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The defending R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl champions, Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns, have held onto the bowl trophy for two years and aren’t eager to surrender it anytime soon. As the Sun Belt Conference leader, Louisiana has easily dispatched the competition with 6 straight wins. Their season opened with losses to Kansas and Arkansas. Since that time, Louisiana’s scoring has averaged more than double that of their opponents. This statistic is helped greatly by an early 70-7 routing of Nichols State. The Ragin’ Cajuns’ legend grew larger than life last week by scoring 35 unanswered points against New Mexico to escape a 14 point deficit and to win the game by 14.
Champion vs Champion
Troy University is no stranger to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl either. In fact, they have made the trek across Alabama and Mississippi three times to play in the Mercedes Benz Superdome. They have won the bowl game twice, most recently against Ohio University in 2010. The Trojans are currently 5-4, with a 3-2 in conference play. Their two conference losses came against Louisiana Monroe and last week’s Game of the Week winner Arkansas State. Troy’s other two losses came against Mississippi State and Duke.
Troy was successful over Georgia State, our week 7 Game of the Week winner, and has played strong all season. Troy can be a real spoiler here for Louisiana. Should Troy find their way to victory over the Ragin’ Cajuns, it would move Monroe into a share of the conference lead.
Who to Watch
Louisiana running back Alonzo Harris is on fire! Not only did he average over 100 yards per game in his last three games, but also he ran for 9 touchdowns in that same 3 game period. His momentum, along with Louisiana’s 6 game winning streak, must feel good entering Thursday night’s game. Troy’s QB Corey Robinson is hitting receivers for completions almost 69% of the time. He has passed for 18 touchdowns and rushed for another. With Eric Thomas catching for over 80 yards per game, Troy is poised to score early and often in this game.
Louisiana is averaging 12 points more per game than their opponents. However, Troy is averaging over 34 points per game, which is closer to the 37.5 points per game the Ragin’ Cajuns are scoring this season. This should be a close game.
Vote for Your Team!
Last week, the fans from University of South Alabama voted in big numbers for the Jaguars. Take a minute and vote for your team in the poll above! Game time is 6:30pm on Thursday, November 7th at Lafayette and will be aired on ESPNU.
