It will have absolutely no bearing on the Sun Belt Conference football race and won't help the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns make it to the likely relocated New Orleans Bowl.

Saturday's contest at Eastern Michigan, though, may wind up being one of the most important the Cajuns will play all season.

UL is 0-1, exactly as expected after opening the season against the nation's second-ranked football team. And it wouldn't surprise many if that Texas team popped Ohio State on Saturday and made a legitimate run at the national championship.

This weekend's different. Saturday's game is one that, if the Cajuns plan on turning the corner after years of ineptitude, needs to go in the win column.

UL hasn't had a winning football season in 10 years, since the three in a row in 1993-95 that included two Big West Conference shared titles. Since then, the schedule has been filled with nationally known programs - Florida, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma State, Washington State, Texas, Minnesota, Arizona State, South Carolina, Kansas State and LSU.

But the reason the Cajuns didn't have winning seasons in those years has little to do with those powers, the 1996 win over A&M notwithstanding.

The reason UL hasn't posted a .500 season since 1995 is they couldn't beat the likes of North Alabama, Northern Illinois, Sam Houston State and Jacksonville State. Last year, losses to New Mexico State, Idaho and UL-Monroe turned a bridge to respectability into a 4-7 disappointment.

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Dan McDonald
Second Wind