Football: Total of 20 seniors write final chapter on careers at UL

Football: Total of 20 seniors write final chapter on careers at UL

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • November 29, 2009

UL honored its 20-member senior class, which included 13 Louisiana natives, prior to kickoff Saturday night against Troy at Cajun Field.

Six are starters on offense (Luke Aubrey, Brad Bustle, Chris Fisher, Louis Lee, Geoffrey McCullough and Kyle Pirtle), and five start on defense (Gerren Blount, Hall Davis, Jezreel Washington, LaQuincy Williams and Antwyne Zanders). Deep snapper Scott Hayes is also a senior.

Undrea Sails started the season’s first six games at tailback before suffering a season-ending leg injury. The other seniors are Ken Dandridge, Matt Dupre, Junior Jean, Chris Lanaux, Dusty Mack, Phillip Nevels and Phillip Walker.The senior class won a combined 20 games and was bowl eligible three times.

"These seniors have been amazing," coach Rickey Bustle said. "They are a great group. I’m going to miss them. Obviously I’ve got more invested in one of the seniors being my son (Brad)."The whole group has been good for us."

Aubrey, Bustle, Dandridge, Dupre, Fisher, Mack, McCullough and Washington are former walk-ons. Zanders sat out his first year to become academically eligible. Fisher, Bustle and Zanders earned all-conference honors.On the field, Fisher was the most decorated senior. The former St. Thomas More standout was a Sporting News Freshman All-American, twice named to the Rimington Award watch list and once on the Lombardi Award watch list. As a sophomore, he was a second-team all-conference selection and was a first-team pick last season. He was twice on the Sun Belt Commissioner’s List and Sun Belt Honor Roll.Zanders was honorable mention all-conference as a sophomore and earned second-team all-league honors as a junior.Brad Bustle was a first-team all-Sun Belt player as a junior and was on the Lombardi Award watch list. He and Zanders are on pace to graduate in December.

Nevels has a 3.82 grade-point average and is a Rhodes Scholar applicant. He is a four-time member of the Sun Belt Commissioner’s List, the current president of the Ragin’ Cajuns Student-Athlete Advisory Council and the school’s representative at the NCAA National Student-Athlete Development Conference.

A Dallas native, Nevels also was recently named to ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-America All-District team.

Hayes, who has already earned his undergraduate degree, was a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy and a four-time member of the Sun Belt Commissioner’s List.Lanaux and Mack were twice named to the Sun Belt Honor Roll, while Davis, Washington and Williams earned the same honor once.

Nice catch

UL quarterback Brad McGuire hooked up with tight end Ladarius Green on a 91-yard pass play in the third quarter. It was the third-longest throw in school history.The longest pass play was Harold Porter’s 95-yarder from Randy Fontenot against Chattanooga in 1974. The second-longest was Brian Mitchell’s 92-yard toss to Troy Tauriac against Central Michigan in 1989.

Welcome home

UL’s home attendance this season was 111,988. That was the highest total since 1988.The combined home attendance for non-conference games against Southern and Kansas State was 57,788. UL’s combined home attendance in its four Sun Belt games was 54,210.

Coin toss

UL’s Chris Masson, Ian Burks, Grant Fleming and Orkeys Auriene and Troy’s Danny Franks, Steven Adams, Bear Woods and Boris Lee served as team captains Saturday.The Cajuns won the toss and elected to receive.

Injury notes

Masson was knocked out of the game with a back injury early in the third quarter and did not return.McGuire suffered a concussion in the fourth quarter and was replaced by redshirt freshman Blaine Gautier on UL’s final two drives.

Tailback Marlin Miller hurt his knee late in the fourth quarter after running into an official on a kickoff.

Odds and Ends

UL linebacker Antwyne Zanders made five tackles Saturday to finish with 103 on the season. That’s the most by a Cajun since 1996, when Damon Mason had 135 tackles and Kelcy Dotson had 112 "» UL linebacker Daylon McCoy (knee) did not play for the third straight week "» Senior tailback Matt Dupre ran for 18 yards on five carries for UL in his first college start "» Kicker Brett Baer logged UL’s first touchback of the season in the second quarter "» Masson and Troy quarterback Dantavious Parker were teammates at Columbus High School in Miami "» Masson’s 57-yard touchdown pass to Aubrey in the second quarter was the longest throw of Masson’s career and the longest catch for Aubrey in college "» The Cajuns led at halftime in their previous four games.