MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — With their sixth win of 2011, Oct. 15 at home against North Texas, they officially become bowl-qualified.

An Oct. 22 loss at Western Kentucky that ended their six-game win streak, though, was a Halloween-quality scare, frightening at least some to wonder:

If the worse were to happen — collapse, lose out and finish 6-6 — would the UL Ragin’ Cajuns really go bowling? Or would they be right back where they started, still knocking on doors in search of — trick or treat? — their first postseason berth since 1970?

A win 45-20 Saturday at Middle Tennessee, however, seems to have erased much doubt about what the Cajuns will be doing in December.

"I definitely think we’re going," quarterback Blaine Gautier said.

"It’s awesome, to just get over that hump. It’s a great feeling," linebacker Lance Kelley added when asked about bowl possibilities. "Now we’ve just got to keep adding to (the win count), just keep going."

But before the Cajun caravan heads east to the Big Easy — the Dec. 17 New Orleans Bowl, and not the Jan. 8 GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile, is where many in Lafayette suspect and most hope UL is headed — head coach Mark Hudspeth has a warning.

"I’m not certain at all," Hudspeth said when presented with the bowl question after Saturday’s win.

"All I’m certain about," he added, "is we’ve got a very good Monroe team coming to town for our last home football game."

Don’t count your beignets, in other words, until the dough is thoroughly deep-fried.

UL-Monroe, fresh off an overtime loss to Western Kentucky, comes to Cajun Field on Saturday hoping to deny UL the one goal it has held highest above all others since long before their current 7-2 season started.

The Cajuns need only to beat the Warhawks to close the home portion of this season’s schedule at 5-0.

"Our No. 1 goal as a football program," Hudspeth said Saturday, "is to win every home football game, and I’m gonna tell you: Our guys are fixin’ to play their hearts out (Saturday)."

Hudspeth does readily acknowledge what the Cajuns have accomplished to date, transforming a 3-9 team from 2010 into one that — along with Arkansas State and Western Kentucky — is turning Sun Belt Conference tradition upside down.

"For me," he said Saturday, "when I think of Sun Belt Conference in the years past, you think of Middle Tennessee, you think of Troy, and, most recently, Florida International."

UL, now 5-1 in Sun Belt play, has beaten all three in 2011. "We’ve still got a long ways to go," Hudspeth said.

"But," the first-season Cajuns coach added, "we think in nine months that — as a program — we’ve closed that gap."

Hudspeth just doesn’t want his team jumping from cliff to cliff quiet yet without thinking about what is in-between.

Senior linebacker Devon Lewis-Buchanan understands.

"We’ve got to think about Saturday’s game," Lewis-Buchanan said. "That’s a rivalry game. It’s senior day. And it’s been a long time coming."

Four years; five for some.

It’s also been a quite a while since the Cajuns have run the table at home. Not since 1987, in fact, have they gone undefeated at Cajun Field.

But after Monroe visits Saturday, road games remain at Arkansas State — which, undefeated in conference play, currently leads the Sun Belt — and Arizona.

And that is precisely why Lewis-Buchanan doesn’t want anyone to get too far ahead of themselves, succumbing to the temptation of thinking beyond the Warhawks — and perhaps even those other two — to the reward that in all likelihood awaits in New Orleans.

Because it’s been a lot longer since 1970.

"This is just beginning," Lewis-Buchanan said.

"We’ve got three more games left, and we’ve got to play every one of them hard," he added. "Then we’re gonna see where this ends up.’