Game 10 Preview: The New Mexico State Game

LAFAYETTE - The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team returns home for the first time in three weeks as it will face New Mexico State on Saturday, Nov. 21, in a Sun Belt Conference contest at Cajun Field.

Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN3. Matt Stewart (pxp), John Gregory (color) and Danielle Jenkins (sideline) will be providing the commentary. The game will also be aired statewide on the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Radio Network with Jay Walker (pxp), Richie Falgout (color) and Travis Webb (sideline) handling the call.

Louisiana (4-5, 3-2 SBC) returns to the friendly confines of Cajun Field after earning a split on a two-game, five-day roadtrip. The Ragin' Cajuns rallied for a 23-21 win at Georgia State on Nov. 7 before falling at South Alabama, 32-25, in a nationally-televised contest on Nov. 12.

Brooks Haack has completed nearly 63 percent of his passes with three TDs in the Ragin' Cajuns last three games, that included comeback wins against ULM and Georgia State. Jamal Robinson has averaged over 18 yards per catch and nearly 105 yards per game in his last three contests while continuing to climb up the Ragin' Cajuns record books.

Al Riles (37 receptions), Robinson (33), Gabe Fuselier (29) and Elijah McGuire (28) are the top targets for the quarterback duo of Haack and Jalen Nixon, who has thrown for a team-high seven TDs on the season.

Defensively, senior Dominique Tovell has solidified his status as one of the top linebackers in the Sun Belt Conference as he leads the league in sacks (7.0) and is fourth in tackles for loss (11.0). Fellow linebacker Otha Peters has averaged over nine tackles per game in his last four contests for the Ragin' Cajuns with Tracy Walker (58 tackles, 1 INT) and Savion Brown (30 tackles, 3 INT) highlighting the secondary.

Game No. 10
November 21, 2015 • 4:04 p.m. CT • Lafayette, La. • Cajun Field (41,426)

-/- LOUISIANA RAGIN' CAJUNS (4-5, 3-2 Sun Belt)
Head Coach: Mark Hudspeth (Delta State, 1992)
Record at Louisiana: 40-21 (5th season), Career Record: 106-42 (12th year)

-/- NEW MEXICO STATE AGGIES (2-7, 2-3 Sun Belt)
Head Coach: Doug Martin (Kentucky, 1985)
Record at NMSU: 6-27 (3rd season), Career Record: 35-80 (10th season)

* - Rankings listed at Amway Coaches' Poll/AP Poll

Series History: Louisiana leads all-time series, 6-3 ... Ragin' Cajuns have won last two meetings, including first-ever win in Las Cruces (44-16) in previous meeting ... Cajuns have won two straight at Cajun Field and are 5-1 in games played in Lafayette.

TV/RADIO INFORMATION
ESPN3: Matt Stewart, PxP • John Gregory, Analyst • Danielle Jenkins, Sideline

Ragin' Cajuns Radio Network: Jay Walker, PxP • Richie Falgout, Analyst • Travis Webb, Sideline

In Lafayette: KPEL 1420-AM (Flagship); KHXT 107.9-FM
Affiliates: KTUX 98.9-FM (Shreveport); WGSO 990-AM (New Orleans); KJEF 1290-AM (Jennings); KLCL 1470-AM (Lake Charles); KRJO 1680-AM (Monroe); KTIB 640-AM (Thibodaux)

Live Stats/Audio: RaginCajuns.com
Twitter Updates: @ULRaginCajuns; Facebook: RaginCajunsAthletics;
YouTube: IAm4RaginCajuns; Instagram: ULRaginCajuns

GAMEDAY STORYLINES
• Louisiana is 521-534-34 against all opponents dating back to 1901.
• McGuire is five catches shy of becoming the first Ragin' Cajuns running back with 100 receptions.
• Steven Coutts is 29th nationally (third among freshmen) in punting, averaging 43.7 yards per attempt.
• The Ragin' Cajuns are 14th among FBS programs in net punting average (40.6).
• Today's game pits two of the top active FBS players in all-purpose yards per game - NM State's Larry Rose III (3rd, 149.47) and Louisiana's Elijah McGuire (13th, 121.94).
• Louisiana is 21-5 overall, and 6-2 in November home games under head coach Mark Hudspeth.
• Jamal Robinson needs one touchdown reception to tie Donald Richard (1993-96) and become fourth player in school history with 20 TD catches in his Ragin' Cajuns career.

DID YOU KNEAUX?
1 - Senior Dominique Tovell has started 41 games in his career for the Ragin' Cajuns, including 35 straight.
2 - Senior Octravian Anderson has started 35 consecutive games at right tackle.
3 - Louisiana is 31-2 overall when leading at halftime under Mark Hudspeth.
4 - The next win would give Mark Hudspeth 41 with the Ragin' Cajuns, tying him with Ricky Bustle for the fourth-most in school history.
5 - Louisiana's eight sacks allowed in 2015 are the second-fewest allowed in the Sun Belt Conference.

