On the road for the first time in the 2024 college football season, Louisiana football meant business.

The Ragin’ Cajuns traveled to Kennesaw State and handled the Owls, beating them 34-10. Their first defensive drive may have looked shaky, but they tightened up to spoil the Owls FBS home opener in front of a sold-out crowd at Fifth Third Stadium.

With two wins under its belt, here are three things we learned about UL football as it enters an open week for Week 3.

1. Questions in the backfield answered

Last week, the Ragin’ Cajuns run game wasn't established against Grambling State. They opened up with a rushing touchdown, but made it happen in the air with redshirt senior quarterback Ben Wooldridge throwing for more than 300 yards. Against Kennesaw, the ground game stole the show with a two-headed monster leading the charge.

Redshirt Sophomore Zylan Perry and redshirt freshman Elijah “Bill” Davis took turns punishing the Owls' defense rushing for a combined 185 yards. The duo helped double the team's overall rushing yards after rushing from 129 yards in Week 1 to 260 yards the next week.

“I was excited to see Bill and Zylan take advantage of their opportunity,” UL head football coach Michael Desormeaux said. “I thought they both played really well and saw it really well for us. I think they both matured a lot, and we’ve talked a lot about how they’ve grown up these last couple of years.”

With the open week, the running back room will get to rest up after the solid outing and prepare for an even bigger challenge in Week 4 with Tulane coming to town.

2. Ragin’ Cajuns slow burner on defense

To open the game, Kennesaw State’s offense slowly moved down the field — finding itself in third-down territory three times in the first drive of the game. The Owls converted all three of its third downs, leading to its only touchdown of the game to take a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

“We didn’t do a good job of containing their quarterback on third downs, and you gotta give some credit, he made some good plays in the throw game,” Desormeaux said. “Once we got our contain kind of settled down I thought we played really well on defense. The keys were in the second the to two three and out stops it kind of iced the game.”

A slow start defensively has become a bit of a pattern for the Ragin’ Cajuns as they allowed Grambling to move down the field in its first drive in Week 1. The defense may still be starting off slow but they’ve proven to lock in as the game progresses. Leading them is senior linebacker K.C. Ossai who racked up a team-high 12 total tackles against the Owls. He has almost 20 total tackles on the season after two games.

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3. Special teams making an impact

One of the many highlights from UL football’s Week 2 win came from the special teams unit. With a 17-7 lead in the second quarter the Ragin’ Cajuns were rolling and capped off the strong wave with a momentum-stealing play by redshirt senior Dalen Cambre.

The special teams captain busted through the Owls' punt team to block Kennesaw State’s punt and put his team in scoring position at the 10-yard line. This marked the first blocked punt of the season for the Ragin’ Cajuns, showcasing the special teams can help contribute to a win.

“Special teams we’ve improved a lot from Week 1 to 2,” Desormeaux said. “The blocked punt right before half certainly helped us get more points. I thought it was well done, well designed, well executed and it gave of an opportunity to steal some more points.”

Shannon Belt covers high school sports and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow her high school and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ShannonBelt3. Got questions regarding HS/UL athletics? Send them to Shannon Belt at sbelt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: 3 Things we learned from UL football vs. Kennesaw State