Fire on the Bayou|UL-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns Dynasty

[ChosenOne58]

Devereaux and Co. Refocus Recruiting Efforts

LAFAYETTE, La. - Three weeks into the season and Coach Jason Devereaux is changing the game plan.

“I don't like to see it as changing, but rather, enhancing the game plan. I know the players we need, but I also know what players I want. If we're lacking at a particular position, I don't think we should wait until we're forced to recruit at that position.”

The Ragin Cajuns have removed a few players from the list and Coach Devereaux has added a few more that he may be able to bring into the fold more quickly.

“We're heading into our third week of football, most kids have their minds made up on where they want to play. I'll admit, a few kids that didn't have us listed have moved us into their Top 10, but if a kid is down to his Top 5 and we haven't even made it onto his list, I don't think we should spend our recruiting efforts there.”

Could he possibly be speaking of 2-star tackle, Lee Mays out of Denham Springs, LA? Mays seems to have already narrowed his list down to five schools (Tulane, LSU, Louisiana Tech, Houston, and UNLV) and UL-Lafayette is not even among the Top 10.

“I'm speaking in general terms here. These players aren't giving us a second thought. There is only so much time to devote to recruiting per week so we have to reach out to kids who want to play for this program.”

In addition to Mays, Rico Green, Will Arnold, and Gary Johnson have also rumored to have been removed from the UL-Lafayette recruiting board. All players held scholarship offers from Coach Devereaux, but still didn't seem too impressed.

The Ragin Cajuns have set their sights on six new recruits. Four tight ends, a guard, and center. See table below for details.

UL-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns Recruiting - Class of 2011
PLAYER NAME	CALIBER	HT	WT	HOMETOWN
Willie Archie, TE		6-3	252	Plaquemine, LA
Sean Cole, TE		6-2	230	Tallahassee, FL
Clint Graves, TE		6-0	274	Moss Point, MS
Lance Little, TE		6-6	225	Hereford, TX
Matt Kent, C		6-2	302	Port St. Lucie, FL
Matt Madison, G		6-7	282	Marrero, LA

In other recruiting news, six players are coming to visit Lafayette for the rivalry game against Middle Tennessee State. Wide receivers, Blake Louis and Jerry Scott (LA), defensive tackles Ricky Williams and Dennis Freeman (TX), and free safeties Melvin Mays (LA) and Matt Long (TX). All prospects have a two rating.

“This is a big weekend for us. The fans and players are geared up for the game and this is our first set of recruits coming in to visit. We have to make a great first impression.”

Incoming Recruits


Ricky Williams, DT - 6-5, 280 Balanced
Jerry Scott, WR - 5-10,175 Balanced
Blake Louis, WR - 6-1, 169 Balanced
Matt Long, FS - 5-11, 173 Balanced
Dennis Freeman, DT - 6-2, 270 Balanced
Melvin Mays, FS - 5-10, 197 Hard Hitter

[hockeyplaya2724]

Wow 4 TE's lol, good job recruiting.

[ChosenOne58]

vs.

The Great Escape
UL-Lafayette inches past Middle Tennessee State


Daylon McCoy (4) and Grant Fleming (47) celebrate a huge victory over Middle Tennessee State

Lafayette, LA– The Ragin' Cajuns were pushed against the rope by the Blue Raiders in this contest and earned an ESPN Classic Greatest Game Score of 608.

“Nobody said that it was going to be easy to take the Sun Belt Conference crown,” commented Coach Devereaux. “We are fighting tooth and nail here. I think it will make us a better team for it in the end.”

Middle Tennessee State took to the air as Dwight Dasher hooked up with Garrett Andrews for an 80 yard touchdown. UL-Lafayette came up empty on the following drive with a 45 yard field goal that missed by Brett Baer.

Maurice Rolle came up with a loose ball on an option play that set up the Ragin' Cajuns for the score to tie the game. The Ragin' Cajuns were starting to slack off on defense and playing sloppy on offense, alowing MTSU to build a 24-14 lead after a fumble by Matt Desormeaux on fourth and one.

Going in at halftime, Coach Devereaux didn't seemed too pleased with the way his team was playing. “This was just sloppy football. We need to step it up. Plain and simple.”

We're pretty sure that the message wasn't delivered that calmly in the locker room. But however it was delivered, the team seemed to get the point. After a three and out, Spencer Ortego punted the ball out to Middle Tennessee State's three yard line. On the first drive, UL-Lafayette's defense got into the backfield and came up with the safety .

“That play definitely energized the rest of the team,” commented linebacker Daylon McCoy. “That play was the boost we needed. As the defense we felt like we let the team down giving up all those points in the first half.”

McCoy recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter that set up a six play drive to give UL-Lafayette their first lead of the game in the fourth quarter 30-27. MTSU tied the game with a 20 yard field goal by Alan Gendreau with 2:33 left in regulation. Stretching out the last drive for two minutes and thirty-one seconds, setting up Baer for a 28 yard field goal and the win.

