One blogger on TigerDroppings.com, an LSU fan site, referred to it as “a precursor to a coaching change” at UL: Head coach Rickey Bustle’s home in Greenbriar Estates is for sale and under contract. We’re told there’s also a reference to the Bustle house on RaginPagin.com, a UL fan website, although we couldn’t find it.
But there’s little doubt that Bustle’s house on Ducharme Lane near Doucet Road and W. Bayou Parkway is on the market — the address on the MLS listing at Van Eaton and Romero's website and Bustle’s address in the phone book are the same. Asking price: $479K and change. The 3,700-sqaure-foot, 5-bedroom, 4.5 bath home features a salt water pool with a waterfall.
Ragin Cajun football fans — largely an apathetic bunch who rarely muster more than 15,000 fans at home games (although there are admittedly some die-hards who bleed vermilion) — may speculate about what this means for Bustle’s future with the program. A graduate of Clemson University where he was a four-year letterman as a wide receiver, Bustle is 40-64 in his ninth season as the head coach of the Ragin’ Cajuns, who are currently 2-8 overall and 2-4 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Cajuns face conference leader Florida International Saturday at Cajun Field. Bustle came to UL in 2002 from Virginia Tech, where he served as offensive coordinator.
The Independent left messages with the UL Athletic Department — the number listed on the UL website as Bustle’s direct line — as well as with Athletic Director David Walker. Those calls have not been returned. If/when they are, we’ll update this story.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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It's obvious to everyone that it's time for a change in coaching at UL, apparently even to Bustle as evidenced by his house being for sale.
The next obvious decision is his replacement: Louie Cook, coach at Notre Dame High School in Crowley.
Cook stated in an Advertiser article several years ago that he wanted to coach high school football at least until his son graduated. Well, his son Stuart is a senior player at Notre Dame, and a recruting prospect for college scouts.
Cook also has won several high school state championships and is well respected among his peers, which gives him an edge for recruiting high school prospects.
More importantly, Cook has college-level experience at UL. He was offensive coordinator for UL when Jake Delhomme and Brandon Stokely were playing at UL.
Mr. Walker should make Cook an offer he can't refuse.