Football is in Louisiana-Lafayette senior offensive guard Brad Bustle’s genes. It’s in his blood. Bustle, son of ULL coach Rickey Bustle, was raised on the practice fields of Virginia Tech, where his father was offensive coordinator under Frank Beamer from 1995-2001. “I think he cut his teeth on football,” said Lynn Bustle, Brad’s mother. “He was out there every day, following his dad around everywhere. I think, kind of by osmosis, it got in his blood because we certainly didn’t pressure him to even play football.”But football seemed to choose him. As a toddler, Brad was already watching film with Rickey most nights. He wanted to know the plays and how they worked. He would dash around the living room, performing the plays for his parents. He was a coach in the making. Rickey was hired as ULL’s head coach in 2002 when Brad was in the ninth grade and, naturally, was playing football. By the time his senior year of high school rolled around, Brad had nary an offer from the collegiate ranks, not even from his father. He hadn’t yet hit his growth spurt, a negative in most college coaches’ eyes. That’s not to say his father didn’t want him at ULL. It just wasn’t feasible to offer a scholarship. “No question, I wanted him to come here,” Rickey Bustle said. “We talked about that. He knew that. I wanted him to make his own decision to where he wanted to go.”Nevertheless, at the beginning of summer after graduation, he got a call from Southeastern Louisiana. They offered a scholarship, and he quickly accepted. “I had been watching them throughout the season and saw some random games on TV and thought it would be cool to go there,” Brad said. “They recruited me and had me on a visit, so that’s where I wanted to go.”The decision was made, and Brad was happy. One of Brad’s main reasons for shying away from ULL was the thought of being “the coach’s son.” That summer, Brad worked out with ULL players, thinking the training of a Division-I program would aid in his improvement. It was a foreboding decision. “I didn’t know how other players would accept me because of [being the coach’s son],” Brad said. “But I found out quick that I came here and worked hard, and they respected me for that.”After his summer training, Brad packed up and headed to Hammond to begin his college career at SLU. He didn’t stay long. After two days, Brad was ready to go home. The bond he had created with many of the players and coaches at ULL was too strong. So he left and transferred to play for his father. The coach’s son wasn’t given anything after transferring. He started as a walk-on defensive lineman and redshirted his freshman season. Rickey and Brad discussed the parameters of their relationship when Brad decided to play at ULL. By all accounts, they’ve done well. “On the field, he doesn’t really mess with me too much,” Brad said. “He lets [offensive] coach [Ron] Hudson deal with me, and he’ll give me a ‘C’mon Brad, let’s go,’ every now and then.”Lynn said the two have done a remarkable job of keeping their relationship within certain boundaries. “They’ve done a really good job at it because it hasn’t, I’m sure, been easy on either end of it,” she said. “It’s been a little strange and difficult to negotiate.”The spring after the 2005 season, Hudson decided to move Brad to offensive line — a decision that has yielded big dividends for ULL.”I guess being around football my life helped, but I got it,” Brad said of his new assignment. “I got the position, I got the offense and I got football in general.”Brad, who now stands 6-feet-3-inches and weighs 302 pounds, showed promise. His nurtured football knowledge, coupled with Hudson’s guidance, did wonders. After a few practices, he and fellow lineman Chris Fisher were given scholarships. Brad said it was a “cool moment.”Three years later, Brad is now the stalwart of the Ragin’ Cajun offensive line. Brad has played in 37 games, 25 of them starts, since the 2006 season. His 2008 campaign garnered him First-Team All-Sun Belt honors, along with a spot on the 2009 Rotary Lombardi Award Watch List. “He’s a heck of a player,” Rickey said. “The game makes a lot of sense to him. He makes very little mental mistakes.”Brad said his nomination for the award, which goes to the best lineman or linebacker in the nation, was flattering. “It definitely feels good,” Brad said. “The best part is it brings some publicity to the school itself. I couldn’t have done it without all the other guys around me.”Not surprisingly, Brad wants to become a coach. The football aura that oozes from him is too powerful to refuse. “It’s something that is pretty hard to do, so you have to love it,” Lynn said. “He just decided to play, and now he wants to coach. That’s that.”- – – -Contact Chris Branch at [email protected]