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Remaine Douglas’ was the first to arrive, ever-so-promptly at 7:01 a.m. Wednesday. Delvin Jones’ was the last of the morning, coming at 9:31 a.m.

In that two-and-a-half hour span, UL Ragin’ Cajuns received 21 signed NCAA National Letters of Intent in all.

Combined with six signees already on campus — one local high school player who graduated early, Comeaux linebacker Kevin Fouquier; two transfers from four-year years, both former Ole Miss Rebels signees in safety Darius Barksdale and receiver T.J. Worthy; and three juco transfers, offensive lineman Terry Johnson, linebacker Ryan Mosby and safety Will Burrowes — that gives Mark Hudspeth a total of 27 additions for his second recruiting class as head coach of the Cajuns.

"Hopefully we’ve answered a lot of questions at each position," Hudspeth said. "We definitely have done it going the high school route, and that’s always going to be the foundation of our program.

"So with the players we brought in at Christmas, and some of the players that enrolled early "» we definitely feel like it’s gonna be another step in moving toward this program getting to where we want it to get to, and that’s being Sun Belt Conference champions and, obviously, getting back to a bowl game next year."

Hudspeth and the 2011 New Orleans Bowl-winning Cajuns wound up signing five locals: Fouquier, Breaux Bridge linebacker Tyren Alexander, New Iberia receiver La Marcus Allen, Teurlings Catholic quarterback D’Shaie Landor and Carencro athlete Jalen Nixon.

Another eight of the 20 high school players signed come from elsewhere in Louisiana: Dutchtown’s Darrien Batiste, Archbishop Rummel’s Dominick Bilich, Ruston’s Joseph Brunson, Minden’s Jaren Johnson, St. Augustine’s Dominick Jones, Patterson’s Tremaine Lightfoot, Ouachita Christian’s Zach Tarver and Richwood’s Blain Winston.

The other seven are from out-of-state: Alabama’s Jeremy Sparks; Floridians Douglas, Chris Hill and Rodney Smith Jr.; Minnesota’s Karmichael Dunbar; Mississippi’s C.J. Bates and Texas’ Brooks Haack.

Two other Cajun signees are juco transfers not yet on campus, and both — former Georgia signee Jalen Fields and ex-Ole Miss Rebel Jones — are highly regarded defensive players.

It wasn’t without plenty of late-in-the-game sweating, though, that UL got the class it did.

The Cajuns had to fend off a few other schools for Fields, including Marshall, South Florida and Kansas.

According to Cajuns recruiting coordinator Reed Stringer, Nebraska and Arizona State both made late offers to Alexander and LSU made him a late greyshirt offer as well.

And it order to land Haack, UL had to withstand a late charge from a school in the well-regarded Katy (Texas) High quarterback’s backyard.

"We had to fight off Houston until the very end," Hudspeth said.

Haack, however, remained loyal to the Cajuns all along.

"Been waiting for this day my whole life and now it’s here!" he tweeted about signing day. "So glad to be part of the UL family now!"

A couple of Hudspeth’s expected recruits, however, were lost along the way.

New Orleans-O.P. Walker receiver Raymond Jackson unexpectedly decided to join a high school teammate at Sun Belt-rival Florida International.

And Boutte-Hahnville cornerback Johnell Celistan wound up signing with Tulsa, to which he originally committed.

Tulsa had planned to grayshirt Celistant, which would have delayed the start of his scholarship. After UL extended a grayshirt offers as well, he decommitted from Tulsa and committed to the Cajuns last Sunday. But Tulsa fired back with a supposed non-grayshirt offer, apparently prompting Celistan to — as he did, according to Tulsa’s website — sign as initially planned with the Golden Hurricane.

Still, the Cajuns wound up with 13 Louisianans in all — making good on their vow to recruit first from within a state that in 2011, according to FoxSportsNext.com, led all others in NCAA Division I college football signees per capita.

"You always have one or two that somehow slips over the fence," said Hudspeth, who quickly assembled a new coaching and recruiting staff at UL after being hired as head coach in December of 2010.

"But, more the most part, we felt like we did a really good job."

The Cajuns’ plan for quite some time, Stringer suggested, has been to recruit inside-out from Louisiana.

"We came here last year and we signed a bunch of kids from Mississippi," said Stringer, who played for Hudspeth at Delta State in Mississippi and who crossed paths with Hudspeth again when both were on Mississippi State’s staff. "That was kind of part of our being here kind of late, using contacts we already had made.

"We said last year, ‘It’s not gonna be the same (this year). "» We’re gonna hit Louisiana as hard as we’ve ever hit it here at UL, especially here locally.’"

That accomplished, the newest Cajun additions will arrive with much anticipation from those who helped turn around a team that went 3-9 in 2010 to one that finished 9-4 in 2011.

Not all of Wednesday’s signees will contribute in 2012, as coaches prefer to redshirt as many incoming freshman as they can.

Some, however, are bound to see playing time next season.

"We definitely have high expectations," senior-to-be-starting quarterback Blaine Gautier said while signing autographs at a signing-day bash for boosters, "for these guys to come in and help us out this year."

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