WHAT'S ON TAP
• Louisiana will make its final regular-season roadtrip of the season next Saturday (Nov. 28) when it travels to Boone, N.C., to face Appalachian State at Kidd-Brewer Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. CST and will be a Sun Belt designated game on ESPN3.

NOTES FROM THE SOUTH ALABAMA GAME
• Captains were Christian Goodlett (DB), Dominick Jones (DB), Donovan Williams (OL) and Eddie Gordon (OL).
• Redshirt freshman Jesse Freeman earned his first career start at left guard in place of Grant Horst (concussion) for the Ragin' Cajuns.
• Robinson's 10 receptions and 188 yards were both career-highs. His 45-yard TD reception from Brooks Haack in the fourth quarter was his 19th of his career, tying him with Fred Stamps (2000-03) for fourth-place on the school's all-time list.
• The Cajuns won the toss and deferred to the second half.
• Jalen Nixon's 18-yard TD run in the first quarter marked the third straight game the Ragin' Cajuns scored on their opening drive. Stevie Artigue booted field goals of 40 yards in games against ULM and Georgia State.
• Elijah McGuire's 3-yard TD run increased his scoring total to 240 points in his career, passing Christian "Keener" Cagle (1923-25) for fifth-place in school history.
• The Ragin' Cajuns finished 5-for-12 on third-down conversions after going 5-for-29 on third down in the past two games.
• Savion Brown's 85-yard interception return for a touchdown was the fifth-longest return in school history and the first by a Ragin' Cajun since Corey Trim's 82-yard interception return for a touchdown against Tulane in the 2013 NOLA Bowl.

NIXON SECOND MEMBER TO JOIN 200-200 CLUB
• Junior Jalen Nixon became the second quarterback in school history to record both 200 yards rushing and passing in a single game in the Ragin' Cajuns Oct. 20 at Arkansas State. Nixon completed 17 of 44 passes for a career-high 253 yards and two TDs while rushing for 201 yards on 19 carries.
• The Carencro native joined Brian Mitchell, who rushed for 271 yards and passed for 205 yards against Colorado State in 1987, as the lone players in Ragin' Cajuns to record 200 yards rushing and passing in the same game.
• Nixon's 201 yards on the ground were the ninth-most in school history and fourth all-time among Ragin' Cajuns quarterbacks.

QUAVE SIDELINED FOR THE SEASON; CHANGES MADE ON THE O-LINE
• The most consistent area for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team during the past three seasons saw its first mid-season change after senior left guard Mykhael Quave was lost for the season with a torn rotator cuff.
• Quave, a two-time All-Sun Belt Conference selection and two-time Lombardi Award nominee, injured his rotator cuff early in the first quarter in Louisiana's Oct. 3 game at Louisiana Tech.
• The loss of Quave, who started all 43 games in his Ragin' Cajuns career, saw the first mid-season change within the offensive line since 2012. Grant Horst, who started four games at left tackle for the Ragin' Cajuns moved to center for the Texas State game before moving to left guard for Arkansas State. Eddie Gordon, the team's starting center for the first four games, moved to left guard for Texas State before moving back to center against A-State. D'Aquin Withrow has started the last five games for the Ragin' Cajuns at left tackle.
• Octravian Anderson, a two-year starter, has started the last 35 games for Louisiana with Donovan Williams, who moved over to right guard replacing 52-game starter Daniel Quave, starting in 22 straight games after playing every game last season at left guard.

THE BOOK OF ELI
• Junior running back Elijah McGuire entered the 2015 season as one of the most decorated players to wear a Ragin' Cajuns uniform and after eight games, has continued his assault on the record book.
• In his third season in a Ragin' Cajuns uniform, McGuire has rushed for 2,897 yards, ranking fourth on the school's all-time list. McGuire became the fourth player in school history (joining Tyrell Fenroy and former quarterbacks Brian Mitchell and Michael Desormeaux) to rush for over 1,000 yard in a season when he gained 1,264 yards in 2014.
• McGuire, the 2015 Preseason Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year, was the 2013 SBC Freshman of the Year and the 2014 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year.

MR. ALL-PURPOSE
In the Ragin' Cajuns Oct. 20 game at Arkansas State, Elijah McGuire became the third player in school history to record 4,000 all-purpose yards in his career. Below are the top three players in all-purpose yards in Ragin' Cajuns history.

