Takeaways from Louisiana Football's Vermilion & White Spring Game
Abdul Abusada • April 25, 2026
Michael Desormeaux's Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns football team held their annual Vermilion & White Spring Football game today at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium. The White team won 24-14 over the Vermilion team.
Perhaps the most impressive performance today came from redshirt freshman running back JJ Gardner, who ran for 91 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 70-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game. The Cajuns are in need of filling open running back positions left by Bill Davis and Zylan Perry due to transferring out, and Gardner made his case today. More than likely it will be a battle between him, Steven Blanco, Anthony Reagan Jr (who ran for 53 yards on 12 carries today), and Darrell Smith for the top spots come the fall.
Another impressive sight today was how consistent the quarterback room as a whole played. While a couple of bumps and bruises happened including an interception thrown by Lunch Winfield, all four quarterbacks (Lunch Winfield and Coleman Carter on Vermilion, Daniel Beale and Sam Altmann on White) played well and showed consistency.
It’s a good sign that this will be a reliable quarterback room should the starter (yet to be named) go down to injury. Coach Desormeaux did mention that the focus this offseason was to work on Winfield’s pocket passing ability, and that was evident today as he did not run much. But the other three quarterbacks today showed impressive movement getting yards on the ground.
That is not to mention, the offensive line today did not impress, and it still seems like lots of the inconsistencies from last season are carrying over. Quarterbacks were being pressured regularly today. Important to note however that a few of the notable offensive lineman (such as center Cooper Fordham and Xzavier Brown) from last season did not play due to recovering from injuries suffered late last season, so take any criticism made about this room right now with a grain of salt. Regardless, for a room that relied heavily on depth last season, this game mattered a lot in continuing to build that depth and find the right pieces to the puzzle.
On the defensive side, they played well flying around with lots of fight today, aside from a few big plays allowed. Safety Kody Jackson, who played on the White team, was the player to intercept Winfield’s pass in the first half. The defensive line showed lots of fight in getting through the offensive line and pressuring the quarterbacks. Coach Desormeaux was impressed this spring training season on how hard his defensive linemen have worked leading up to today, a promising sign after last season’s defense allowed nearly 190 yards per game on the ground. He emphasized how defensive players are taking accountability for mistakes and learning from them.
Overall, the team displayed a lot of positives to be hopeful for and a fair share of negatives that the team will use to learn from. The Cajuns kick off the 2026 season at home versus Lamar on Saturday, September 5th.
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