Look at how well Tx St San Marcos did against UH this least weekend. They hired Fran. I'm not a big fan of Fran's due to the Dustin Long years, but the point is that a great coach can accomplish great things. Tx St should not have won that game. LU should have hired a coach with more than one year of HC experience at the collegiate level. That experience was only JUCO anyway.
I was at that game. I will say that UL-L is the defending New Orleans Bowl champions, could very well take the Sun Belt championship this year. Realize that LU is not an FBS team, but an FCS team who not considered a contender for even the Southland championship. UL-L clearly had superior players. Their lines were huge compared to ours and we're very quick. Our defense did well to hold the to as many FGs as hey did with the gifts that the offense was giving up all night. LU contained UL-L well most of the night, only giving up on large gain all night. LU's defense is a Massive improvement over last year. The offense, however, is a question mark despite adding marquee players from OSU over the summer. We'll see how LU does in conference play. They won't see another team like UL-L again with the exception of Hawaii.
That being said, the right coach would make a heck of a difference.