More Work To Do, but the Ragin’ Cajuns Pleased With Saturday’s Scrimmage

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns completed their first full week of practice with their first scrimmage Saturday afternoon. On Monday, Head Coach Mike Desormeaux, Quarterback Ben Wooldridge and Linebacker K.C. Ossai recapped it for the media.

MICHAEL DESORMEAUX - HEAD COACH

You know we wrapped up our 9th practice with a scrimmage on Saturday.  We chose to go out there at 2:45P, in the hottest part of the day and we did it on purpose.  Went out there, a 100-play scrimmage plus a few special teams plays. 

And what you wanted to see out there was effort, strain, and grit.  And see guys push through.  And overall we’re pleased with a lot of those things.

Lot of good back and forth.   The defense probably started a little slower than they wanted.  Turned it on. 

Offensively had some miscues in the middle where you did move the ball the way you wanted for a couple of periods.  All in all, we have a lot of things to work with.  We have lot of things to work on.

We need to continue to work on pass protection with our O-Line and tight ends.  At running back, I thought we carried the ball well.  Have to continue to get better in pass protection. 

Defensively, I thought we tackled really well for the first scrimmage that we have.  The way we practice the I think it lends to that, so I wasn’t necessarily surprised.  The effort out there was really good.  

The defensive line was running around, making it really hard and I think our offensive line played really well in the run game covering things up.

We’re pleased after one scrimmage with where we are, but certainly not close to where you want to be.  There has to be a ton of improvement from scrimmage one to scrimmage two. 

This week is going to be a big week for us.  At the end of this week, school starts.  Then there is a whole other set of issues. 

So far these guys have really done a good job. They’ve pushed themselves, they’ve strained. And now it's time for us to tighten up some things.  

Naturally, you find out that some of the younger guys maybe don’t know it quite as well as you want them to. Or maybe as not as well as you thought they did.  When you take all of the coaches off the field and there aren’t any crutches there.   It’s sink or swim a little bit.

Some of those guys got a little bit of a taste of it. “Hey I’ve got to figure this out” and that’s a good thing.  For us a lot of positives coming out of it, but there’s always a lot of stuff to fix.   

Continue to handle shifts and motions and things on defense well. And communicate and make sure your eyes are good.  And on offense, I   think we have to do better in the pass pro situations. Especially the known pass pro situations.   

BEN WOOLDRIDGE - QUARTERBACK

I think we executed pretty well.  I think obviously there are things we need to work on.  But overall as a unit, I think we took the situations part of the scrimmage, the field zones, and things like that, and we executed pretty well.  We moved the ball when we need to move the ball. But like I said there are obviously things we need to work on, to execute better for the second scrimmage and the first game.

K.C. OSSAI - LINEBACKER

When you’re a defense, you nitpick.  We’ve could done this better. We could have done that.  There were a few plays when they made a play. We can live with that as a defense.  The  o. offense is going to make a make every now and then.  It’s just limiting the explosive plays and turnovers.    Getting turnovers helps a lot.

MICHAEL DESORMEAUX - HEAD COACH

I thought offensively they came out and operated really well from the get-go. I think defensively it took a couple of snaps for them.  These guys are competitive.   Once it starts to not go your way, they respond the right way.  All in all, I didn’t think it was an issue. But I thought the intensity cranked up a little bit on defense as it got going.  Probably after the first rack with the 1’s 2’s and 3’s, they settled in a little bit and played really well after that.