Football: Ex-Cajun QB Desormeaux can appreciate bowl’s meaning

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Dec. 15, 2015

NEW ORLEANS — In a sense, this is "his" bowl as much as anyone’s. The 2016 New Orleans Bowl, Saturday night at the Superdome against Southern Mississippi. The one his Ragin’ Cajun football teams never quite made it to.

Right?

Ask him, and the initial reaction of Michael Desormeaux — former UL quarterback, now at the tail end of his first season as the Cajuns’ receivers coach — is to summarily squash the suggestion.

“No, no, no, no, no,” he said. “I’m excited to be here. I’m proud to be here. But I don’t ever want to project my past on these guys.”

Engage him long enough, however, and it becomes evident that the question — and answer — is much more complex than that.

There is, after all, a lesson to be learned and an appreciation to be gained from the experience endured by Desormeaux and his former Cajun clubs.

This year, UL will face off against Southern Miss in a battle of two 6-6 teams, both beneficiaries of an era with 80 bowl spots — 40 bowls — and not enough teams with winning seasons to fill them.

Not so back in the day, when the Cajuns were in the midst of a four-decade postseason drought.

Desormeaux, a Catholic High of New Iberia product, still has spots on UL’s Top 10 lists of rushers and passers.

He played at UL from 2005-08, and in three of those seasons the Cajuns won six games: 6-5 in 2005, 6-6 in 2006 and 6-6 in his 2008 senior season.

Yet, in not one of those years did he and coach Rickey Bustle’s clubs go bowling.

Suffice it to say it’s a sentiment Desormeaux has shared with some of his many young receivers, simply to let them know the magnitude of making it. He did so when a bowl bid this year was uncertain, secured later by wins in three of UL’s final four regular-season games.

“It’s true feelings. So he’s just being honest with us,” sophomore wideout Keenan Barnes said of the occasions Desormeaux would impress that upon them in position-room meetings. “He’s like, ‘This means a lot to me. You should take the edge that it means a lot to you, too.’”

In time, Desormeaux concedes.

“I’ve been relaying that message,” he said.

This one, that is:

“‘Look guys: We worked for three years. We won six games three out of my four years, and we didn’t get to go. So this is a big deal. This is a special thing that not everybody gets, and you have to earn it.’ And our guys absolutely earned it.”

They did, needing — and getting — victories in their final two games, against Arkansas State and UL Monroe.

That’s one reason Desormeaux is convinced the Cajuns do appreciate what they’ve done.

 

There are more.

After winning the New Orleans Bowl each year from 2011 through 2014, UL did not go bowling last season. The Cajuns finished 4-8 in 2015.

“I’m happy for these guys that they’ve gotten a chance,” said Desormeaux, who left his job as head coach at Ascension Episcopal School to take over as UL’s receivers coach when offensive coordinator Jay Johnson left for the same job at Minnesota and Jorge Munoz was promoted to the coordinator post.

“You know,” he added, “we have a bunch of guys that are here for the first time.”

Thirty-three freshmen and transfers who debuted as Cajuns this year, in fact, have been prepping for their first bowl.

That includes UL’s three primary wideouts in Barnes and redshirt freshmen Ja’Marcus Bradley and Michael Jacquet.

“For me, it’s something I’ve been wanting my entire life — to play in the Superdome,” said Desormeaux, who spent time on the 2009 practice squads of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and CFL’s Calgary Stampeders.

“But I’m excited to be a part of this team, and get a chance to do it, and see so many of our young guys who haven’t gotten to do it before get to do it.”

Not going bowling last year also make this year’s a bigger deal.

By the fourth year of their 2011-2014 run, it almost was as if the Cajuns were taking things for granted.

“That’s human nature,” Desormeaux said. “I think you just get used to things happening. You just assume it’s gonna keep happening.

“I think last year was a big eye-opener, saying, ‘Hey, you know what? We don’t want to be that team back at home in December.’ You know, we want to be playing. We want to be in the bowl. We want to have that experience.”

Wanting it, however, is one thing. Doing it is another.

And when UL sat a 3-5 back in October, it didn’t look like it would. Desormeaux dubbed the middle of the season a pivot point for the Cajuns. It was then, he said, when they realized “we either will, or we won’t.”

“And this team just did,” Desormeaux said. “They found a way.

“So I think all those things played into it,” he added, “and I think our kids do realize how big a deal this is.”

Barnes confirms the notion.

“Just the season we had this year, the ups and downs, it was a struggle,” he said. “But we got here. So, it makes it an unbelievable experience to go out there and prove people wrong.”