The college football season is heading into week 10 and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns are 6–1. The Cajuns are having their best start to a season since 2021 when their only loss came in the week opener against the Texas Longhorns.
That season the Cajuns went on to win the Sun Belt Championship game at Cajun Field against Appalachian State. This current team is on a very similar trajectory assuming Louisiana does not trip during its Tuesday night game against the Texas State Bobcats, one of the few teams in the western division that can give the Cajuns a challenge.
This great start to a season can be attributed to a number of reasons but the biggest has to be the emergence of good and consistent quarterback play, something the Cajuns have been lacking since that 2021 season.
This lack of quarterback play is not necessarily just due to bad quarterback play but mainly due to injury.
The early part of the 2022 season would see Ben Wooldridge and Chandler Fields split reps till Wooldridge firmly took the starting spot. Injury would see Fields become the starter in the last three games of that season.
The 2023 season would start with Wooldridge under center after he won the starting position in fall camp. He played well in the first two games of the season but would go down in week three against UAB with a leg injury that would sideline him for the season.
Zeon Chriss would take the reins, and while he proved to be an electric player, he was still young and made as many mistakes as he did amazing plays. He too would go down which brought Fields back into the starting role.
Fields would start the last four games of the season, going 1–3 including a loss to Jacksonville State in the New Orleans Bowl.
This season though has been all Ben Wooldridge and he has been phenomenal. Wooldridge, at the time of writing this, has thrown for 1,785 yards, 15 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He leads the Sun Belt in completion percentage at 69.6% and also leads the conference in efficiency.
His favorite target has to be sophomore tight end Terrance Carter, who leads the team with 29 receptions for 465 yards, which is the sixth best in the conference. Carter and senior receiver Lance LeGendre have both combined for eight receiving touchdowns.
LeGendre is Wooldridge’s second favorite target, with a total of 20 receptions for 381 yards, averaging 19 yards per reception, three more yards than Carter’s 16 yards per reception.
Wooldridge and the receivers are able to pass with the effectiveness they do thanks to the ever present run game. The run game is established every game thanks to the ever thankless efforts of the Louisiana offensive line, but also thanks to the running backs. The Cajuns this season have found themselves with one of the better running back rooms in the Sun Belt, headlined by freshman phenom Bill Davis. Davis, who redshirted his true freshman season, has been a wrecking ball for the team.
Davis currently has the most carries on the team, he has turned 80 carries into 509 yards averaging 6.4 per carry. Though he has not found the endzone often, he is always a threat to break off a massive run at any point during a game with his longest being a 73-yard sprint against Tulane.
The defense has also played well for most the season, with the only questionable part of it being its ability to stop the run. The defense is led by a number of veteran players, including senior linebacker K.C. Ossai, who is currently fifth in the Sun Belt in tackles with 59.
The secondary has been the best part of the Cajuns defense, allowing just over 150 yards per game. That secondary has come away with a combined five interceptions, three by safety Tyree Skipper and two by fellow safety Tyrone Lewis Jr.
The final part of this excellent Louisiana team is the solid and reliable leg of senior kicker, Kenneth Almendares. Almendares is currently perfect on extra points and has only missed two of his 16 field goal attempts, both misses coming for 50+ yards out.