Amélie 'Mimi' Fontenot · Louisiana Insider · College Debut · Week 8
Meet Your Insider
Laissez les bons stats rouler! Bonjour, mes amis, I'm Amélie Fontenot, but everybody from Lafayette to Breaux Bridge calls me Mimi. By weekday I'm an accountant. By Saturday night I'm two-stepping at the dance hall, and in between I watch Ragin' Cajun football the way I dance zydeco: it's all rhythm, cher, all game flow. I travel with this team and I live with this team, and I have a little Cajun French for every football term. A touchdown? Magnifique. A turnover? Ça c'est bon (if it's ours). Every week you'll get the players, the matchups, the history and the storylines with a little accordion in the background. When we win, I two-step around the desk. When we lose, I say "Laissez les bons temps. later," and eat my boudin solemnly. Allons!
The School in 60 Seconds
The Ragin' Cajuns represent the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and you may remember the old names, Southwestern Louisiana and USL. We play in the Sun Belt. Home since 1971 has been Cajun Field in Lafayette, listed at 41,426 seats. Michael Desormeaux has been head coach since 2021. Our recent history has some magnifique years: 13-1 in 2021 and 10-4 in 2024, with 6-7 seasons in between and 6-7 again in 2025. And the gameday? Cher, the food alone is worth the drive. I've never met a tailgate that didn't have a pot of something on it.
The Coach and the Scheme
Desormeaux was hired Dec. 5, 2021. This year's team dances to a ground-game beat: 200.1 rushing yards a game, 29th in FBS, 1,396 yards on 298 carries. We control the clock, 33:27 a game, 11th in FBS. The defense is the real band: 298.3 yards allowed (25th), 104.3 rushing allowed (27th) and 19.3 points allowed (35th). It has 14 takeaways, and we're plus-3 in turnover margin (34th). The passing game is the quieter instrument, 177.6 yards a game (119th). And we play clean, 40.3 penalty yards a game, 11th-fewest. Like a good two-step: simple, steady, nobody steps on anybody's toes.
Players to Know
QB D'Wayne "Lunch" Winfield: 108 of 155, 1,153 yards, 4 TD, 4 INT, and he's also our leading rusher with 463 yards and 8 TD on 97 carries. (AP uses D'Wayne; ESPN uses Lunch. Same fella, same magic.)
RB J.J. Garner: 10 carries for 62 yards and a touchdown against Troy.
WR KeDarius Wade: 11 catches, 226 yards, 2 TD. He caught the touchdown against Troy.
LB Jake St. Andre: a team-high 48 tackles. LB Lester Jones: 2 sacks. CB Brent Gordon Jr.: 2 interceptions.
Harrison Kidder recovered a muffed punt at Troy's 8 that set up a touchdown last week.
The Conference Picture
Louisiana is 5-2 and 2-1 in the Sun Belt, 4-0 at home and 1-2 away. The wins: Lamar 38-7, UAB 21-14, at Charlotte 34-7, Arkansas State 23-20 and Troy 33-6. The losses: at USC 49-30 and a 32-31 heartbreaker at Louisiana Tech. Neither team is ranked. After this, South Alabama comes to Cajun Field on Nov. 7. A road win here keeps the rhythm going into November.
The rhythm of the season: the USC game was a learning dance; we scored 30 on a Big Ten team on the road. The one-point loss in Ruston still stings, mon Dieu. Since then, Troy managed just 6 points against our defense. That's the beat I want to keep. And here's a little note from the Troy game that tells you who we are: Winfield threw for just 70 yards, and we still won by 27, because three different players ran for touchdowns: Garner, Anthony Reagan Jr. and Steven Blanco. When the band plays that song, cher, everybody dances.
This Week: Louisiana (5-2) at Southern Miss (1-5)
Saturday, Oct. 24 · 5 p.m. ET (4 p.m. Central) · M. M. Roberts Stadium, Hattiesburg · ESPN+. (Wikipedia calls the stadium Renasant Stadium; CFBD calls it M. M. Roberts. I'm showing you both.)
Last week: we beat Troy 33-6 behind 243 rushing yards and more than a 13-minute advantage in time of possession. AP's headline says 33-7; the story and CFBD say 33-6. Southern Miss lost 23-13 to Arkansas State.
Our offense vs. their defense: Southern Miss allows 249 rushing yards a game, 137th in FBS, and 32.7 points (125th). Cher, that is a dance floor wide open for our run game.
Their offense vs. our defense: Southern Miss throws it well, 259.8 yards a game (39th), and Mario Sanders II has 510 receiving yards. Our pass defense, 45th, will be tested. But the Golden Eagles convert just 32.9% of third downs (123rd) and score on 68.2% of red zone trips (132nd).
Series: I couldn't find an all-time series record in a free source.
Availability: no injury or availability report found for either team as of Oct. 18.
What decides it: (1) Our run game against the 137th-ranked run defense. (2) Containing Lyddy and Sanders. (3) Ball security; we're plus-3, they're minus-3.
And Dee Broussard, Southern Miss's insider: bless your heart, sugar, I mean it sweetly. Save me a dance.
Local Flavor (unsponsored, not an ad)
Back home in Lafayette? Olde Tyme Grocery on West Saint Mary Boulevard makes a po-boy worth two-stepping for.
My call: Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 31, Southern Miss Golden Eagles 22.