Ragin’ Cajuns, Thundering Herd bring physical teams to New Orleans Bowl

The R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl promises to be an intriguing matchup, featuring some marquee players. The 12-1 UL-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns will battle the 7-5 Marshall Thundering Herd.

The Cajuns, the Sun Belt champions, are a balanced team offensively with 214 yards through the air and 192 on the ground per game. The defense has 34 sacks and nine interceptions.

Marshall is third in Conference-USA and 10th nationally, averaging 470.8 yards per contest with 310.7 yards through the air. The Herd averages 34 points per game. The defense allows 387.8 yards (199 passing and 186 rushing). Like ULL, Marshall has has 34 sacks but allowed just 17 to their signal callers. They have 10 interceptions on the year.

Billy Napier earned the Florida job by going 40-12 in Lafayette, He now hands off the program to former co-offensive coordinator Michael Desormeaux, a 36-year old New Iberia native who played QB for the Cajuns from 2005-’08. He was the eighth player in NCAA history to post consecutive 1,000 rushing seasons as a quarterback.

Levi Lewis will play his final game for the Cajuns faithful. The dual=threat quarterback enter the last game of his career having passed for 8,593 yards with 73 scoring tosses and 18 interceptions. The ex-Scotlandville standout was considered an athlete in the 2017 class, drawing offers from Iowa State, Tulane and ULL. The Ragin Cajuns were the only ones to offer Lewis a chance to play QB.

The passing yardage leader in the Sun Belt this season with 2,646 yards plus 19 touchdowns and just four interceptions is a 5-foot-10 running threat with 4.5 speed.

His counterpart, redshirt freshman Grant Wells (6-2, 203) had 3,436 yards passing this season with 16 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, completing 65.7% of his throws. Last season’s C-USA Freshman of the Year led the conference in passing. Wells had offers from Marshall, Charlotte and Yale before deciding on the Thundering Herd.

ULL boasts a three-headed monster at running back. Chris Smith (5-9, 194, soph.) leads the pack with 856 yards rushing (5.6 average) and eight scores wile true freshman Montrell Johnson, a product of De La Salle, is right behind with 784 yards and 11 touchdowns at 5.5 yards per carry. Emani Bailey, another freshman, chips in with 548 yards (6.4 yard average) and six scores.

Freshman Raseen Ali is a workhorse for Marshall with 1,241 yards (5.4 average). His total rushing yards slots him third in the FBS among freshman runners and his 20 rushing touchdowns ties him for the most nationally. He was another former recruit who was slighted, only receiving offers from Marshall and Hampton University.

Both teams run the ball well but also boast strong run defenses.

Junior linebacker Lorenzo McCaskill paces the ULL defense with 78 stops. Senior Ferrod Gardner adds 67 tackles. Chauncey Mana, another senior, is a terror off the edge with 10.5 sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss this season.

Defensive tackle Zi Yon Hill out of Catholic New Iberia has 8.0 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks on the season. Defensive end Andre Jones has 5.0 sacks.

Special teams help ULL win the field position game. Rhys Burns from Australia is one of the premiere punters in the nation, boasting a 46.2 yard average per boot for the Cajuns.

Marshall linebacker Abraham Beauplan, a junior who has 97 stops and 9.5 TFL, possesses 4.59 speed. Fellow linebacker Eli Neal, another junior, with 92 tackles and 5.5 sacks.

Defensive end Koby Cumberlander brings pressure off the edge with 7.5 TFL and 4.5 sacks.

Nazeeh Johnson, a senior safety, is very active with 60 tackles, a pair of interceptions and four passes broken up. Steven Gilmore and Micah Abraham join him in the secondary. The 6-foot-2 Gilmore, a junior, has seven passes broken up and three picks while Abraham, a 6-2 sophomore, is a ball hawk with 11 passes broken up.

Marshall head coach Charles Huff, 38 years old, is in his first year on the job after spending the 2019-’20 season as the running backs coach at Alabama and 2014-’17 at Penn State in the same capacity.

His defensive coordinator is no stranger to Louisiana. Lance Guidry was a four-year starter at McNeese (1990-’93), earning All Conference honors. He also was on the staff at his alma mater for 12 years, including 2016 through 201 as head coach of the Cowboys. He also spent 2019 as defensive coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana.

The Cajuns and Herd will soon be conference rivals with the latter set to join the Sun Belt. Both teams will be looking to make a statement inside Caesars Superdome on Saturday, Dec. 18.