Football: Offense flying high with Lawson back

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, November 28, 2012

For their final regular-season game of 2012, Saturday at Florida Atlantic, the UL Ragin’ Cajuns should have all their offensive weaponry back and ready to fire.

Quarterback Blaine Gautier, back for a second game — ready to go should now-starter Terrace Broadway need relief — after not playing in a half-dozen-plus due to two broken bones in his throwing hand.

Starting wideout Javone Lawson, also back for a second game after missing three-plus with a fractured forearm.

And starting running back Alonzo Harris, back after sitting out last Saturday’s win over South Alabama with bruised ribs.

For Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth, those are all good things.

"You can see, at times, when we’ve had everybody healthy and all playing at one time," he said, "we’re a pretty good football team."

It’s the presence of one in particular, though, that seems to transform the Cajun offense exponentially — and it’s not necessarily the one you might suspect.

Gautier set single-season records last year for passing yards and passing touchdowns, but Broadway has filled in admirably — and seemingly improved significantly from early in the season.

And when power back Harris is out, it can make a difference — as evidenced not so much last Saturday, but certainly in an Oct. 16 loss at North Texas that he missed due to illness.

Indeed, Cajun slot receiver Harry Peoples said on behalf of UL’s entire receiving corps, a strong Cajun run game "makes our job way easier, because that’s when teams start crowding the box and we just start throwing bubble screens, posts across the middle, deep routes, go’s, all that."

But it is Lawson who gives defenses fits they simply don’t have to fret over when he is out.

He had three catches for 113 yards and one touchdown Saturday, a night Peoples also had five grabs for 166 yards and a TD.

"That guy is unbelievable," Hudspeth said of the senior who had nine catches for 193 yards and two touchdowns UL’s New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State a season ago.

"Sitting out for a while was a real reality check, knowing this could be over at any time," said Lawson, who credited good play-calling from offensive coordinator Jay Johnson and good passes from Broadway for his success last Saturday. "I just let the game come to me. I didn’t try to force anything. I just played ball."

After not having Lawson for a key stretch that included a 27-20 loss at then-No. 7 Florida, and now having him again, Hudspeth said, "You can definitely see "» the impact he could have made in those games he was out."

The Helen Cox High product from New Orleans now needs just 34 more yards for 2,000 in his career, which would move him from eighth place to sixth on UL’s all-time career receiving-yards leaders list.

He also currently ranks sixth on UL’s career catches list with 126, 24 shy of passing Ladarius Green for fifth place, and is tied with John Falgout for fifth in all-time TD receptions with 14, five shy of tying Fred Stamps for fourth.

"Our quarterbacks," Hudspeth said, "have a lot of confidence in him, just for him to go out there doing what he does — and that’s making big plays."

While he was sidelined, targeting the South Alabama game all along for his probable return in part because it would be his last at Cajun Field, Lawson studied a lot of film.

"I watched previous games," he said, "and saw where I could make an impact."

Hudspeth, however, didn’t have to watch much tape at all to know what it could have been in a spread offense that features senior Peoples in the slot, junior Darryl Surgent on one side and, when Lawson isn’t on the field, talented-but-inexperienced sophomore Jamal Robinson on the other.

Now that Lawson is back, the Cajuns coach said, "You don’t have to worry about who’s on what side."

"We can run our offense without having to flip people to one side or the other," Hudspeth said, "or bring somebody over for certain plays.

"When we have (Lawson), Harry Peoples, Darryl Surgent — and now with Jamal (Robinson) playing at the level he’s playing — we feel like we can really just dial up plays, and not have to be worried about who’s at the X, or who is on the boundary side, who is to the field side."

Now — at least for two more games, Saturday at FAU and in a Dec. 22 return trip to the New Orleans Bowl against either East Carolina or Rice — the 7-4 Cajuns can keep everyone where they are without losing valuable play-clock time shuffling receivers across the field.

"Now we can just let them play fast, stay where they’re at, and that’s really made play-calling easier," Hudspeth said. "That’s made teams have to balance up with their coverages."

And that makes it rather difficult on opposing defenses, especially when UL also is getting ground-game production like it enjoyed when walk-on reserve running back Torrey Pierce had two touchdown runs in a Nov. 17 win over Western Kentucky, Harris had 10 carries for 104 yards before getting hurt against WKU and backup running back Effrem Reed had 81 yards and two TD rushes against South Alabama.

That’s not to mention the running ability of dual-threat quarterback Broadway, who besides throwing for 300-plus yards in three of UL’s last five games also has rushed for a combined 210 yards and two TDs in its last two outings.

"We’ve got Broadway running the ball. We’ve got Effrem, Torrey and Alonzo (Harris). We’ve got Jamal (Robinson), Surge (Surgent), myself and Javone (Lawson)," Peoples said. "I mean, it’s too many weapons."

For opponents, that is. Just enough for the Cajuns, though.