Real reasons why Louisiana football's QB plan hasn't taken off through 4 games
One thing for certain can be said about Louisiana through the first four games of the 2022 football season: Offensive rhythm has been troublesome to come by.
The Ragin’ Cajuns (2-2, 0-1 Sun Belt) got off to a lightning hot start in its conference opener last Saturday at Louisiana-Monroe (2-2, 1-0) with 14 points coming from their first 10 plays on offense, but the offense stalled the rest of the way, managing just 3 points the rest of the way en route to the surprising 21-17 loss to the Warhawks.
Outside of the second half of the Eastern Michigan game where UL scored touchdowns on seven straight possessions, the start at ULM was the best UL’s offense has looked this season. But it couldn’t sustain that rate and it led to a second straight loss.
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Plenty has been made of first-year head coach Michael Desormeaux’s plan at quarterback where sophomore Chandler Fields is the starter with backup junior Ben Wooldridge is scripted in every third series.
Is the Cajuns’ unique approach at quarterback working? Let’s examine.
Desormeaux detailed his plan back when he named Fields the starter, mentioning that Wooldridge would play about “two to three series” a game, as long as he performed well. Desormeaux also mentioned how Louisiana has utilized a plan like this before, back in 2018 with Andre Nunez, who was the starter and a senior, and then sophomore Levi Lewis.
Logistically, there is a subtle difference in the design among the two situations. Lewis entered the game on the fourth offensive drive, not the third. That ideally gave Nunez a little more time at the beginning of games, however, looking back there’s no indication that it allowed Nunez to find a rhythm quicker.
A few things are abundantly clear when comparing the two approaches. In 2018, it clear who the starting quarterback was as Nunez was the guy and former coach Billy Napier used and asked of him as such.
Nunez attempted five times as many as passes through the team’s 14 games that season. And because of the higher percentage of throws, timing in the passing attack was adequate enough to allow for the offense to convert on 47 percent of its third downs.
With Fields and Wooldridge, there’s a two-to-one ratio in attempts, 88 for Fields and 45 for Wooldridge, who has a higher completion percentage (66.7) than Fields (57). Where one of the largest discrepancies is between 2022 and 2018 is the third-down conversion rate. This season the Cajuns are picking up third downs just 40 percent of the time.
However, there is a reason for that.
UL has consistently found itself behind the chains, due to untimely penalties, sacks and other mistakes forcing long third down attempts.
The biggest reason why the rotating of Fields and Wooldridge hasn’t been efficient has nothing to do with them.
Louisiana’s rushing attack has been nearly nonexistent. The Cajuns average 105.8 yards per game through four games, good enough for 113th in FBS.
Defenses have not been concerned with UL’s run game, as the last three teams’ game plan has been to mainly drop back into coverage. Seven- and eight-men drops contain few throwing windows.
For the Desormeaux’s quarterback plan with Fields and Wooldridge to ultimately work, running backs Chris Smith, Terrence Williams, Jacob Kibodi along with the offensive line must starting gelling to create balance for Louisiana’s offense.
How the Ragin’ Cajuns are handling the quarterback position isn’t working but it’s more complicated than when one of the signal callers rotates in the game.
The true issues resonate throughout the entire unit.
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU/UL athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Is Louisiana football's QB working? Dissecting ahead of South Alabama
