UL Notebook – Chery, Defense, Fenroy Watch, Running Men

Bob Heist and • Joshua Parrott • October 14, 2008

UL’s Jason Chery wowed another Sun Belt opponent in last week’s 59-30 win over UNT.

After tying school and league records for touchdowns (five) and points (30), the senior wide receiver was named the conference’s offensive player of the week.

It marked the second consecutive week that the native of Delray Beach, Fla., earned that honor. Chery finished with 339 all-purpose yards on eight touches. He scored on catches of 17, 49 and 57 yards, respectively, an 81-yard end-around run and a 97-yard kickoff return to help UL set the program’s modern-day scoring record.

"Jason had a tremendous game," coach Rickey Bustle said. "He’s starting to make some extraordinary plays.

"We were hoping he would make some plays, but we didn’t know he would do it five times in a half."

In a win over ULM on Oct. 4, Chery gained 318 all-purpose yards on 15 touches. He scored on a 74-yard reception and an 87-yard run.

Do the math: Chery has racked up 657 all-purpose yards and seven touchdowns on 23 touches in the past two weeks. That’s an average of 28.6 yards per touch.

Chery leads the Sun Belt and is fourth nationally in all-purpose yards per game (188.83). He is second in the league in touchdowns (nine) and fourth in receiving yards per game (70), yards per kickoff return (22.6) and points per game (nine). He is sixth in receptions per game (4.33).

Down day on defense

UL’s offense sure did its part in the win at North Texas, rolling up 590 yards of total offense and scoring more points than any Cajun team had since 1956 (67-14 win over Corpus Christi). But there was a disturbing lapse by the defense to be considered.

UNT – which joins Washington (0-5) as the only winless teams remaining in Bowl Championship Series conferences – put up 528 yards of offense.

"I think they’re like the Dallas Mavericks," UL’s sophomore cornerback Orkeys Auriene said. "When the Dallas Mavericks are on, they’re on; they’re hard to stop. North Texas – they were on. They racked up quite a bit of yards, but we bent, but we didn’t break."

Mean Green quarterback Giovanni Vizza had a big day, going 29-of-44 passing for 361 yards and two touchdowns. Receiver Casey Fitzgerald – ranked No. 7 in the country with 104.7 yards per game receiving – caught 14 balls for 231 yards and a score.

"We have to come out with the emotional level our defense needs to play at," Bustle said. "Defense plays at a different motor than offensive players do. I was concerned that after four, five weeks at playing at such a high level that we’d come out with that motor like we needed. This week, I think we’ll be fine with that."

The Fenroy watch

UL running back Tyrell Fenroy is setting records at a dizzying pace. Against North Texas, the LaPlace native ran for 92 yards to pass former UNT star Patrick Cobbs for the Sun Belt career rushing mark, now standing at 4,113 yards.

Already this season, Fenroy has set UL records for career rushing and combined rushing and receiving yards (4,574), plus set the school and conference record with 297 yards rushing against UL Monroe on Oct. 4.

So what’s on the horizon?

Fenroy needs eight more touchdowns rushing to break Brian Mitchell’s school record of 47 and just two for the Sun Belt career mark currently held by Middle Tennessee’s Eugene Gross at 41.

Another interesting watch list for Fenroy is his standing all-time among rushers in Louisiana college history.

Fenroy’s 4,113 yards currently rank fourth after moving past McNeese State’s Buford Jordan, who ran for 4,106 yards from 1980-83 for the Cowboys.

Looking at the remainder of the list: 1. Kevin Faulk of LSU (4,557, 1995-98), 2. Mewelde Moore of Tulane (4,364, 2000-03) and 3. Henry Fields of McNeese (4,358, 1992-95).

One more fact: Fenroy is 148 yards away from becoming the seventh player in NCAA history to log four straight 1,000-yard seasons rushing.

The running men

A look at the success of UL’s running game in recent seasons from the sports information department’s weekly release:

The Cajuns ranked 7th in the nation in rushing in 2005, 11th in 2006 and 7th in 2007. Over that span, UL has 8,080 yards and 77 TDs on the ground (an average of 231 yards and two scores per game). The Cajuns set the school single-game rushing record at UL Monroe on Oct. 4 with 556 yards on 37 carries (15.0 per carry). Currently ranked No. 1 in the country, UL has 1,993 rushing yards (332.2 ypg) and 21 rushing TDs in 2008. In the last four games, UL has 2,494 yards of total offense (623.5 ypg), 1,643 rushing (410.8 ypg).