Speaker 1: Raging Cajuns football is picked to win the Sunbelt West,
but will they live up to the hype? Let's discuss
it here on Raging Rundown. What's good, ladies and gentlemen,
and welcome into another episode of Raging Rundown All Cajuns
all the time. I'm your host, your Marcus Fitzpatrick, but
you know you can always call me Fits. And in
today's episode, we are officially inching closer to talking season.
Football season is right around the corner, but right now
we are right in the midst of talking season, where
we're talking about a lot of different topics as the
season progresses and we get closer to fall camp eventually
when the first kickoff will happen in September. So we
will be talking about a preseason ranking coming out and
how Louisiana stacks up in that. We'll talk about the
players that are listed on that preseason honors list as well,
and we'll give some kudos to Cody Brash who was
drafted in this year's MLB draft. Let's start off with football,
as that is going to be what is upon us
very soon. Some about media days. As I'm recording this episode,
we'll be on begin on Wednesday. I'll be down there
in New Orleans for Wednesday and Thursday. I'll have a
schedule one on one interview with former UO head coach
Billy Napier on Wednesday, and then obviously talking to the
Rage and Cajuns and said players that Thursday morning. But
last week, Phil Steell, who is a longtime sports writer,
very well respected in the business, pretty much all of
the postseason award list, the Heisman, the Mackie, the Deve, O'Brien,
the Lombardi, all of those Troy trophies that you hear
about at the end of the season. He is on
that voting committee. He released his preseason All sunblt team
and also the predictions of what he had in terms
of who will win the Sunbelt East and the sun
Belt West. So to some it may be a surprise,
but to me this isn't a huge surprise. He picks
Louisiana to win the Sunbolt West. Last year they would
pick to win the Sunbelt West by the coaches poll.
We have not seen that come out just yet, but
once we do, we will more than likely react here
on the show. But Phil Steel picks Louisiana to win
the Sun Belt West, Mike Desimo enters yet another season
at the helm of the Raging Cajuns, and it's very
clear that Phil Steele is leaning into the maturity that
is on this roster. So his projected order is Louisiana Troy,
Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, South allib, ULM, and then Southern
Miss And to me, I think that that checks out
fairly well. I'm not privy to a ton of what
other schools in the Sun Belt look like in terms
of roster, and so I kind of started trying to
do a little research and dig a little bit, and
Y'allhoo Sports had an article that came out in May
listing all of the returning starters that will be coming
back for every single FBS school and in the Western Division.
Arkansas State will return ten starters, seven on offense, three
on defense. Ul returns ten starters, eight on offense, two
on defense. Tech returns eight four and four. South Alabama
returns five two on offense, three on defense. Southern Miss
with just one returning overall starter, Troy with five four
on offense, one on defense, ULM with five overall, three
on offense and two on defense. So It's very clear
that Phil Steel is looking at the route of the
more experience that you have coming back on your roster,
the better off that you will be, and I would
have to agree with him. I think that if Louisiana
is able to stay healthy, which is something that they
weren't able to do last season, we saw how decimated
they were on the offensive line, starting Richard freshman true
freshmen on the offensive line. They were so decimated that
getting to six and six was an absolute miracle. Just
getting to a bowl game was a miracle. We remember
how they were two and five at one point in
the season, two and six, and they rout alough four
straight and they were able to gain bowl eligibility, Like
that was a miracle in itself. Lunch Winfield leading the offense, defense,
having key moments like on the road at Arkansas State
and the comeback victory that they had against Marshall, Like
all of those different games that happened were all a
result of just these guys willing themselves to say we
want a thirteenth game. So if Louisiana is able to
stay healthy, I think that the sky's the limit for
them to be able to capture the Sunbelt West and
find their way into the championship game. Now later, once
we get a little bit closer to the season and
I hear some fall camp reports and things like that,
I'll try to make a prediction about what I think
this team will look like overall in terms of record
and also will go down game by game. Like I said,
I tend to agree with this. Troy will be returning
their quarterback, Tucker Kilcreaes, who gave you a lot of
fits there on the road. He's back for you or
he's back for Troy. That is Arkansas State. They lost
Jalen Rayner to the transfer portal, but they return a
lot of their offensive linemen. From what I'm seeing, Louisiana
Tech is going to be the newcomer on the block,
so they're going to be scrappy Southern miss I've just
told you how decimated they were just having one returner
coming back and a new head coach at the helm
Ulm and South Alabama kind of fall there near the
bottom because of the number of experience that they being
pid to win the Sunbelt West does not win you
any football games. We know that this is just a
talking point, and it's something to talk about. But what
it does is it grows their target on your back
because now other teams will say, hey, guys, this is
Bullton Boar material. They think this is what's happening in
other locker rooms. They're gonna say, hey, guys, people around
the country, people in the league, sports writers, all of
this stuff like that, believe that UL is a better
program than you are. Go out and prove that they are.
