Football: Out-for-the-season Nixon helped to inspire Cajun win

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Oct. 24, 2016

SAN MARCOS, Texas – He exited preseason camp as UL’s No. 2 quarterback, with plans to use him on special teams and as a runner in a short-yardage package but no real high-profile role to speak of.

Yet not long before UL’s 2016 season opened, though, Ragin’ Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth vowed senior Jalen Nixon would help his team win a game sometime this year.

Even though he’s now out for the season with a broken ankle sustained in a double-overtime loss at New Mexico State back on Oct. 1, Saturday night might have been that foreshadowed occasion.

UL beat Texas State 27-3, snapping a three-game losing streak that included the NMSU loss, a preceding quadruple-overtime loss at Tulane and an ensuing 24-0 loss to Appalachian State.

One day after getting shut out, offensive coordinator Jorge Munoz met with the offense.

Not long after, apparently, Nixon did the same.

“He poured his heart out to us,” Cajuns running back Elijah McGuire said of the Carencro High product who started four games at quarterback for UL last season.

“He (Nixon) did a great job of telling us what we need to do, and how we looked from the outside looking in.

“That message that he sent to us – we had a plan to just (not) let that brother down,” McGuire added. “He’s our brother, and we didn’t let him down at all.”

Nixon conveyed a subsequent memo to his offensive teammates sometime before Saturday’s game.

“He texted an offensive group message – ‘Man, I need this win,’ ” McGuire said. “And everybody replied, ‘Man, we gotcha.’ So everybody got it done (Saturday) for him.”

MCGUIRE’S FOOT

Behind a wall from his offensive line and through a hole that left plenty of room for a strong cut, McGuire – quite limited in UL’s prior two games because of a foot injury – knew he’d be just fine with one of his earliest touches Saturday.

He actually went down early on the play, tripping either over someone’s leg or – as some suggested – a turf monster.

Nevertheless …

“From that moment,” McGuire said, “I knew something great was ahead.”

He was right.

McGuire had 20 carries for 112 yards and two touchdowns, passing Tyrell Fenroy to become UL’s all-time scoring leader. He’s also now one of just four Cajuns with at least 40 career rushing touchdowns, joining Fenroy (48), Brian Mitchell (47) and Alonzo Harris (44).

The NFL prospect furthermore proved just how much of an asset he can be when fully healthy.

With McGuire, Hudspeth said, the Cajuns are “totally different.”

“He turns those four yards gains into 10 yards gains, and he turns an eight-yard run into 16,” Hudspeth said. “But then he’s got the ability to break one, and we hadn’t had those big runs without him.

“But,” Hudspeth added, “it was good to see Raymond Calais get a couple big runs. That was impressive”

Calais, a true freshman from Cecilia High, had six rushes for 43 yards, including a long of 16.

Redshirted freshman Jordan Wright also broke off a 22-yard run for the Cajuns, and fellow reserve running back Darius Hoggins had a nine-yarder among his five carries.

But it was McGuire who stole the show, largely because he was healthy enough to really go.

“I had great practices all week,” McGuire said. “The coaches kept asking me how I’m feeling. Like I tell them: ‘Just don’t ask me that. Just let me be me.’ ”

Hudspeth did, although he also suggested McGuire tweaked the foot late in Saturday’s game.

But McGuire suggested he’d be fine, especially with the Cajuns entering into an off week before playing Idaho on Nov. 5. And Hudspeth suggested McGuire could have finished if needed Saturday.

“We (thought) at that point ‘only if we needed him,’ ” Hudspeth said. “You know – if the game would have gotten tight at that point.”

JENNINGS’ NIGHT

UL quarterback Anthony Jennings finished 18-of-22 Saturday for 165 yards and a touchdown throw Keenan Barnes, who now has a team-high five TD catches this year.

Jennings was intercepted once, but it happened only after a well-thrown ball to Barnes was bobbled and deflected off a defender’s helmet.

Hudspeth like what he saw from Jennings, a graduate transfer from LSU who beat out Nixon and No. 3 Jordan Davis for the starting job.

“Checked it down, scrambled away a couple of times,” Hudspeth said. “He even made a couple of nice throws.

“But I thought he was very efficient, took care of the ball, managed the game and just did what we asked him to do. And that was a big plus.”