Wake Forest had an unusually early open date last weekend, providing perhaps unwanted extra time to prepare for its upcoming home game against Louisiana on Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The Demon Deacons (1-2) have an opportunity to move past consecutive losses to Virginia and Ole Miss, which was ranked No. 5 at the time, against the Sun Belt Conference’s Ragin’ Cajuns (2-1).

“When you’re not playing well, you want that feeling out of your stomach,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said, “and when you are playing well you want to keep playing.”

The Deacons, who began the season with a 45-13 victory against FCS opponent North Carolina A&T, played Virginia to the wire in a 31-30 loss but wasn’t competitive in a 40-6 loss to Ole Miss.

Clawson, in his 11th season at Wake Forest, is trying to get his program to bounce back from a 4-8 season a year ago, which was its worst record since 2015.

“I think we have a good team,” Clawson said. “I think we have a better team than a year ago, but I think this is a team that will have a lot of one-score games. This week’s game will probably be one of those games.”

The Ragin’ Cajuns are coming off a one-score game, a 41-33 home defeat against Tulane last week. They are finishing their nonconference schedule before playing eight consecutive games in the Sun Belt.

“We need to hit our stride going into conference play,” Louisiana coach Michael Desormeaux said. “We’ve got to get things corrected and we’ve got to get back on track and get back in the win column.”

The Cajuns outgained the Green Wave 421-355 but allowed touchdowns on an interception return and a kickoff return.

Ben Wooldridge completed just 19 of 34 passes for 238 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, including the pick-six right before halftime.

“We need to get back to being more efficient in the throwing game than we were last week,” Desormeaux said.