For the 4 p.m. Saturday home game against South Alabama, UL has a lot to consider.
It starts with the series history. The Ragin’ Cajuns are 10-4 overall, including a 5-2 record at home and on the road.
In the last four years, the road team has won every game. UL won two games in Mobile, Alabama — 31-22 last year and 33-20 in 2023. South Alabama beat the Cajuns 24-22 in Lafayette two years ago and 20-17 in 2022.
For this season, the passing game might be most important to the Cajuns’ chances for victory. South Alabama is ranked last in the Sun Belt by allowing 287 yards passing per game, while UL is 10th in passing yards at 207.5 a game.
South Alabama is 12th in first downs allowed (22) and UL is third in picking up first downs (22.8).
Is the UL passing game good enough right now to take advantage of South Alabama’s biggest issue?
UL also leads the Sun Belt in third-down conversion rate (47.3%) while the Jaguars are 13th in giving up third downs (39.1%).
UL depends heavily on running the ball, and the Jaguars defense is third in the league by allowing only 113.3 yards rushing a game.
South Alabama also ranks last in points allowed (34.8), but it is second in points scored (35.3) followed closely by UL in fourth (29.5).
Time to rest?
It’s going to be an interesting week for the UL coaching staff to see whether the current practice approach is working.
UL coach Michael Desormeaux discussed pulling back on practices prior to the Southern Miss game to help preserve players for the stretch drive. The result was what the coach called UL’s least energized game of the season.
Saturday’s home game against South Alabama is a chance to see whether a bye week and cutting back practice reps are beneficial in the big picture.
A year ago, the coaching staff had to alter practice plans because of a huge rash of injuries on the offensive line.
“We had to cut back on some things,” he said. “We could still tailor things and do things differently where we got to a point where we could get them really fresh for Saturday, but we were able to give them enough scenarios throughout the week in a different type of setting to still really execute still at a high level.
“So taking some of that and on the back half of the week, I think that’s what’s important is to make sure that you have them as fresh as possible for Saturday.”
While UL is coming off of a bye week, the Jaguars lost at home to Louisiana Tech 35-20 last Saturday.
Tough to watch
More than a week later, it’s obvious the effort put forth in the 35-31 loss at Southern Miss on Oct. 24 is still a source of frustration for the Cajuns.
On UL’s first drive of the game, the Cajuns marched 75 yards on 13 plays in 7:23 to get a Lunch Winfield 5-yard touchdown run. That sounds really good, but Desormeaux wasn’t giddy about the execution on that possession.
“People talk about the first drive on offense — we went right down the field and scored,” he said. “It was pretty ugly. Everybody just sees the result, but it was ugly. It was not very clean, not very well executed.
“We didn’t knock the front back. We were giving up penetration. We had to convert a third-and-long to get down there. You know, none of it was very clean or looked the way you wanted it to.”
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