Ragin' Cajuns To Face Nevada In R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

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LAFAYETTE – Having accepted its fourth straight berth to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl last Wednesday, the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns found out their opponent for the game as Mountain West Conference school Nevada was announced on Sunday.

The teams will face off for the second time in school history on Saturday, Dec. 20, in a 10 a.m. kickoff at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN.

Louisiana (8-4) earned its first New Orleans Bowl victory in a last-second 32-30 victory over San Diego State in 2011 before defeating East Carolina (43-34) and Tulane (24-21) the following two seasons. The Ragin' Cajuns will make their sixth bowl appearance in school history and are 5-1 all-time in bowl games.

The schools were briefly members of the Big West Conference from 1993-95 with Nevada (7-5) earning a 38-14 victory in the only meeting between the teams on Sept. 2, 1995.

"They (Nevada) are a program that has had a lot of bowl experience and it will be quite a challenge as we go down to play them," Louisiana head coach Mark Hudspeth said. "They're very competitive. When you look at way they've played against (2014) teams that have gone on to bowl games, they've played the majority of them within one score. In other games they were supposed to win, they won those and did their job."

Nevada, which made eight straight bowl appearances between 2005-12 and will make its 14th bowl appearance in school history, are led by second-year head coach Brian Polian – the son of longtime NFL executive Bill Polian.

The Wolf Pack opened the season with wins over FCS member Southern Utah before picking up a 24-13 win over Pac-12 opponent Washington State. After a 35-28 loss to Arizona, the Wolf Pack defeated San Jose State, 21-10, before losses at home to Boise State (51-46) and Colorado State (31-24).

Nevada picked up wins against BYU (42-35), Hawai'i (26-18) and SDSU (30-14), suffered back-to-back losses to Air Force (45-38) and Fresno State (40-20), before ending the regular-season with a 49-27 win over in-state rival UNLV.

Offensively, the Wolf Pack are led by quarterback Cody Fajardo who is one of two players in FBS history with 9,000 yards passing and 3,000 yards rushing. In 2014, the senior has rushed for a team-high 997 yards and 13 touchdowns while throwing for 2,374 yards with 18 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

"They're an outstanding team. They can run it, they can throw it and they play good defense," Hudspeth said. "They are a very multiple team on offense and they spread the ball a lot of different ways to a lot of different people. He (Fajardo) does a great job in distributing the football."

Don Jackson (932 yards, 7 TDs) and James Butler (620 yards, 5 TDs) help key a Nevada rushing attack that averages 215.2 yards per game. Richy Turner has caught a team-high 58 receptions for Nevada with Jerico Richardson (53 receptions), Hasaan Henderson (45 receptions) and Jarred Gipson (32 receptions) following.

Defensively, Jonathan McNeil leads the Wolf Pack with 95 tackles on the season with a team-high three fumble recoveries. Jordan Dorbrich (77 tackles), Matthew Lyons (71 tackles) and Nigel Haikins (70 tackles, three interceptions, three fumble recoveries) are part of a defensive unit that forced 26 turnovers on the season.

"We're very excited to play a team from the Mountain West Conference for the second time in the past four years in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, and we want to congratulate Nevada on a successful season," Louisiana Director of Athletics Scott Farmer said in a statement. "They are a program that has had great success in the postseason and we look forward to a tremendous match-up to kick off the 2014 bowl season."

Tickets for the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl are currently on sale at the Cajundome Box Office or on-line at RaginCajuns.com. Fans are encouraged to visit the Bowl Central page on RaginCajuns.com for updated information, including the Ragin' Cajuns schedule upon arrival in New Orleans.

Ragin' Cajuns To Face Nevada In R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Players Mentioned

James Butler

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