That's what's gonna happen. And what u EL is gonna
have to do is respond and say, yes, we are.
Let me show you how we do it. That's what's
gonna have to happen. Very similar to what they did
in the twenty twenty fourth season when they were able
to reach the Sunbelt Championship game. They were very experienced
in that on that team, and now they have a
ton of experience back. They mentioned about eight starters offensively.
I'm not sure if they're counting on the offensive line,
but Sheldon Samson is a returner, Brock Chapelle is a returner,
Kate Morrow, Befordham George Jackson would be considered a returning
starter because he started at the beginning of the season.
Kayden Jensen and I guess maybe you could and obviously
launch Winfield and I guess maybe you could consider Jacobe
Aisam being a returning starter for you, because he did
return in a lot of instances. But then defensively, Brent
Gordon Junr was penciled in as a starter, Marion Ilium
was a starter from the beginning, and then after that,
you know, Fitzgerald West, Maxie Bodwin were guys that started
in certain games but other games they didn't, and all
those things like that. So I'm not sure if they're
pulling from day one Pencilden starters or how they may
be looking at it. But defensively, you are young, but
you have guys that have had road experience to be
able to get in the mix. The priest Ash, Maxie Bodwin,
Fitzgerald West, Chase Edwards like guys like that have been
in the mix to get their experience up front to
give you an opportunity that if things can click well
with some of the transfers that you're going to mix
in there, like Tito Chiquire and Roderick Stewart, if you're
able to mix that in really well, then things could
pop for you really well. Defensively, so it'll be interesting
to see how that will shape up. Like I said that,
this puts a ton of pressure, even more so because
last season we were saying that this team was really
good and had experience and it would just be a
matter of and they be able to put it all together.
The injury bug bit them, but they made their way
to the finish line. Now once again, it's the same thing.
They have the pieces together, now can they get to
the finish line, stay healthy and be able to achieve
the goals that they have. Also, he picked eleven players
from the ULS roster to be on the All Sun
Belt preseason team and it goes as follows. First team
was Sheldon Samson and Brenton Gordon Junior. Second team was
Lunch Winfield, Cooper Fordham, George Jackson, Fitzgerald West, Marion Illiam,
Jacoorian Norris as a punt returner. I believe it was.
Fourth team is Drol Smith, Katon Jensen and Zay Alexander
Zay I think had a couple of snaps. I have
to go back and look for sure, but I think
that he was thrown in the mix there on the
offensive line. Obviously, Cayden being a huge part of your
offense at the tight end position. Darrell Smith a lot
of buzz that we talked about with him from what
he did during the offseason and in spring football. So
he appears on this list, But to me, there's no
surprise that Sheldon Samson and Brent Gordon Junior pop up
on your first team, right Brent Gordon came in i
think the second or third week of the season, took
over this starting role at cornerback and never look back.
He is your pizel Din starter. He is a guy
that is going to be able to shut down one size,
the one side of the field for you as a cornerback,
and teams are gonna look at him and they're gonna
try to scheme around, saying, how do we not throw
that way? Or how do we put him in positions
where we can exploit something from him? And all of
those things like that. He is going to be the
one corner. Sheldon Sampson vice versa is the receiver that
they're saying, how can we take him away? How can
we make sure that he doesn't go off? How do
we make sure he doesn't get two touchdowns? How do
we make sure he doesn't get one hundred and fifty
yards receiving all of those things like that, and by
him getting a lot of that attention, that's gonna force
guys like Rogie Dennis and Trent Cheney and Landon Struther
and Russell Babino and Jane Johnson. Is gonna force guys
like that to say, hey, he's getting all of the attention.
Now you're gonna have one on one opportunities. Can you
come up and make these big plays? On the second team,
lunch Winfield probably would have been higher if he would
have played the full season. Obviously, with him coming in
midway through the season at the start of conference play
in the Marshall Game, I think that's why he comes
up on second team in this one. This is a
really big year for him. This is the first time
since Levi Lewis was the starting quarterback that we're coming
into a season where the Kachins have their starting quarterback.
