Standing late last month on the Superdome’s artificial turf in the immediate moments after UL’s second straight New Orleans Bowl win, Greg Stewart fought back tears as he credited "our kids" for their work in a 43-34 win over East Carolina.

On Wednesday, Stewart’s departure as defensive coordinator of the UL Ragin’ Cajuns was made public and confirmed by head coach Mark Hudspeth.

Stewart said in a statement through the school that he’s "decided to go a different direction" professionally and that he’s "looking forward to future opportunities for both me and my family."

But it’s believed Stewart — much-liked by many Cajun players, and despite two 9-4 seasons capped by back-to-back bowl wins — was fired.

A news release from the school said only that Stewart "will not return" for the 2013 season.

Like all Cajun assistant coaches, he worked on a standard month-to-month employee university contract.

Hudspeth, who didn’t respond Wednesday to an interview request, is thought to have been unhappy with the Cajun defense’s development.

That’s after a season in which UL yielded an average of 28.1 points, fifth in the 10-team Sun Belt, and 427.3 yards per game, which ranked eighth in the league, ahead of only Middle Tennessee and Troy.

The Cajun pass defense finished last in the SBC.

UL’s offense, by way of contrast, averaged a conference-high 35.5 points per game.

"I would like to thank Greg for the contributions that he has made to help the Ragin’ Cajuns win 18 games including a pair of New Orleans Bowl titles over the last two years," Hudspeth said in a statement from the school. "His hard work and dedication has helped to make these things possible."

No other changes among UL defensive coaches have been made at this time, a Cajun spokesman said.

According to UL’s statement, "a search for Stewart’s successor is under way."

Hudspeth spent the early part of this week in Nashville attending the American Football Coaches Association’s annual postseason convention, and it’s believed he met with multiple candidates while there.

With key recruiting visits scheduled later this month in advance of National Signing Day on Feb. 6, a hire is expected sooner rather than later.

UL changed to a 4-3 base from Stewart’s preferred 3-4 base during the season, after a stretch that included back-to-back Sun Belt Conference losses to North Texas and league-champion Arkansas State.

The Mean Green compiled 524 yards in total offense and the Red Wolves 526.

After a 30-23 ESPN2-televised loss on Oct. 16 at North Texas in which UL blew an early second-half lead of 20-6, Hudspeth criticized his team on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

He called the Cajun offense "absolutely inept" in the second half, and said as well that defensively in the second half "our staff made some poor adjustments, because they (the Mean Green) just had their way with us."

One week later, after a 50-27 ESPN2-televised home loss to Arkansas State, Hudspeth lauded the effort of UL defensive players but said that "I didn’t think we particularly put our guys in great positions to be successful" and that "I thought we made some poor adjustments after, to me, I over and over expressed that we had to do a better job setting the edge."

Hudspeth also vowed then that "I’m gonna personally made those adjustments."

That same week Stewart blamed himself for taking "uncertainty" out of the game.

"There were a couple calls "» where they were bad (coaching) calls. We had too many people on one side of the field. But there were also some calls there where they (Cajun defenders) should have rolled down, and they didn’t do it," he said then. "But I still take responsibility for every bit of it, because it’s my job."

Stewart steadfastly defended UL’s 3-4 base at the time, and answered, "Noooooo, nooooo, no, no," when asked about any potential mid-season alteration in philosophy.

But with most of UL’s defensive strength on the line Hudspeth ultimately made the change to a predominant 4-3 anyway, and UL closed 5-1 — with the lone loss a close one at nationally ranked Florida in which the Cajuns arguably played their best defensive game of the season.

A UL spokesman said Wednesday morning that Hudspeth planned to speak with Stewart on Thursday, but instead Hudspeth released a statement late Wednesday afternoon.

Stewart — a noseguard at Troy from 1984-87 — came to UL from Jacksonville (Ala.) State. He had two lengthy stints there as an assistant coach, the second as defensive coordinator from 2000-10.

LAGNIAPPE

UL’s win over ECU last month ranks No. 6 on NBCSports.com’s/CollegeFootballTalk.com’s list of the top 10 bowl games from 2012-13. "» According to a Wall Street Journal report this week, Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus assistant professor of finance Ryan Brewer calculated intrinsic valuations for 115 of 120 FBS teams — examining, among multiple factors, each program’s revenues and expenses, then making cash-flow adjustments, risk assessments and growth projections for every school. UL checked in 113th at $14.3 million, topping only Arkansas State ($12.2 million) and fellow Sun Belt member UL Monroe ($10.4 million). Texas leads the list at $805.1 million, followed by Florida ($630.2 million). The top Sun Belt team is Conference USA-bound Florida International, ranked 83rd at $28.5 million. "» CBSSports.com this week named UL senior kicker Brett Baer to its so-called "2012-13 All-Bowl Team."