There are so many things to focus on during the course of a football season.

Last week, it was all about redemption for the UL Ragin' Cajuns after a disappointing road loss to Louisiana Tech.

This week, it's about maintaining the kind of determination that produced the 33-6 win over Troy for one more week at Southern Miss ... because there's the reward of an open date on the other side.

No team wants to go into a bye week coming off a loss.

"For us, it's been a long stretch," Desormeaux said. "This will be eight in a row without a bye. We've got to go finish this four-game stretch in the middle right here really well. We've got to go find a way to get a win on the road.

"At Southern Miss historically has not been easy. Um, but we got to find a way to go do it and get to the bye week bowl eligible and with our focus on the last four."

Desormeaux's point is well made. If the Cajuns become only the third team ever to win in Hattiesburg in 27 tries, UL would enter its open date 6-2 and 3-1 with a chance to heal up a bit for a home game against South Alabama, which will be coming off a long trip to Marshall and a home game against Louisiana Tech.

To prepare, Desormeaux hinted at changing some practice routines.

"We're going to change some things," he said. "We're going to do some things, we can tier three, which is something we typically do in week nine. 
We'll get into it this week to keep our guys healthy and fresh. I think if we can show up every weekend as healthy as can be - fresh and ready to go, I think we have a chance to win every week."

Moreover, Desormeaux is hoping the last three-hour bus ride not going well will continue to be a motivating factor for his Cajuns.

"The last bus trip we took, you know, we came up a little short," he said. "So, we get to get on the bus and go over there and go try do it a little bit better. "

Finished better

When the Cajuns got to halftime with a 19-0 lead over Troy on Saturday, most can only imagine what the topic of conversation was after watching a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter disappear the week before in Ruston.

"So what I told him at halftime this week was, I said, 'We're going to find out a lot about our team in the second half of this game,'" Desormeaux revealed. "How much have we grown up? How much have we learned?

"They were all saying the right things, but talking and doing is different."

Initially, things didn't go very well.

Troy's offense opened the third quarter with its best possession of the night, driving 75 yards on eight plays in 4:12 to trim the Cajuns' lead to 19-6 with 10:48 left in the third quarter.

Instead of wilting, though, UL's offense responded with arguably the drive of the season so far, marching 91 yards on 16 plays in 8:22 to deliver a resounding message the Cajuns were finishing on this day.

"I was incredibly pleased with the way we played," Desormeaux said. "The 91-yard drive with 16 plays for eight and a half minutes to go back to 26-6 was huge. Then you get three fourth-down stops in the game.

"That's the way you want to finish."

More DL praise

It's the area on the field that can get overlooked by media and fans alike without being pointed out. Look at the leading tacklers after UL defense only gave up six points to the Trojans and that group includes: like Jake St. Andre with eight, followed by star Maurion Eleam, cornerback Brent Gordon and linebacker Micah Johnson with five apiece.

And yet, postgame reaction pointed first to the defensive line.

"Our D-line played their tails off all night," St. Andre said. "A lot of our success comes from those guys, winning the line of scrimmage at the point of attack and them knocking it back. Even when they don't make the tackle, the linebacker may make the tackle, because they're knocking it back and we're fitting for them."

Fitzgerald West was next on the defense with four tackles, including a tackle for loss.

The former Lafayette Christian standout credited strength coach Mark Hocke for reminding the defense about the goal of putting up zero points. 

Technically, it's already happened twice, but the offense gave up defensive touchdowns to Lamar and Charlotte.

"Our goal was to go for the shutout to make it really easy on the offense in the second half," West said. "We try so far, we try to harp on getting back to our goose egg stuff. Coach Hocke, he was harping on it a lot. I think him putting that in a lot of people's minds and us really going out there and attacking them ... I think everybody saw what he was saying was coming from and it worked."