It is not a surprise to UL coach Michael Desormeaux that his Ragin’ Cajuns are off to a 2-0 start.
“Yes, I’m pleased, but certainly I expected us to play well,” he said.
The real news of his weekly news conference Monday was that his Cajuns are now scheduled to play the Tulane Green Wave at 11 a.m. on ESPNU on Sept. 21 at Cajun Field.
“All in all, it’s a good thing,” Desormeaux said. “When they pick up a game like that, it means our players and our staff have done a good job. They’ve put our team where this game matters. It’s a relevant game and that’s what you want.
“Certainly, they’re a really good football team. They’ve been the standard probably in Group of Five football the last couple of years. It’s a chance to go see where you’re at and that’s what we want. We think we have a chance to be that team this year, so we get to find out.”
Much of the preseason rhetoric around the reduced seating capacity at Cajun Field was the fear of moving games to the afternoon because of the heat issues for both players and fans.
Desormeaux hasn’t established a schedule for next week yet, but he’s comfortable with the football side of the 11 a.m. start.
“We practiced in the morning following our off days this spring, so we’ve been out there (early) and done it,” he said. “We’ll worry about that next week and make sure we have a plan for that.”
The bye week schedule is Desormeaux’s top priority, especially with a tropical storm predicted to hit South Louisiana on Wednesday.
“Practice days will be dictated by the storm on when we can go and when we can’t,” Desormeaux said. “Hopefully it’s not a bad one and hopefully passes through without a whole lot of issue.”
The Cajuns were off Sunday and Monday and are scheduled to practice Tuesday, but it’s uncertain after that. Desormeaux does plan on giving the team Saturday off before returning Sunday afternoon to begin preparation for the Tulane game.
The beauty of the first two games is the Cajuns got playing time for a lot of players to prepare for the remainder of the schedule.
“We’ve got to continue to build competitive depth,” Desormeaux said. “When you get to Week Two and you’ve got three starters out on one side of the ball, certainly you have to prepare yourself for some attrition later on in the year, too.
“Fortunately our guys that stepped up played well. We’ve got to continue to play that competitive depth, and we have to get better at our systems.”
With no practice Sunday, Desormeaux had no injury update on running back Dre’lyn Washington, but he previously had said that left tackle Bryant Williams is expected back for the Tulane game and right guard Jax Harrington won’t be back for at least another month.
“The biggest challenges are ahead of us,” he said. “I’m proud of our team. I think we won two games the way that we should win them with the opponents that we had, but certainly the best is in front of us.
“This week will be a big week for us to continue to improve where we need to improve and hopefully get some guys back healthy.”