Football: UL moves on with a shot in the arm – Ringo Makes NFL Debut

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Sept. 13, 2016

UL came out its game against McNeese State last Saturday night with just the sort of boost it needed, Ragin’ Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth suggested Monday.

The win was, according to Hudspeth, “a shot in the arm.”

“They needed a little confidence,” Hudspeth said of his 1-1 Cajuns after they bounced back from a 45-10 season-opening loss to Boise State with a 30-22 victory over McNeese State.

“They needed to feel the victory locker room. There’s nothing like a victory locker room.

“Hopefully we can keep playing with that passion. I thought we played harder than them (the Cowboys),” Hudspeth added during his weekly media gathering Monday. “I thought we played with a lot of passion, and I was proud of how the kids performed.”

Hudspeth wants to keep it going because the Cajuns waste no time before opening Sun Belt Conference play, doing so at 6 p.m. Saturday against South Alabama in their third straight outing at Cajun Field.

The 1-1 Jaguars opened their season with a 21-20 upset of Mississippi State on the road, but lost their own Sun Belt opener 24-9 to Georgia Southern on Saturday at home.

“They got a lot of attention with that victory,” Hudspeth said.

The loss to highly regarded Georgia Southern, however, was a setback for South Alabama that Hudspeth called “a little bit surprising, to say the least” considering what happened in Starkville.

“So I know they’re going to be really hungry to come back over here and get back to playing the way they want to play,” the Cajun coach said.

The home team has won in all four meetings since 2012 in the four-year series between UL and upstart South Alabama, which only recently started its football program from scratch.

That includes a disappointing 32-25 loss in Mobile for UL last season, when the Cajuns went 4-8 and coach Joey Jones’ Jaguars went 5-7.

Yet here South Alabama is with a win this year over an SEC program, something the Cajuns have been able to do in five seasons under Hudspeth (including games at Florida in 2012, at Arkansas in 2013, at Ole Miss in 2014 and at Kentucky in 2015).

“They (the Jaguars) had a tough schedule early right out of the blocks,” Hudspeth said, “and I would have bet if you would have asked them a month ago if they could live with being 1-1 after those two games – we probably all could.

“As the week goes on we’re gonna have to find some ways to slow those guys down,” he added, “because they can put up some points when they get hot.”

UL’s defense, meanwhile, struggled to slow Boise State, resulting one day later in the firing of defensive coordinator Melvin Smith.

But Hudspeth liked the changes he saw against McNeese, especially after UL prevented a team from having a touchdown pass thrown against it for the first time since its 2014 New Orleans Bowl win over Nevada.

Last season alone, the Cajuns gave up 28 TD throws. Boise State had three touchdown tosses.

“(That) in itself right there was a little bit of improvement,” said Hudspeth, adding that UL’s defense intentionally was “very vanilla” after just four practices under interim defensive coordinator Mike Lucas.

After watching film, Hudspeth liked the pass rush he saw from UL’s new four-man front and the fact the Cajuns were able to get  “get a little pressure, get (McNeese State QB James Tabary) out of the pocket, get him moving his feet, get him off the spot.”

“I thought secondary-wise some of the moves we made ended up paying off,” he said after moving Tracy Walker from linebacker back to safety and starting two new cornerbacks in Christian Goodlett and Troy McCollum, “and we’ve got a couple more moves that we’re still playing with right now just to make sure our guys are in the best position to be successful.”

Offensively, Hudspeth loved the fact UL went a second straight game without coughing up any turnovers.

“We’ve come out and done a great job taking care of the football,” he said.

“Not only is (quarterback Anthony Jennings) doing a great job of (that); the running backs, the receivers, everybody.

“You don’t see balls bouncing around the ground with our guys,” the Cajun coach added. “That’s something we work, and when you emphasize something normally you get results.”

Although for a second straight week he’s also having to stress the need to cut down on penalties, Hudspeth liked the tempo of UL’s offense too.

“You know what? Not bad. Not bad,” he said when asked about it. “As a matter of fact, we felt like we wore them down pretty good with the tempo.”

 RINGO MAKES NFL DEBUT

 Former UL defensive lineman Christian Ringo made his regular-season NFL debut Sunday, making one solo tackle – a tackle for loss – in the Green Bay Packers’ 27-23 win at Jacksonville.

 Ringo, a sixth-round draft choice in 2015, spent all of last season on Green Bay’s practice squad and did not play in any regular-season games then.

 He was the only ex-Ragin’ Cajun on an NFL active roster Sunday, as defensive lineman Justin Hamilton is on Seattle’s practice squad, receiver Jamal Robinson is on Jacksonville’s practice squad and tight end Ladarius Green is on Pittsburgh’s physically unable to perform list.

 The undrafted Robinson was signed to Jacksonville practice squad just last week.

 Ringo – from Forest Hill High in Jackson, Mississippi – left UL tied with Jeff Mitchell as its all-time sacks leader with 21. He also set a Cajun single-season record for sacks with 11.5 in his 2014 senior season.

 — Tim Buckley