By Danielle Percival

Coming off a Thursday night loss to Louisiana-Monroe, the Troy Trojans will have another quick turnaround as they face Louisiana-Lafayette this Thursday.

The Trojans struggled with penalties against the Warhawks and that’s an area the team has been focusing on heading into the next game.

“The ones we can control coach tells us all the time, don’t retaliate or don’t do nothing stupid to hurt the team,” wide receiver Eric Thomas said. “We’ve just got to stop doing that and just think about each other instead of ourselves.”

“We can’t kill ourselves like that,” quarterback Corey Robinson said. “That’s what we talked about and what we’re going to have to do this week is be a disciplined football. Change our whole mentality about how people carry themselves in the game and play by the rules.”

Two of the biggest injuries coming out of Thursday’s game were to safety Camren Hudson and quarterback Deon Anthony.

Hudson has been moving at practice and will likely be a game-time decision Thursday.

Anthony had ankle surgery over the weekend and his status is unsure for the Louisiana-Lafayette game.

Without Anthony, the game plan heading in to Thursday night could be altered.

“We’ve done it before,” offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield said. “We didn’t have Deon all the years we’ve been here. Hopefully he’ll be able to help but we’ll see.”

“It’s going to be normal, back to trying to sling it around a little bit and letting the running backs do their job,” Robinson said. “ Of course we’re going to miss that guy because he’s a playmaker and scores touchdowns when the ball is in his hands.”

The Ragin Cajuns are coming off a 49-35 win at home Saturday against New Mexico State.

The Aggies led by 21 in the first half but Louisiana-Lafayette scored 35 unanswered to put the game away.

“That’s the sign of a good football team,” Blakeney said. “Just like all the teams in our league, you can win or lose on a given night against anybody in our conference.”

Louisiana-Lafayette running back Alonzo Harris only amassed 106 yards but reached the end zone five times to tie the single-game school record.

“He’s a lot like our boy from Western Kentucky [Antonio Andrews],” Bolt said. “He’s another good back that we face. We’ve faced some good ones this fall.”

The Trojans have been successful against the run only allowing 108 yards on the ground to Louisiana-Monroe.

So far the Trojans are winless in midweek contests this season with losses to Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe.

Louisiana-Lafayette is the top team in the conference, currently undefeated in Sun Belt play, but has four conference games remaining on the schedule.

“It’s an opportunity that we’ve got to try and take advantage of,” Blakeney said. “It’s a chance for us to turn things around in the league.”

This will be the Trojans third and final Thursday night contest this season but the unique scheduling will continue.

The Trojans final game of the season will be on Black Friday, November 29, at home against Texas State.

Despite having a midweek game this week, it doesn’t create a short week for the Trojans.

“It’s just like a Saturday to Saturday game,” Robinson said. “We get to be on TV again so hopefully we can go out there and do a better job this week against Lafayette on TV.”

Thursday night’s game in Lafayette will be televised on ESPNU with kickoff at 6:30 p.m.