Blog Article
Louisiana Coach Michael Desormeaux Faces Make-Or-Break 2025 Season After Losing All-Star Players From 10-Win Team
Here’s what nobody wants to admit about Louisiana football: The 2024 season was a mirage.
Michael Desormeaux’s 10-4 record and Sun Belt Coach of the Year award look impressive in the trophy case. His hot seat rating of 1.171 suggests a coach exceeding expectations. The five-year contract extension through 2029 screams institutional confidence.
But strip away the narrative, and you’ll find something far more troubling.
Louisiana’s “breakthrough” season collapsed the moment it faced real competition.
The 6-Point Season That Exposed Everything
Two games told the entire story.
Louisiana scored six total points in their two most important games of 2024—a 3-31 humiliation against Marshall in the Sun Belt Championship and a 3-34 embarrassment against TCU in the New Mexico Bowl. When the lights got brightest, when the stakes mattered most, Louisiana’s offense didn’t just struggle.
It disappeared entirely.
The numbers reveal the systematic breakdown:
- Against Marshall and TCU: 232 total yards per game
- Season average: 415.1 yards per game
- Championship/bowl offensive production: 56% decrease
- First downs in crucial games: 6.5 per game average
- Season first downs average: 20.7 per game
Ben Wooldridge, the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year with 2,453 passing yards and 66% completion rate, looked like he’d never seen a football before when it mattered most.
This wasn’t bad luck—this was a coaching staff getting completely outclassed when preparation mattered most.
The Inherited Talent Truth Everyone’s Ignoring
Here’s the uncomfortable reality about Desormeaux’s 23-18 overall record.
Every single impact player who made Louisiana successful in 2024 was recruited and developed under Billy Napier’s system. Look at the proof:
- Ben Wooldridge: Napier recruit, Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year
- Kenneth Almendares: Napier recruit, Lou Groza Award winner (28/31 FGs)
- Zylan Perry: Napier recruit, 695 yards rushing
- K.C. Ossai: Napier recruit, 115 tackles
- All starting offensive linemen: Napier recruits
Louisiana’s 15 All-Sun Belt selections, the most in program history, represented the final remnants of Napier’s championship-caliber recruiting classes.
Desormeaux inherited a championship-caliber roster and managed to go 6-0 on the road while completely choking in the two games that defined the season.
The real test starts now.
2025: The Year Desormeaux’s Coaching Gets Exposed
Louisiana enters 2025 facing the most critical roster turnover in recent program history.
Gone from 2024’s success:
- Ben Wooldridge (QB): 2,453 yards, 17 TDs
- Kenneth Almendares (K): 90.3% field goal accuracy, Lou Groza winner
- Lance Legendre (WR): 826 receiving yards, 16.9 average per catch
- Jacob Bernard (WR): 375 yards, reliable target
- K.C. Ossai (LB): 115 tackles, defensive leader
- Tyrone Lewis Jr. (S): 4 interceptions
- Chandler Fields (QB): 897 yards, 72.4% completion rate
What’s left:
- Zylan Perry: 695 rushing yards, 6.2 average
- Some offensive line continuity
- Defensive pieces with limited experience
- Question marks at every skill position
Every single player who made Desormeaux look competent in 2024 has exhausted their eligibility.
This is what happens when you’re managing talent instead of developing it.
The Walker Howard Disaster Nobody Saw Coming
Louisiana fans are celebrating Walker Howard’s homecoming like it’s the second coming of Joe Burrow.
Here’s the reality they’re ignoring: Howard has completed 10 career passes for 63 yards in three college seasons.
Ten. Passes. In three years.
The former five-star recruit’s college journey reveals everything:
- At LSU (2022): 2-of-4 passing, 7 yards, couldn’t beat out backups
- At Ole Miss (2023): 3-of-4 passing, 56 yards in limited action
- At Ole Miss (2024): 0 completions, couldn’t earn playing time
Lane Kiffin, who turned Matt Corral into an NFL draft pick and developed Jaxson Dart into a productive starter, couldn’t find ways to get Howard meaningful snaps in two full seasons.
But somehow, Michael Desormeaux is going to unlock this mystery?
The quarterback room now features Howard competing with redshirt freshman D’Wayne Winfield and Daniel Beale.
This isn’t depth—this is desperation.
The Schedule That Will Expose Every Weakness
Louisiana’s 2025 schedule starts with a friendly before becoming brutal.
