Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. showdown with Appalachian State at Cajun Field will be the first time many UL fans have seen the Mountaineers play since the 2021 Sun Belt Conference championship game.
For those in that number, expect a drastic change.
“It is a very different style of play on offense, but it’s still effective,” UL coach Michael Desormeaux said.
For the first decade in the Sun Belt, the Mountaineers would beat teams up with “a bunch of 12 personnel (two tight ends) with unbalanced sets … run, run, run and then the play-action type stuff,” Desormeaux said.
On Saturday, expect quarterback Joey Aguilar to throw the ball all over the field for the Mountaineers.
“They have talent, great athletes,” redshirt junior safety Key’Savalyn Barnes said. “Their QB can throw and run the ball. He’s just throwing it, so we have to take advantage of that and get the ball back.”
The Cajuns have thrown the ball effectively this season with quarterback Ben Wooldridge, but UL has passed the ball 145 times compared to 208 for Aguilar.
“Yes, there will be way more opportunities this week to make plays on balls,” UL secondary coach George Barlow said. “I’m actually excited about it and look forward to it. I know our guys will step up to the challenge and make more plays on the ball.”
A week ago, UL went to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, without a sack but came back home with five.
“Yeah, definitely, it’s our turn,” redshirt junior safety Jalen Clark said. “You’ve got to be patient, because if not, you’re going to be out of place and it’s not going to happen. But when we stay in place, it’s just going to happen. I just feel it.”
The Mountaineers possess the top passing offense in the Sun Belt and will match up against UL's top passing defense.
“You have to make plays on the ball,” Desormeaux said. “This guy is going to give his receivers a chance. He throws some balls sometimes on tape where you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ but he puts it in a good spot and the receiver makes the play.
“He's kind of got that mentality. If there’s a chance one-on-one, he’s going to throw it. So we have to make plays on the ball when we’re in position. We have to play the ball well in the air.”
A few interceptions might allow the UL offense to seize control of the game like it did in last week’s win over Southern Miss.
“If you can steal a couple of possessions from teams like this, then hopefully you can make them one-dimensional,” Desormeaux said. “Last week, that’s kind of what happened in the second half once we got up by two scores.”
It won’t be easy because App State has talented receivers and a good tight end powering its passing attack.
“They’re good-looking kids,” Desormeaux said. “They all look like 6-foot, 6-1 guys that run pretty good. They’re deep and they roll a bunch of guys. I think if you didn’t know who the starters are, you couldn’t tell.”
On paper, UL is capable of winning a shootout with the Mountaineers, but that’s not what Desormeaux wants.
“They’re throwing it 42 times a game and averaging like 80 snaps a game,” he said. “You just don’t want to live in that world on defense. Last week, we were able to control the clock.
“We’re going to run the ball well. We don’t want to get in a game where there’s 170 plays between offense and defense. It’s hard to play good defense that way.”
For the Cajuns, it starts with the running game.
“Whenever we start preparing for any team, it always starts with, ‘What do we think we can do in the running game to give us an advantage?’ Then everything is kind of built off of that a little bit,” Desormeaux said.
The Cajuns have three backs they are feeding the ball — Bill Davis (53-360, 3 TDs), Zylan Perry (40-303, 1 TD) and Dre’lyn Washington (23-131, 2 TDs) — to go with a seasoned offensive line.
That running game could give fits to the App State defense, which is giving up a 45% third-down conversion rate.
On the flip side, Desormeaux urged his team to not focus as much on the App State offense converting only 34% on third down.
“Those stats are a little bit deceiving for a team that throws as much as they do because the ones you convert have a chance to be big ones,” he said.
In fact, Desormeaux would prefer if his players didn’t worry about any statistics that have led to App State’s 2-3 start.
“I know those guys, so I’m sure they’ve been working their tails off to try to get this thing fixed,” he said. “I tell our kids every day, you better expect this team to come down here and be ready to go on Saturday.
“Look, I tell our team this every day, ‘You better expect a four-quarter game here.’ We better expect that. Number one, this team was in this exact same situation last year and they figured it out.”