) in the cool air of rural Alabama.

UL, despite a three-game losing streak and numerous injuries, can still earn a piece of the conference crown by beating Middle Tennessee in its Dec. 3 regular season finale and a Troy loss on Dec. 6 to Arkansas State. The Cajuns and Trojans would be declared co-champions under that scenario, with Troy earning the league’s automatic berth to the New Orleans Bowl.

But a win by the Trojans over Arkansas State would give Troy the outright title.

A win by Arkansas State this week against North Texas and the following week against Troy coupled with a UL win over MTSU would leave the Red Wolves, Trojans and Cajuns to share the conference championship.

But first things first: UL must beat MTSU to earn its sixth victory of the season and become bowl eligible before looking ahead to any possible postseason scenarios. With a loss to the Blue Raiders, the Cajuns would close the year with a four-game slide and their second consecutive losing season.

"We have a chance to play another game next week, and if we win it to put ourselves in position to play an extra game," UL coach Rickey Bustle said. "But we’ve got a lot of work to do in just a couple of days."

Actually, as of today, the Cajuns are nine days away from playing MTSU (5-6, 3-3). The Blue Raiders won their third consecutive game with last week’s 52-13 win over UNT, as running back Phillip Tanner set a Sun Belt record with six total touchdowns, five rushing and one kickoff return.

UL’s run defense needs a major overhaul after allowing Troy to gain 391 of its 459 yards on the ground. While the Trojans threw only 20 times for 68 yards – they entered last week leading the league in passing yards per game (270.2) – running back DuJuan Harris ran for a career-best 234 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another score.

Behind its strong running game, Troy converted nine of 15 times on third down and scored on five consecutive possessions in the second half.

UL’s offense, which had averaged more than 35 points per game, moved the chains on only one of 12 third-down tries and hardly resembled the nation’s third-best running attack. The Cajuns got 136 rushing yards from quarterback Mike Desormeaux, who is playing with a torn meniscus in his right knee. But running back Tyrell Fenroy was held to 23 yards as UL rushed for only 183 yards – 100 yards below its season average.

Desormeaux also threw for only 72 yards, including a 34-yard completion to wide receiver Jason Chery in the second quarter, and was picked off once. UL finished with season-low totals in points (three) and total yards (255) in its worst blowout since last season’s 59-7 loss to Tennessee.

Another sign of the offensive woes: The Cajuns racked up more penalties (a season-high 15 for 104 yards) than first downs (12) and did not score a touchdown for the first time this season.

"It’s the same old story," Desormeaux said. "We’re moving the ball down the field between the 20s. Once we get into the red zone we do things to self-destruct. I don’t know what it is. We don’t have that explosiveness we used to have. Whenever we get into the red zone we’re not finishing drives.

"We’ve got to get back to doing that."

Bustle said UL’s offense struggled because it never got into a rhythm. He also expressed concern about the inability of his players to wrap up on defense.

"We prepared to stop their passing game and to hopefully be able to hang in there on the run," Bustle said. "We were mixing it up. My impression right now is that we didn’t tackle very well.

"Some of those long runs turned into longer runs because we didn’t tackle them."

The slow finish to the season is somewhat surprising considering how the program traditionally ends the year under Bustle. The Cajuns won two of their final three games the previous two seasons and put together a five-game winning streak to close the 2005 season and share the league crown with Arkansas State and ULM.

UL lost five of its final six games in 2004 but wrapped up 2003 with a 4-1 finish down the stretch.

Despite all the injuries and late-season struggles, Desormeaux admires his teammates for playing through such adversity.

A bowl bid remains within UL’s grasp, with possible openings in the New Orleans Bowl, PapaJohn’s.com Bowl, St. Petersburg Bowl and Independence Bowl. The Cajuns have only played in two bowl games – a 24-7 win over Arkansas A&M in the 1944 Oil Bowl and a 26-25 loss to Tennessee State in the 1970 Grantland Rice Bowl.

At home this season, UL is 3-1. Its only loss came to UTEP, 37-24, on Nov. 8 in its most recent home game.

"We’ve been playing pretty well at home," Desormeaux said. "We’re going to come back and get this thing fixed, and we’re going to put on a show at home.

"We’ll save whatever we have left of this season."