Early opportunities:
- Rice (home opener)
- McNeese State (home)
- These games should build confidence for the rebuilt roster
Reality check begins:
- At Missouri, SEC competition that will expose talent gaps
- At Troy: Road test against Sun Belt contender
- At James Madison: Another dangerous road game
- At South Alabama: Program with postseason aspirations
- At Arkansas State: Final road test
Remember: This coaching staff got outscored 65-6 in its two biggest games of 2024 with superior talent.
Now they’re facing elevated competition with inferior personnel and zero proven leadership.
The Culture Problem Nobody’s Discussing
Championship programs perform when pressure increases.
Desormeaux’s teams wilt under scrutiny. The evidence speaks for itself:
Regular season success (2024):
- 6-0 road record (second in program history)
- 7-2 Sun Belt play
- 30.9 points per game
- One of six FBS teams with a perfect road record
High-stakes failure (2024):
- Sun Belt Championship: 3-31 loss to Marshall
- New Mexico Bowl: 3-34 loss to TCU
- Total points in crucial games: 6
- Total yards in crucial games: 464
Billy Napier’s Louisiana teams consistently delivered in crucial moments through conference championships and meaningful bowl victories.
Desormeaux’s signature moments involve getting shut out when everything’s on the line.
Culture isn’t built through regular-season success against inferior competition—culture reveals itself when circumstances become impossible.
The Recruiting Smoke Screen
Desormeaux’s recruiting efforts look impressive on paper, but miss the crucial point.
Recruiting and developing are completely different skills:
- Position coaches excel at maximizing individual talent
- Head coaches must build organizational systems that elevate collective performance
- Coordinators focus on scheme execution
- Program builders create sustainable competitive advantages
Desormeaux spent years perfecting tight end techniques under Napier. Now he’s responsible for program architecture, staff management, game-day decision making, and cultural development.
His .561 winning percentage against weak competition over four years suggests a coach who can manage talent but struggles to create sustainable advantages.
The 2024 season confirmed this pattern—success against beatable opponents, complete failure when facing equivalent or superior coaching.
The Contract Extension That Makes No Sense
Louisiana’s administration awarded Desormeaux a five-year extension through 2029 based on one successful regular season.
This decision represents either institutional patience or administrative panic.
The extension timeline doesn’t match college football reality:
- Programs rarely provide extended timelines for unproven coaches
- Fan expectations increase with contract investments
- Recruiting momentum depends on job security perception
- Bowl eligibility becomes a minimum expectation, not an achievement
Desormeaux has shown he can manage inherited talent and recruit adequately, but he hasn’t demonstrated the ability to develop systems that transcend personnel limitations.
The extension protects Louisiana from coaching searches while potentially locking them into mediocrity.
What 2025 Actually Means For Louisiana
The upcoming season represents Desormeaux’s first authentic coaching evaluation.
Success indicators:
- Bowl eligibility with an inexperienced roster
- Competitive games against quality opponents
- Evidence of player development beyond inherited talent
- Performance improvement in high-pressure situations
Failure indicators:
- Regression from 2024’s win total
- Blowout losses to superior competition
- Continued struggles in crucial moments
- Lack of offensive identity without proven playmakers
Louisiana fans deserve authentic evaluation, not comfortable narratives about moral victories.
The program invested serious resources in facilities and coaching salaries based on 2024’s regular season success—that investment deserves an honest assessment.
The Bottom Line Nobody Wants To Hear
Michael Desormeaux inherited a championship-caliber roster and managed it to regular-season success before choking spectacularly when the stakes increased.
Now he gets to prove whether he can coach.
The massive roster turnover eliminates every excuse:
- No more Napier recruits to lean on
- No more proven playmakers to mask scheme limitations
- No more experienced leadership to stabilize crucial moments
- No more talent advantages to overcome coaching deficiencies
Walker Howard’s addition provides potential upside but doesn’t address systematic coaching concerns. The schedule will expose weaknesses that superior competition always reveals.
Louisiana’s 2025 season will determine whether Desormeaux represents the program’s future or merely its most expensive mistake.
The hot seat temperature remains cool due to the recent contract extension, but college football rarely affords extended timelines for coaches to prove competence.
Year four becomes definitive—success validates the investment, failure reveals the truth everyone’s been avoiding.
Michael Desormeaux is about to find out if he can coach, or if he’s been managing other people’s talent all along.
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