NCAA Scoreboard - Mid Tennessee State (0-1) at UL-Lafayette (1-1)

September 25, 2010 1 2 3 4 F Mid Tennessee State 7 17 3 3 30 UL-Lafayette 7 7 9 10 33 Top Performers Mid Tennessee State - Stats Dwight Dasher - 23-39, 378 yards, 3 TD Garrett Andres - 2 catches, 113 yards, TD UL-Lafayette - Stats Chris Masson - 14-23, 254 yards, TD Yobes Walker - 30 carries, 140 yards, 2 TD

Team Stats Comparison MTSU ULL First Downs 28 33 3rd Down Efficiency 27.27 28.57 4th Down Efficiency 100 50 Total Yards 543 604 Passing Yards 378 257 Rushing Yards 56 185 Penalties-Penalty Yards Turnovers 3 1 Time of Possession 13:13 22:36

OperationSports.com

[ChosenOne58]

Quote: Originally Posted by hockeyplaya2724

Wow 4 TE's lol, good job recruiting.

I haven't signed them yet.

[hockeyplaya2724]

Quote: Originally Posted by ChosenOne58

I haven't signed them yet.

I knew that

Nice win, must have been very exciting.

[ChosenOne58]

Quote: Originally Posted by hockeyplaya2724

I knew that Nice win, must have been very exciting.

Yeah, I was pacing back and forth a lot. I played like the second half of the fourth quarter standing up

[ChosenOne58]

Around the NCAA

2010 NCAA Football Rankings - Coaches Poll

RANK	TEAM	LAST WK	RECORD	POINTS
1.	Alabama	1	4-0	1498
2.	Oregon	3	4-0	1333
3.	TCU	4	4-0	1272
4.	Iowa	5	4-0	1193
5.	Ohio State	6	3-1	1106
6.	Wisconsin	7	3-0	1077
7.	Georgia Tech	9	4-0	966
8.	USC	10	3-0	913
9.	Oklahoma	12	4-0	838
10.	Texas	11	3-1	835
11.	Boise State	2	2-1	776
12.	Virginia Tech	13	3-1	751
13.	Florida	15	3-1	642
14.	Miami	8	2-1	632
15.	Utah	16	4-0	619
16.	Nebraska	17	3-1	553
17.	Washington	18	3-0	532
18.	Arkansas	14	3-1	498
19.	Texas Tech	19	3-0	490
20.	Pittsburgh	22	2-1	470
21.	Penn State	21	3-1	392
22.	Oregon State	42	1-2	379
23.	West Virginia	26	4-0	336
24.	Houston	24	4-0	301
25.	North Carolina	25	2-1	255

OperationSports.com

Sun Belt Standings - 2010 Season

Teams	CONF W-L	OVERALL W-L	PF	PA	STRK
UL-Lafayette	2-0	2-1	74	112
Florida Atlantic	1-0	1-2	30	93
UL-Monroe	1-0	1-2	40	69
Arkansas State	1-2	1-3	85	105
Mid Tennessee State	0-1	2-2	101	89
Troy	0-1	2-2	109	81
North Texas	0-1	1-3	40	92
FIU	0-0	0-3	27	163
Western Kentucky	0-0	0-4	19	143

OperationSports.com

Heisman Watch
1. HB DeMarco Murray - Oklahoma
2. QB Case Keenum - Houston
3. QB Ricky Stanzi - Iowa
4. QB Andy Dalton - TCU
5. WR Julio Jones - Alabama

[ChosenOne58]

On the Sidelines with Coach Jason Devereaux – 1st Ed.

LAFAYETTE, La. -One of two new features for this year’s dynasty will be On the Sidelines with UL-Lafayette’s new head coach, Jason Devereaux. We’ll try to sit with Coach Devereaux a few times during the season and try to get a more in depth look into Ragin’ Cajuns football.

How do you feel about your overall success at the start of week five?

Right now, we're at 2-1 and it feels good, but we're not satisfied. We're taking it one game at a time. We take each win as it comes. I told these guys at the start of the season, if they leave it all on the field, win or lose they will be satisfied with the results. And right now the result is winning. So, I feel good about it. But we know that we still have work to do.

What do you attribute the success to?

I attribute our success to the Georgia game. We rallied after that game. As a team, we had to do that. We fed into the hype. No one expected us to win. Not even us. They didn't even expect us to score. We got frustrated, embarrassed, and fell apart in that game. We got back to Lafayette and had a team meeting on Monday to discuss how we were going to move forward after that game. I told the guys one of two things was going to happen: teams were going to try and embarrass us week in and week out or they were going to assume they are going to beat us anyway so they back off and don't play 100%. But from what I saw in that game and what I've seen in practice, I think we have a real shot at winning the Sun Belt Conference title this season.

What player has surprised you the most in production on the field?

I'd have to say Yobes Walker. He has definitely established himself as an integral part of this offense. He sets up Chris [Masson] on a lot of his pass plays after we've used the run for a while. I look forward to the next two seasons with Yobes. He runs hard and he never gives up on the play. Coming back from a game where he was bottled up by Georgia, he managed to have two games where he put up over 125 yards in each game says a lot. We can only go up from here.

What conference game are you looking forward to the most?

I look forward to all of them, but I'd have to say that Troy is probably the one that I'm most excited about. I think Troy will give me us the most trouble out of anyone in the conference. Them and probably North Texas would give us a run for our money this season. Other than that, it's honestly anybody's game in this conference.

Do you have any predictions on the rest of the season?

I try not to predict the future. I'm just here to coach. I can't even tell you what's going to happen from one down to the next. I can tell you what I hope will happen. I hope that we can keep this energy going throughout the season. Win or lose, just put it all out there. I'd like for us to get a bowl bid. I think that would be great, but these aren't predictions, these are just things that I keep on the board in my office and in the locker room and in the weight room (laughs).