This season is the first for Sun Belt Conference football teams to officially use instant replay, so it's only fitting that this year's UL home opener - and the first three games of the year - became in many ways a replay of last season.

UL had started 0-2 with a pair of road losses last season, before returning home for an offensive explosion in a 49-28 victory over Division I-AA member Northwestern State. On Saturday, the Cajuns followed this year's 0-2 start with its runaway 48-7 win over I-AA North Carolina A&T.

The Cajuns had been outscored 91-13 in last year's first two road games at Texas and Eastern Michigan. This year, UL was on the wrong end of a combined 96-10 score at LSU and Texas A&M.

The Cajuns scored on their first three home possessions last year against the Demons in taking a 20-0 lead. On Saturday, UL scored on each of its five first-half possessions and led 34-0 at intermission, and eventually scored on its first six possessions.

"What I liked was that we moved the ball down the field and didn't turn it over," said Cajun coach Rickey Bustle. "When you're running that zone read there's always a chance of a turnover, but we had a lot of plays on a lot of different drives."

UL scored on seven of its 10 possessions, even though having only three drives of more than six plays.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com