The biggest roster depth charts battled have been settled heading into the Aug. 30 season opener against Rice at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium.
As expected, Walker Howard will be the starting quarterback.
Coming out of the spring, UL coach Michael Desormeaux declared Howard was the frontrunner heading into August camp.
The Cajuns have five total quarterbacks, but the other two in the camp battle to be the starter were redshirt sophomore Lunch Winfield and redshirt freshman Daniel Beale.
In the spring game, Howard was 7-of-10 passing for 84 yards and a touchdown. He also ran four times for 32 yards and a score.
Howard isn’t the only player with huge shoes to fill, however.
Howard will try to replace Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year Ben Woolridge at quarterback.
Redshirt junior kicker Tony Sterner will replace Lou Groza Award winner Kenny Almendares at placekicker.
Sterner was competing against redshirt senior Logan Klotz and freshman Brek Schultz. Sterner will begin the season kicking the field goal and Klotz will handle the kickoff duties.
There was also a high standard to reach at holder as well with the departure of Dalen Cambre. Hunter Sims will take over the holding duties.
Howard will finally get his chance to shine after leading the Cougars win state championships as a sophomore and junior in 2019 and 2020, passing for 3,430 yards and 42 touchdowns as a junior.
His senior season was interrupted by an early-season injury, but he still passed for 2,394 yards and 25 touchdowns.
He was ranked as a top-five quarterback nationally coming out of high school, and ESPN had him as the No. 27 overall player in the 2022 recruiting class.
Howard signed with LSU but completed only two passes for 7 yards and had six carries for 33 yards in limited action that season while playing behind eventual Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels. He elected to transfer to Ole Miss after one season.
As a redshirt freshman in Oxford, he was 3-of-4 passing for 56 yards. This past season, Howard appeared in two games but did not complete a pass in two attempts.
Sterner transferred to UL from Incarnate Word after the 2022 season. At Incarnate Word, the left-footed kicker had 39 touchbacks and made a 35-yard field goal.
In last year’s win over Grambling in the opener, Sterner had four kickoffs and made a 27-yard field goal.
