That especially seems to the case for UL seniors, who on the following Saturday will step onto Cajun Field to play for a final time.
A Nov. 30 Sun Belt Conference game against in-state rival UL Monroe is the final home game of the year for the 8-2 Cajuns, who close their regular season with a Dec. 7 Sun Belt outing at South Alabama and likely make a third straight bowl appearance a short time after that.
“I’m kind of trying not to think about it – but I’ve thought about it a little bit,” said starting inside linebacker Justin Anderson, who is at the tail end of a second straight season with at least 100 tackles.
“My last game at Cajun Field. It’s bittersweet, you know? But … I’m trying to just focus on winning these last two.”
Victories over ULM and South Alabama would give the Cajuns, who are coming off consecutive 9-4 seasons that both ended with New Orleans Bowl wins, their first-ever outright Sun Belt championship.
That only heightens the weightiness of Nov. 30 for the Cajuns, who because of a quirky 2013 schedule featuring back-to-back Tuesday-night road wins at Western Kentucky and Arkansas State televised by ESPN2 and a Thursday-night home win over Troy televised by ESPNU – all in October or early November – means UL has had to endure six Saturdays this season with no game to play.
The six have come in a span of nine weeks.
One of the other three – last Saturday’s 35-21 at Georgia State – was on the road.
That means in a season with only five home games as it is, there have been just two at Cajun Field on a traditional college-football Saturday in the past two months-plus – an Oct. 5 Sun Belt win over Texas State, and a Nov. 2 non-conference victory over New Mexico State.
And that seems to make one last outing, on a Saturday to boot, in their home stadium – where they’ve lost just once, to two-time defending SBC-champ Arkansas State last season, since coach Mark Hudspeth took over the program in 2011 – that much more meaningful.
Especially, again, for the seniors.
“I kind of feel myself just practicing a little different – with a little more emotion, knowing this is it for me,” said St. Thomas More High product Andre Huval, who has started 36 games at center for the Cajuns since the start of 2011.
“It’s emotional, for sure.”
It as well for receiver and return man Darryl Surgent, who in recent weeks has discussed the reality of it all with many of those closest to him.
His parents, Darryl and Karolyn Surgent.
His position coach, George Munoz.
His road roommate, fellow receiver James Butler, who lends the ear of someone who has been there with him for all four years.
“We’re always talking about, ‘The time has been flying,’ ” Surgent said.
“As the season gets nearer and nearer toward the end,” he added, “it’s starting to hit me more that I’m about to be finished with college football.”