NEW ORLEANS – From snaps to kicks and returns, the UL football team has several special matters to sort through as the start of its 2015 season fast approaches.
The early August opening of preseason camp for the Ragin’ Cajuns is less than two weeks away, and their Sept. 5 opener at Kentucky is roughly six weeks off.
With that in mind, the man who doubles as UL’s special teams coach — Cajuns head coach Mark Hudspeth — took time to address these five issues not involving offense or defense when earlier this week the Sun Belt Conference held its annual football Media Day at the Superdome here:
1. Who will bring back kickoffs?
Hudspeth said he anticipates that slot receiver Gabe Fuselier, a New Iberia Catholic High product, “will start off on Day 1” on kickoff returns.
But Fuselier, who had two short returns when playing as a true freshman in 2014, is hardly Hudspeth’s only option.
“I’m gonna evaluate some other guys,” he said.
One is fellow slot receiver Al Riles, who according to Hudspeth has asked for a look on the return team.
One is reserve running back Montrel Carter, who was UL’s primary kick returner last season and took back 25 for an average of 24.5 yards per return — including a long of 34 yards.
(No one else returned more than three kickoffs for UL in 2014.)
One is Darius Hoggins, another reserve running back.
One is former LSU running back Jeryl Brazil, a UL track star who was put on a football scholarship this summer and will play cornerback for the Cajuns. Brazil ran the anchor leg on UL’s NCAA Championships-qualifying 4-by-100 sprint relay team.
And then there’s speedy receiver Gary Haynes, a true freshman from Manvel High in Texas who gained YouTube fame for a video in which he throws a pass 40 yards downfield and catches the ball himself.
“Gary Haynes is gonna get an opportunity,” Hudspeth said, “because I think that (returning kicks) is going to be something he’s gonna be really special at. But I just don’t want him doing it first game of the year, on the road.”
2. Will running back Elijah McGuire again be UL’s primary punt-return man?
The answer here is yes, according to Hudspeth.
And that prompts the question of why even risk it?
McGuire, after all, is a franchise-type player — the Sun Belt Conference’s Freshman of the Year in 2014, its Player of the Year last season, the league’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year going into this season and named this month to national watch lists for the Paul Hornung (most versatile), Maxwell (best college player), Doak Walker (top running back) and Walter Camp (player of the year) awards.
Hudspeth’s response: “These days, everything is a fair catch, it seems. There’s just not many returns you get.”
So if there is little chance to break a return, the question, again, is why risk it, especially with a bit of an injury history including a shoulder issue that kept him out of 2015 spring drills?
“Because he can catch it,” Hudspeth said. “He’s just the most dependable guy. And that’s why he’s back there. There are some other guys, to me, that can return punts effectively. But he’s just got the best hands, and we trust him the most.”
McGuire had 15 returns for 116 yards and no touchdowns as a sophomore last season, an average of 7.7 yards per return that included a long of 26 yards.
He led the Sun Belt and was 19th nationally in all-purpose yards in 2014.
No Cajun besides McGuire returned more than two punts last season, and the only other returnee who returned one at all was reserve running back Torrey Pierce, who took it 9 yards.
3. Can UL’s next Aussie punter be as good as the last?
Hudspeth thinks so.
Daniel Cadona’s successor is Brisbane, Australia’s Steven Coutts, who, like Cadona, has a rugby and Australian Rules Football background.
He took part in spring practice at UL as a midyear enrollee.
“Steven Coutts – he’s got the strongest leg that I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot,” Hudspeth said. “Last year Daniel Cadona, I thought, was the strongest. (Coutts) has overtaken that as a true freshman. But he’s going to play in his first college football game (at Kentucky) … so we’ll see how that goes.”
Cadona averaged 42.9 yards per punt last season, including a long of 77 yards and 18 that went 50-plus yards. In his only other season at UL, 2013, he averaged 41.7 yards with a long of 59.
4. Who will handle field goals and PATs?
It’s going to be a battle between Stevie Artigue, a true-freshman scholarship signee from Lafayette High, and Dylan Scheurich, a redshirt-freshman walk-on from Metairie who had an especially strong spring.
And it could wind up being one of the most-interesting camp battles of August.
“(Artigue) and Dylan Scheurich will compete for the starting job, from Day 1,” Hudspeth said. “Wide open.
5. Who snaps?
It will be Jake Guidry, a senior from Carencro High, for punts and, with Guidry also serving as UL’s holder, Stephen Morella, a junior from Lafayette High, for field goals and PATs – just like last season.
Via – Tim Buckley, The Advertiser