They know who it is, and they are building the
offense around and catering to him to make sure that
they can be successful. The offense will go as lunch
Winfield will go, So this will be a big year
for him. Cooper Fordham he is a force for you
there in the middle. George Jackson will be coming back
from injury. I'm only playing, I believe in two games
last season. Fitzgerald West was a very consistent player for
you up front on the defensive line. Marion Iliam had
some injuries there in the middle of the season, but
was really solid there at the star position. And then
Corey and Norris. Like I said, he is now moved
back to receiver. If I'm not mistaken, he was originally
brought in as a safety. He's now at receiver, so
he can be thrown in the mix offensively. But he
has a lot of pop for you on the special
team end of things. So you have a lot of
mixture in there. But the key thing that we're seeing
out of here is a lot of veteran leadership. The
youngest players that you have there in the mixes like
Darrell Smith, j Coryan Norris, and Brent Gordon Junior. A
lot of these other guys are juniors and seniors, so
you have an experience brought a bunch of guys and
it'll be exciting to see how things will all shape out.
I'm going to take a quick time out and when
we come back, we'll talk about some of the main
storylines that we'll be looking forward to as we head
into some media days and as we get closer to
fall camp. We'll discuss it all when we come back
here on Rage and Rundow. Hey, guys, thank you, thank
you so much for tuning into another episode of Raging Rundown.
We're gonna get back into the action in just a second,
but before we do, if you are watching this on YouTube,
please do me a favorite, Please like it, share it,
and leave a comment down below, but most importantly, make
sure you subscribe to the channel. If you're listening, please
follow the podcast feed, rate the show, and leave us
a review, because that's gonna help us get in front
of more Raging Cajun fans just like yourself. So going
into fall camp, there are gonna be huge storylines that
we're gonna be looking at. I've been periodically mentioning them throughout,
but we'll go back over what I believe will be
some of the biggest things that we're going to need
to look at as we head into fall camp. The
first thing is the most important thing, which I just mentioned,
so I won't harbor on in much lunch Winfield at quarterback.
He's preseason he's got preseason recognition. Now it's gonna be
about how can he elevate this offense. We saw how
lethal he could be with his legs in the Marshall game.
We saw how he could throw through the air in
the Marshall game. Now it is going to be about
pulling it all together and having an elite level of focus,
having an elite level of reading the defense and understanding
what they're trying to do on the back ends with
safeties and then the secondary and all of those things
like that, being able to go through your reads and
find the open receiver, and then obviously if things break down,
being able to scramble extend plays with your legs, and
then being able to move the chains as well. Like
I said, before this offense goes as lunch Winfield will go.
The second one offensively is Sheldon Sampson. Obviously, like I said,
it's not so much as going to be what is
he going to do? Because we've seen when he's on
he is one of the best, not just in the
Sun Bubble, potentially in the G five level as well.
In terms of wide receivers. The more important thing is
going to be who is going to be the best second, third, fourth,
maybe even fifth option because we know Uel likes to
utilize a bunch of receivers and rotating guys in and
I mentioned some names of guys already that you have
in the mix. You know, Canarius Wade and Landon Struther
and Trenton Cheney and Russell Babbodo and Jayden Johnson and
Rajie Dennis and Jacory and Norris as a special teams
guy but also being moved there to receiver. How are
these guys going to step up when coverage is rolled
in Sheldon Sampson's direction and they have one on one opportunities.
How are those guys going to be able to step up?
How is he going to Sheldon Sampson that is, how
is he going to continue to assume a leadership role,
whether it's more vocal, whether it's understanding that, hey, you
are going to get more attention and so maybe you
don't get as many touches. How do you support some
of those guys that may get four to five touches
and you might only get two in a game, but
your two might be a touchdown and it might be
a quick slant that's for, you know, a big first down.
How do you handle some of that in those moments
when the team is still being successful and maybe you're
not getting as many of your individual numbers as what
you would like. That's going to be an important thing
as well. I think also offensively, the running back position
is going to be really really big. We know last
year Bill Davis and Zilond Parry or the bulk of
your rushing attack, and they are now at other programs.
So now it's going to be what is the running
back room of Stephen Blanco and Darrell Smith and JJ
Garner and Anthony Reagan, Maurian Brown and now key Ryan
Smith coming in. What is that running back room? How
do they come together and find ways to say, Hey,
we might be unknown or we might be unproven, but
we can ball too. If you put the football in
our stomach, we're going to find a way to go
and move the chains. We're gonna pick up big first downs,
We're gonna come out of the backfield and catch passes,
and we're gonna score touchdowns, and we're going to be
successful on offense. That's going to be key for all
of those guys, not just as individuals, but also as
a cohesive unit on the offensive line. You also have
some experience there as well. George Jackson coming back from injury.
