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Heading into the 2023 season, there are a lot of questions about the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns football team.
One of the biggest ones for me: who will be the quarterback?
Ben Wooldridge suffered a terrible injury late last season, but he told me he’ll be ready for Week 1.
You also have Chandler Fields, the quarterback who started the year for you before going down with an injury. Plus, Zeon Chriss is a freshman who made waves when he appeared last season plus he took all of the starting snaps during the spring.
Let’s break down this room for the Vermillion and White.
Ben Wooldridge
Wooldridge transferred to Cajun Country from Fresno State in 2021 after struggling to carve a spot in the Bulldogs’ quarterback room. After sitting behind Levi Lewis for the magical 2021 season, Wooldridge and Chandler Fields ushered in the Michael Desormeaux era as the top signal callers in the room. Fields won the job, but it wasn’t very long before an injury set him back for a few weeks.
Woolrdige took full advantage of the opportunity before him, leading the Cajuns to a 5-5 record in 10 games, starting six of them. In his first season playing significant snaps, Wooldridge completed 57% of his passes for 1,661 yards, 15 touchdowns, and five interceptions.
However, an injury during practice in one of the regular season’s final weeks effectively ended his season, making way for Fields and true freshman Zeon Chriss to finish the season.
After an offseason of rehab, Wooldridge looks ready to compete for the starting spot once again in his senior season. But how will he battle both Fields and Chriss? It’ll be one of the tighter quarterback battles in recent memory for the Cajuns.
Chandler Fields
The quarterback from Rummel has been with the Cajuns since 2019, seeing the highs and the lows of Louisiana football. 2022 was the year where he got the most playing time, appearing in eight games for Desormeaux. Fields completed 58% of his passes for 1,123 yards, 11 touchdowns, and four interceptions.
After playing in the first five games, Fields suffered an injury that kept him off the field for a month before he returned against Florida State in November and played the final three games of the season.
Fields has plenty of experience with the program and is a solid dual-threat quarterback, but his size has always been a concern as well as his decision-making at times. His knowledge of the playbook is definitely a strong point and after missing most of spring with an injury, he’ll be in the same position as Wooldridge heading into fall camp.
Zeon Chriss
Chriss came into the Louisiana program as one of the top quarterbacks in the entire state. Rated as the #2 prospect in the state, he threw for 2,000 yards and 25 touchdowns in his junior season for the Chargers.
In his first year with the Cajuns, he appeared sparingly, especially when Fields and Wooldridge were injured. He went 9-15 for 109 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
But when he played, he looked incredibly composed in the pocket, made good decisions on when to throw or when to run, and looked like a leader on the field.
This spring, Chriss took almost all of the first-team snaps with the Cajuns due to the injuries to Fields and Wooldridge. Chriss shined in the spring game, throwing accurate long balls and making big plays for the offense.
If it was up to me, I would start Zeon Chriss. As good as Ben and Chandler are and have been, Chriss is your future and he looks ready to lead this team now.