U.L.-L. picked to finish near the bottom of the Sun Belt West

LAFAYETTE -- Last Friday the Sun Belt Conference released the pre-season rankings made by the coaches right before media days were held this past week.
In that pre-season poll, the UL-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns were chosen to finish in fourth place in the Western Division behind Arkansas State, UL-Monroe and South Alabama. Only Texas State was picked to finish behind the Cajuns in that division.
Appalachian State was picked to win the SBC East followed by Troy, Georgia State, Georgia Southern and Coastal Carolina.
Arkansas State was picked to win the inaugural SBC Championship Game which will be held Saturday, Dec. 1.
New Ragin’ Cajun head coach Billy Napier addressed the media on Monday and talked about several keys to the success of the team this season.
One of the most pressing issues that faces Napier is the battle for the No. 1 spot at the quarterback position.
“The good thing about our situation is we have two young men that I think really can play winning football, Andre Nunez being a senior and Levi Lewis being a sophomore,” Napier stated.
“Both have experience, and both have a skill-set that I think can be very effective,” he continued. “But I think the critical thing when making a decision about quarterback is when the reps become extremely valuable is when you need to make a decision. So, at some point or another, a quarterback is gonna win the team. They’re gonna play at a little bit higher level.”
Another hot topic that Napier addressed was the schedule that UL-L faces this fall.
The Cajuns will open its season September 1 at home against Grambling, take an early off week, visit Mississippi State on September 15, and open Sun Belt play September 22 at Cajun Field against Coastal Carolina before visiting defending national-champion Alabama on September 29.
“We can’t necessarily zero in on games on our schedule,” Napier said. “Where we’re at as a football team, we know we’re gonna line up and play, and each and every one of those is gonna be a competitive environment.That’s one of the things about this and the non-conference schedule that we have. We’re gonna have to be ready to play each week.”
Napier knows that when UL-L hits the field on August 3 to open training camp that he and his staff will face a number of questions at key positions.
“We have lots of unknowns. But I know this: We’ve got competition,” commented Napier. “We’ve had a good group of players that have bought into the culture that we’re trying to establish. I’m excited about training camp because we have a chance to develop our team. What type of identity is this football team gonna have? Certainly, we’ll develop that personality.”
“We need more leadership at the player level this season, he continued. “And training camp will present adversity. It’s gonna present success. And how will this group deal with that? That’s some of the questions we’ve got to answer.”