The only thing hotter than the temperature on the field and bleacher seats at Cajun Field on Saturday when Tulane drove away with a 41-33 road victory over the Ragin’ Cajuns was UL coach Michael Desormeaux when discussing the mistakes made that led to the loss.
The announced attendance for Saturday’s 11 a.m. start against the Green Wave was 22,534. Naturally, there was not that many in the seats in the second half of the game.
It was just too hot.
Desormeaux, though, refused to use the heat as an excuse. The temperature at game time was 88 degrees, but it was reported as over 120 degrees on the field.
“It’s living in South Louisiana,” Desormeaux said. “I mean this is who we are. We embrace it. Yeah, I wish we would have played a team from New York or something like that today. We just played another team that they’re born in the heat too. They work in the heat too. For us, this fall camp, we did practice in the morning quite a few times because we felt like we would get some of these games.”
In Desormeaux’s mind, playing Saturday’s game on a national stage on ESPNU was a privilege.
“When you play at 11 a.m., it’s usually because somebody wants to see you play,” he said. “Our kids did a great job in the first two weeks to make this game a game that mattered to a lot of people. It certainly mattered to our guys. We want to play these games that are on TV. Those things are just part of it.
“For us, it has to be an advantage for us. It can’t be a hinderance and I don’t think it was. I think our guys handled it fine.”
As for the Cajuns’ play on the field, Desormeaux wasn’t nearly as content.
There are two ways to look at what transpired from a football perspective.
The Cajuns were about a field goal underdog in the game. Tulane had just taken two Top 25 opponents in Oklahoma and Kansas State to the wire.
In this matchup, the Green Wave got two “gift” touchdowns in the game – a 38-yard interception for a touchdown with 1:40 left in the second quarter and then a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half.
“The first things is not give them touchdowns,” Desormeaux said. “You look at it and it says 41 points. That looks real bad, but two of them they (defense) has nothing to do with. We’ve got to help our defense out too.”
Overall, the Cajuns actually had more first downs 22-18 and more total yards 421-355 in the frustrating loss.
“We knew going into it, what it was going to be,” Desormeaux said. “We knew it was going to be close at halftime. We knew the third quarter was going to be important – to try to have the lead at the end of the third quarter and we knew in the fourth quarter, you were going to have to hang on whichever side of it you were on.
“We knew exactly that’s how it was going to go. Our guys were prepared to go play and they were excited to go play. We just didn’t make enough plays. We just have to go do a better job. As coaches, we’re going to look at us first and say, ‘What we can do to help them a little bit more.’”
Next up for the Cajuns is a 2:30 p.m. central time road game against Wake Forest in North Carolina next Saturday.