Cajuns Welcome Conference
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
The best remedy for a 1-3 record might be the start of Sun Belt Conference competition, says Louisiana head football coach Mike Desormeaux.
That look forward mentality Desormeaux hopes could help enable the Cajuns to extricate themselves from a four-game non-conference schedule that has produced only one victory.
Louisiana opens the SBC segment of the schedule Saturday in Lafayette when the Cajuns meet Marshall University (2-2), in a 7 pm contest at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium.
The Cajuns have lost a pair of consecutive road games at Missouri (52-10) and Eastern Michigan (34-31) and now face eight straight conference contests that will ultimately decide whether Louisiana becomes bowl eligible in December.
Starting the SBC schedule, Desormeaux said during his Monday press conference, gives a chance for the Cajuns to refocus on a new agenda and urgency for the remainder of the 2025 regular season.
“It has to help. You would feel better if you had won the last two games, but now those have no bearing on the second half of the season and our conference schedule. You want to flip the page and work at fixing the lingering things that you need to fix, because you have to do it right now,” Desormeaux pointed out.
One of the nagging problems Louisiana needs to correct, said Desormeaux, is a missed tackle issue, which has plagued the defense at times throughout the start of the year.
That issue appeared again on Saturday at East Michigan, where the Cajuns were too often not wrapping up and driving ball carriers to the ground, Desormeaux mentioned.
Offensively the Cajuns, who are ranked at the bottom of the 14-team SBC standings in passing offensive and efficiency, showed improvement on Saturday, throwing for 278 yards.
The passing yardage Louisiana gained against EMU was more than the Cajuns gained through the air in the first three contests.
Louisiana also has displayed difficulty in converting third downs (18-of-52) this season.
Desormeaux said the Cajuns are also problematic in the red zone, where penalties have often negated touchdown opportunities.
“Good teams don’t beat themselves, so we just have to get better in some areas,” Desormeaux added.
What has Desormeaux encouraged, is the Cajuns’ overall attitude, despite the pair of road defeats.
“When you work as hard as this team has, your players always respond. These guys have worked hard during the offseason and during the summer. For them it doesn’t matter. It’s just back to work,” Desormeaux said.
Desormeaux pointed out that attitude is what’s needed from now until the end of the regular season.
“You want to keep your eyes on what’s in front of you, on what’s possible and what you can control moving forward. As bad as things are, you really can’t tell, because they guys we have keep showing up,” Desormeaux said.
