So much for a simple, friendly neighborhood tuneup game before the holidays. 

Instead, the Cowboys could be walking into a hornet’s nest Sunday when they enter the Cajundome. 

The tone of McNeese State’s final pre-Southland Conference game dramatically changed Thursday when Louisiana-Lafayette fired longtime head coach Bob Marlin in a surprising move. Assistant Derrick Zimmerman takes over the 3-9 Cajuns, and all bets are off what the Cowboys should expect.

“They are going to play hard, that’s for sure,” said McNeese head coach Will Wade. “The players really like him.”

The coaching move was greeted on the internet as joyous news for ULL fans, who said they would be out in full force for the 2 p.m. tipoff with the Cowboys now that Marlin is gone.

Some have openly begun campaigning to bring Wade over at the end of this season. However, that seems like a very, very long shot.

Oddly, the firing came just hours after the Cajuns won their Sun Belt League opener Wednesday night over Appalachian State. They have won two of their last three games, but that wasn’t enough to give Marlin one last crack at Wade.

The two had a famous dust-up during the final minutes of a NIT game when Wade was at LSU. 

“That’s old news now,” said Wade. 

If not before Thursday, it certainly is now. 

None of this should matter to the Cowboys, who are still figuring things out this season. At 5-5, they are coming off their best game, a 66-63 loss at the hands of then No. 25 Mississippi State. 

“We have to focus on ourselves,” said Wade. “We have to get better. We are as average as grits right now.”

The Cowboys open defense of their Southland Conference championship at home on Saturday, Dec. 28, against New Orleans. They have never won back-to-back SLC titles. 

Sunday will be the 100th meeting between the neighbors, and McNeese will be looking for consecutive wins over ULL for the first time since the 2010-2011 season. 

The Cowboys have not won in Lafayette since 2007.

McNeese rallied from 13 points down in the second half last year to win 74-72 in front of a sold-out crowd at the Legacy Center in Lake Charles. DJ Richards came off the bench to score 17 as the Pokes ended an eight-game losing streak to the Cajuns.

“It was a crazy game,” said Joe Charles, who had 10 points for ULL but now plays for McNeese. “It is a rivalry, no question.”

In the second half of that game, a scramble for a loose ball caused a minor flare-up between the teams.

“I know what side I’m on now,” said Charles. “I remember how wild the crowd was.”

The game ends the current home-and-home contract between the two schools. McNeese hopes to continue the series.

“We have talked to them and hope we can continue to play them,” said McNeese Athletic Director Heath Schroyer. “It makes sense we play them every year.”

The two teams have played at least once every season since the 1998-99 campaign. ULL holds the series lead, 63-36.

McNeese will look to improve its closing out of games as it continues to find its rhythm. St. Louis transfer Sincere Parker, who came off the bench, leads the Cowboys in scoring at 15.6 points per game.

Two returning players, Christian Shumate (11.1) and Javhon Garcia (11), are also in double figures. Charles, who had 19 against Mississippi State in his best game as a Cowboy, is at 9.2 points and leads the team in rebounding at 6.2.

Mostapha El Moutaouakki leads the Cajuns at 10.9 points a game and is their only player scoring in double figures. Still, Wade knows the Cajuns will come to play.

“We will get their best, that much you can count on,” said Wade. “They are always going to play hard against us.”

That was likely the case, no matter who coaches the Cajuns.