Football: New Kind Of Focus athleticnetwork.net/site.php?pageID=37&newsID=15874 Tim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, Dec. 3, 2013 _________________ Two days after falling 31-28 to rival UL Monroe, Ragin’ Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth expressed pride in bringing a Sun Belt Conference championship – even if it’s actually, at least for now, only a share of it – to UL. “But we would sure like to win it outright – even though we sort of consider it ‘outright,’ since we won head-to-head,” Hudspeth said during his weekly media gathering Monday. New Orleans Bowl-bound UL did win Oct. 15 at two-time defending Sun Belt champ Arkansas State, which has finished 5-2 in Sun Belt Conference play. But because the league does not utilize head-to-head results for tie-breaking purposes, the Red Wolves – invited Monday to the GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile for a third straight year – will share the title with the Cajuns if UL loses its regular-season finale Saturday night at South Alabama. Hudspeth’s club, however, is 8-3 overall and 5-1 in Sun Belt games and would have the championship all to itself if it beats the 5-6 Jaguars. If would the Cajuns’ first-ever outright Sun Belt title, and their first outright of any sort since 1970. If UL manages that, it will be with backup quarterback Brooks Haack running the show. Starter Terrance Broadway broke a bone in the forearm of his right, throwing arm in Saturday’s fourth quarter, and is out after undergoing surgery Monday. With Broadway out and less-mobile but arm-strong Haack in, Hudspeth suggested Monday that the Cajuns won’t veer far from their usual play-action passing style. “It will be what we do, just with a different quarterback,” he said. And with much different results, they hope, than last Saturday. A recognized outright title, after all, is what UL really wants. That’s especially the case after the Cajuns had their eight-game win streak and perfect home record both spoiled by a loss to ULM that Hudspeth on Monday called a “tough, tough pill to swallow.” What made the gulp especially difficult is that Hudspeth sincerely believed his Cajuns were as prepared as they could possibly be for the now 6-6 Warhawks. “We had a great week of practice,” he said. “Thought we were totally ready.” They were not. Certainly not for the long haul. “Sometimes you can get too fat,” Hudspeth said. “We’ve definitely got to make sure those things don’t happen again.” What UL won’t have to deal with ever again is the presence of ULM senior quarterback Kolton Browning, who rallied the Warhawks from down 14-0 and – after tying the game at 14-14 – again from down 21-14. Hudspeth on Monday suggested a Browning-directed drive on ULM’s second possession of the game cost the Cajuns dearly. “We just allowed Kolton to get that team back into the game,” he said. After the Cajuns had jumped ahead by two touchdowns, the margin cut was in half by a 29-yard touchdown pass to Ajalen Holley on third-and-15 for the Warhawks. The eight-play, 76-yard drive was kept alive by a 35-yard completion from Browning to Je’Ron Hamm with ULM facing third-and-8 from its own 26-yard line. “From that point on,” Hudspeth said, “it felt like some of the steam went out of the team a little bit. “Maybe it backed off the gas a little bit with the intensity, with the emotion. Don’t know the cause of that. Maybe the guys felt like we had done got the game under control.” Whatever the reason, the Cajuns do at least still have control of their own fate as far as an outright SBC title. But while the steering wheel may in Haack’s well-intentioned hands – he was 10-of-14 for 126 yards and one touchdown in his two series Saturday – Hudspeth doesn’t want the redshirt freshman to think he’s the only one with keys to the car. “We’ve got to get Brooks comfortable, because we know he’s gonna be expected to play this week,” Hudspeth said. “I’m not putting everything on his shoulders, at all. I’m counting on the rest of the team to rally and pick up their play to take the pressure off of Brooks. “I don’t want him to feel like he’s got to come in and do everything himself, because he certainly does not.”
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 18:34:40 +0000
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