Like I mentioned, Cooper Fordham is going to have to
anchor the center of that offensive line figuratively and literally.
And then Jaya Alexander his name popping up on that
list as well. But also you know during the spring
Jason Mitchell, who was a transfer for you, got a
lot of reps there at tackle, So it'll be interesting
to see is he a potential starter for you? Is
he kind of a swing tackle for you? Do you
kick him back in the guard? How do you utilize
him in terms of a rotating position the guard position.
You have Kate Morrow that's going to be entering his
senior year. You have Matt Bruceard that has some experience
under his belt. You had Jacobe Isisam that was a
true freshman yet last year and now because of the
injuries that happened early, he had to go in and
he had to play. How do you utilize a guy
like that as well. That'll be interesting to see how
the Cajuns will iron out what they want to do
upfront offensively. But they have some experience, particularly at the
tackle positions, and then also there at the center position,
and yes, at the center position. Like I was mentioned,
words are hard guess. So it'll be interesting to see
how five is one will gel together. Defensive line wise,
we talked about earlier, you know, Fitzgerald West, Maxie Bodwin
being the core of that senior group, the leaders on
that defensive line. How do they rally the troops and
get these guys to understand that they operate as a
whole as well, and when you know, different stunts are called,
how do we get back there and we create pressure
while maintaining gap integrity. How do we make sure that
we can stop the run that maybe it doesn't even
get back there to the linebacker where we're shedding blocks
and getting back there getting tackles for loss and one
yard gains. Making it very difficult for offenses to get
in sync, getting quarterbacks off the spot, making it on
co sfortable for running backs to try to slip through holes.
That's going to be huge as well. I think that
the linebacker position as well. Obviously you lost Jayden Duggar,
Terrence Williams. That will experienced guys for you. Now you
have coming back like a Jake Saint Andre and a
Caleb Edwards. But after that you have a lot of
younger guys that haven't gotten nearly as many SNAP experiences.
So we will see how guys like a Micah Johnson,
a Hayden Darbon aconor McPherson like, how how will guys
like that come in and be able to get experienced
en plane and make big plays when they're needed to
as well. So a couple of you know, different storylines
that we'll be looking at as we head there into
the Fall Camp experience. So it'll be truly exciting to
see what things will shape up to be as we
get towards the twenty twenty six campaign. Before we wrap up,
I do want to give a hat tip to Rage
Cagen's baseball right handed pitcher Cody Brash, who was selected
by the San Francisco Giants in the MLB Draft. He
waited till Day two, obviously going in the eighth round.
I believe it was yes in the eighth round and
becoming the one hundred and twentieth player in program history
to be chosen in the MLB Draft. He went two
hundred and thirty eighth overall, we saw the impressive one
loan season that he had in Vermilion in white with
a two point seven to seven ERA, striking out eighty
two batters going in seventy four and two third innings
of work early on in the season. He was your
ultimate closer. He slammed the door shut. And then he
gets opportunities to start like against LSU and so many
other games like that, and he was really really solid
for you in that loan season. So he gets an
opportunity to play at the next level, and that long
standing list of guys, especially within these last couple of years,
continues to grow for the Raging Cagun's program, proving like
what MATC. Diggs has said what he said after that
Startarville Regional that even though this might be a small pond,
there are a lot of big fish that have come
out of this program. And now Cody Brash can now
add his name into the head of some of those
guys that are on that list as well. So kudos
to him, good luck to him in the future of
his career as the final tip of I Guess Team
one to twelve get to his final lap there as
he will move on to the professional level. And now
it's on to Team one thirteen and the twenty twenty
seven campaign for Raging Cagen's Baseball. So that's going to
wrap up this episode of Raging Rundown. Guys, if you
made it to this point in the episode, thank you
so much. If you're watching us on YouTube, please do
me a favorite, like the video, share it, leave a
comment down below, but most importantly, make sure you subscribe
to the channel. If you're listening, please follow the podcast feed,
rate this show, and leave us a review because that's
going to help us get in front of more Raging
Cajun fans just like yourself. I'm your guy, JaMarcus Fitzpatrick.
We'll see you guys next Yeah,