|
Longtime UL coach dies at 66Bruce Brown • bbrown@theadvertiser.com • June 6, 2010
Brian Mitchell and Jake Delhomme owe Nelson Stokley a debt of gratitude. Under Stokley, the two quarterbacked Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns to seven winning seasons — Mitchell four in a row and Delhomme three of four — then both graduated to successful careers in the National Football League. They are among hundreds of former Cajuns mourning Stokley’s death on Saturday at age 66 from complications brought on by Alzheimer’s disease. Stokley, a native of Kennedy, Texas, and multisport star at Crowley High, quarterbacked LSU in 1965 and 1967. He led the Tigers to a 14-7 upset of Arkansas as a sophomore, ending that school’s 22-game win streak, and paced a 20-13 Sugar Bowl win over Wyoming in January 1968. He coached UL from 1986-98, finishing with a 62-80-1 record for a school that labored as a football independent for 10 of his 13 years. Using a roster heavily reliant on Louisiana talent, Stokley guided squads that lined up against Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Southern Mississippi, Memphis and Tulane. "For me, the thing I remember is the innovative offense we ran," said Mitchell, who arrived at UL from Plaquemine in 1986 for Stokley’s first season and helped trigger records of 6-5, 6-5, 6-5 an 7-4. "He brought a big college feel to the program. He had been on a national championship coaching staff at Clemson, and he didn’t care who we played. We played Alabama, and almost beat them (a 24-17 loss) and beat Brett Favre at Southern Miss. "Coach Stokley gave you a lot of confidence. It was exciting." Mitchell was the first player in NCAA history to run for over 3,000 yards and pass for over 5,000, scoring 47 touchdowns. He earned enough notice at UL to play 14 years in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl and setting kick return career records in the process. "A coach is great who can take the talent he has and be able to use it," Mitchell said. "And they don’t make you do what you can’t do. I thanked him, too. I carried the ball over 600 times at UL and never missed a game, and that showed the NFL I was durable." Perhaps Mitchell’s greatest game occurred in 1987, when he ran for 271 yards and threw for 205 in a 35-28 win over Colorado State at Cajun Field.
"They were beating us at half," Mitchell recalled. "Coach asked me, ‘What is it?’ I said they were tired, that we couldn’t run at them, but we could run around them. So they designed a lot of misdirection stuff for the second half. They made a great adjustment." Four years after Mitchell left, homegrown Delhomme took over the versatile UL attack. He never lost to an in-state opponent, was the quarterback when the Ragin’ Cajuns scored their momentous 29-22 upset of No. 25 Texas A&M at Cajun Field in 1996 and passed for 9,216 in his college career. The Teurlings High product led the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl after the 2003 season, losing to New England by a field goal, and will play his first season with the Cleveland Browns this fall. "It’s funny, when you look back 10-12 years, and you realize he might have been a pretty good coach," Delhomme said. "He did a decent job. We were independent for so long, but he didn’t shy away from playing the big schools. He didn’t back down. "Coach Stokley was very quiet, extremely intelligent. I appreciate that more now. He saw the big picture, saw what we could accomplish." The Cajuns were members of the Big West Conference from 1993-95, and Delhomme quarterbacked records of 5-1, 5-1 and 4-2 in league play under Stokley. Then the Cajuns upset A&M in 1996 in front of 38,783 fans at Cajun Field. From 1995-98, Stokely’s son Brandon was a record-setting receiver for the Cajuns. And, like Delhomme, the younger Stokley is still playing in the NFL, with Denver. "I was lucky to see him at his most gratifying time — for two years when he got to see his son play," Delhomme said. "That was a special time." Joining Mitchell, Delhomme and Stokley as Cajuns in the NFL who played for Nelson Stokley are Crowley’s Orlando Thomas (Minnesota), Cecilia’s Anthony Clement (Arizona, San Francisco, NY Jets — 11 years), Richie Cunningham (Dallas, Carolina, Jacksonville), Todd Scott (Kansas City, Tampa Bay, New York Jets, Minnesota), James Atkins (Detroit, Baltimore, Seattle), Chris Gannon (New England) and Mark Hall (Green Bay). Delhomme recalled the bond Stokley shared with his players, whether they were NFL-bound or not. "At the time, we were living in the dorm in the Conference Center," Delhomme said. "I remember on Fridays before home games, we would watch a movie. But we would also watch high school football highlights, and Coach would watch with us. "My true freshman year, Brandon was a senior at Comeaux, all 140 pounds of him. He would show up on the highlights, and we would ask Coach Stokley, ‘Where’d he get those moves?’ We would get on him. It was a lot of fun." Athletic Network Footnotes: Please click here for Nelson Stokley’s AN profile: http://athleticnetwork.net/site.php?pageID=55&profID=2536 Click here for a photo of Coach Stokley leading the Cajuns against Alabama at Cajun Field: http://athleticnetwork.net/picpopup.php?piclibID=8330 Click here for photos of Coach Stokley and some of his players in the 1995 season: http://athleticnetwork.net/site491.php# Click here to view Coach Stokley in his first year at Athletic Director: http://athleticnetwork.net/site1551.php# Click here to view Coach Stokley, one of the two head football coaches in the nation to double as athletic director and head football coach: http://athleticnetwork.net/site1286.php
|