Daniel Beale will earn his first college start Saturday for Louisiana (Lafayette) as Walker Howard continues to recover from an injury suffered in this past week’s opener.
Coach Michael Desormeaux shared the update Wednesday during his midweek media availability, with ESPN Southwest Louisiana’s Dawson Eiserloh and Kevin Foote and KATC’s Jamarcus Fitzpatrick the first to report.
“Daniel is gonna go out there and run the show, and he’s gonna do a really good job,” Desormeaux said. “The plan is to have (D’Wanye’) ‘Lunch’ (Winfield) in the game involved in some different ways and let him play a little bit too… You’ve heard me say this, a broken record, unfortunately four years in a row we’re sitting here in the same position. Everyone’s got to step their game up, got to play well around someone when they come in there.
“And particularly making your first start, we need everyone to play well around him. Offense, defense, special teams, we’ve got to do things to help it where we don’t have any one person feeling like they’ve got to do more than their job. So, he’ll be extremely prepared. He’ll be ready to go, dialed in to what he has to do and he’ll play really well for us.”
Beale, the redshirt from from Catholic-Baton Rouge, made three relief appearances for the Ragin’ Cajuns last year and a fourth following Howard’s fourth-quarter exit in a 14-12 loss to Rice.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound passer has completed 13 of 36 passes for 126 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions in those appearances, including 0-for-6 against the Owls.
But Desormeaux pointed out earlier this week that the circumstances the young quarterback has been thrown into early in his career, because of injuries to starters, have been particularly unfavorable.
“Daniel Beale has been in two of the crappiest situations that you can possibly be in as a young quarterback,” the coach said. “The kid is a really good football player. He’s a winner. We have tons of faith in him. I mean, that guys has been in two of the worst situations you can be in as a young quarterback, and that sucks for him. If he’s gotta go, he’s gonna prepare his tail off and he’s gonna go play really good for us. And our kids believe in him, our staff believes in him.”
Desormeaux added that Winfield, the former Lutcher star, brings “a unique skillset” that can particularly provide bigger running threat to complement what Beale provides as a passer.
All three quarterbacks led state championship teams in high school and were praised by Desormeaux even as he announced Howard as the Cajuns’ starter two weeks ago.
“You know, I told those guys, selfishly I didn’t really want to make a decision at all, because as excited as you are for Walker, it’s tough for the other two because I think a lot of ’em,” he said. “It’s really easy if you can look at ’em and say, ‘Look, you’re just not ready yet.’ And, you know, that’s not really the case. All three of those guys I think could win, and I think they give us a chance to win. It was time to do it, though. It was time.”
