College Beat Writer -- The (Lafayette, La.) Daily Advertiser,

Slappy, that apology ain't coming.

 

I can remember trips to Lafayette for USL (it was then known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana) games back in the early 1990s when I was an SID at a Sun Belt Conference school. Not a bad town (if you can tolerate the mosquitos in the summer) and not a bad paper in those days.

The Southland Conference days would be back in the late 1980s. Southland, of course, is FCS (I-AA) for football.

UL-L is never going to be LSU in terms of money or fan base, but a decent mid-major school.

 

Do they travel to all games for football? If so, that means at least one trip to south Florida (for either FIU or FAU) per year.

The Cajuns also play at Oklahoma State and at Arizona this year.

 

All the Sun Belt schools have 1-2 money road games each year that they have no chance of winning. But, hey, they might be in the running for a spot in the New Orleans Bowl.

 

If you get an interview for this one, make them take you to eat at Prejean's, off I-49 north of town. You'll thank me later.

 

Beat writer does travel to all road games in football. So you get to open the season in Stillwater, then end the season in Tucson. In between, you'll visit Kent, Miami, Bowling Green Ky., Murfreesboro Tn. and Jonesboro Ark.

 

Small Division I college beats are better jobs than some might think. You don't grind yourself into dust due to the 24-7 nature of more competitive beats, and you are generally well-known and well-received by sources from the SID on up to the head coach and AD.

The trade off is that you won't be going to the Rose Bowl any time soon, and --- at least in the case of ULL --- you have to watch some really bad football.

 

The beat writer travels for football games - with the team - but no real road trips until the postseason for basketball, baseball and softball. (Yes, softball is important here.) The travel situation presented quite an interesting dynamic for the job.

 

That's no knock on Brady. Good guy and a hell of a writer. All the La. Gannett papers have been sucking pits of despair since the first big cutbacks began in late 08. IIRC they never even bothered to hire a new sports editor after Heist left, sticking Brady and Kevin Foote with the responsiblities. Don't blame him for wanting out of there....they have stories that are close to Paxton-esque.

 

Mulatte's is better. Or even better, head over to Fezzo's in Scott and get some fried alligator.

 

I had Fezzo's a couple of weeks ago. Not bad. I don't know if it shakes off Prejean's for the top spot though. For true Cajun food, Lafayette's probably the best town in the state.

Not a huge fan of Mulate's. To me, there are little dives around Breaux Bridge (Crazy 'bout Crawfish) that are just as good. Of course, no Cajun band in these places.

 

As long as we're talking about food in that area, it's hard to beat fresh boudin and cracklins from Don's Specialty Meats in Scott. I stop off and grab some every time I'm headed through on the way to my dad's in Houston.