1.         Tyrell Fenroy (2005-08) - 5,289
2.         Darryl Surgent (2010-13) - 4,945
3.         Elijah McGuire (2013-) - 4,210

MCGUIRE JOINS THE 2,000-1,000 CLUB
With a 21-yard reception in the second quarter against Arkansas State on Oct. 20, Elijah McGuire became the fourth active player in NCAA history to record 2,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving. McGuire caught a career-high tying 10 passes against the Red Wolves while recording a career-best 134 yards receiving. McGuire, who is officially the top running back in the group, is joined in the active leaders D.J. Foster (now a WR) of Arizona State, Josh Ferguson of Illinois and Storm Woods of Oregon State.

Elijah McGuire, Louisiana – 2,897 rush / 1,135 rec
Storm Woods, Oregon State – 2,643 rush / 1,079 rec
Josh Ferguson, Illinois – 2,392 rush / 1,346 rec
D.J. Foster, Arizona State – 2,303 rush / 2,310 rec

SLOW STARTS, FAST FINISHES
• The Ragin' Cajuns have usually set the tone early in ball games, but the 2015 season has been the opposite as they have been outscored, 180-108, in the first half in six games this season.
• Opponents are outscoring Louisiana, 76-54, in the first quarter before extending their advantage to 104-54 in the second.
• Louisiana has set the tone in the second half, outscoring the competition, 151-96, in the final 30 minutes. The Ragin' Cajuns have scored their most points (76) in the third quarter while holding opponents to 42 points in the fourth for their top defensive effort.

CAJUNS HAVE ENJOYED BOWLING IN PAST FOUR SEASONS
• Louisiana is one of five schools nationally to have won a bowl/postseason game in each of the past four seasons.
• The Cajuns, with four victories in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, are part of a list that includes Michigan State (Outback, Buffalo Wild Wings, Rose, Cotton), Oregon (Rose, Fiesta, Alamo, Rose), South Carolina (Capitol One, Outback, Capitol One, Independence) and Texas A&M (Meinke Car Care, Cotton, Chick-Fil-A, Music City).
• With a 16-3 win over Nevada in the 2014 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Louisiana became the first school in NCAA history to win the same bowl game four consecutive years.

"NEW KICKS" IMPRESSIVE IN RAGIN' CAJUNS DEBUT
• After losing both Hunter Stover and Daniel Cadona to graduation, the Ragin' Cajuns introduced a new kicking combo of true freshmen Stevie Artigue and Steven Coutts.
• Artigue, a four-time all-district and three-time Class 5A All-State selection at nearby Lafayette High School, has converted on 25 of 27 extra point attempts for the Ragin' Cajuns while going 8-for-13 in field goals, including 6 of 9 in his last three games.
• Coutts, the second Australian to sign with the Ragin' Cajuns in the past three years after following in the footsteps of former Ragin' Cajun Daniel Cadona, is 29th nationally and third among freshman punters, averaging 43.7 per attempt.

TOVELL BECOMING THE NEW SACK MASTER
• After recording a combined total of six sacks in his first three seasons in a Ragin' Cajuns uniform, senior Dominique Tovell has eclipsed his career in the first eight games of the season.
• With a Sun Belt-leading seven sacks on the year, Tovell has 13.0 sacks in his career and 36.0 tackles for loss.
• Tovell, who needs 4.5 sacks to tie the single-season record set last season by Christian Ringo, has recorded a pair of sacks in games against Kentucky (Sept. 5), ULM (Oct. 31) and Georgia State (Nov. 7). With 3.5 sacks, Tovell would tie former Ragin' Cajun Walter Sampson (16.5, 1999-02) for fifth-place on the school's all-time list.
• His 36.0 tackles for loss are tied with Andy Martin (1979-82) for the third-most in school history and trail Paul Cabble (37.0, 1993-96) and Jeffrey Mitchell (45.0, 1992-95).

MR. ROBINSON IS BACK IN HIS NEIGHBORHOOD
• After being limited to four games last season due to knee and foot injuries, senior Jamal Robinson has made a successful return to the lineup, catching 33 passes for 558 yards and four touchdowns.
• Against Texas State on Oct. 10, Robinson recorded his first touchdown in over a year when he grabbed a 17-yard pass from Jalen Nixon in the final minute of the first half. The duo hooked up again in the third period with a go-ahead 31-yard TD strike, marking the fifth multi-TD game of Robinson's career.
• His 64-yard reception against ULM on Oct. 31 was the third-longest of his career, following grabs of 86 yards (vs. Lamar) and 81 (at ULM) in 2012.
• The 2014 Biletnikoff Watch List candidate caught 15 passes with four touchdowns in four games last season before being sidelined for the remainder of the season with a foot injury at Texas State.
• The 2015 Preseason Second-Team All-Sun Belt Conference candidate ranks ninth in school history with 135 receptions and is third overall in receiving yards (2,387).

NEW FACILITIES FOR RAGIN' CAJUNS FOOTBALL
• The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team officially moved into its new 100,000-square foot Student-Athlete Performance Center on September 13-14. The new building, which is part of the University's $115 million Athletics Facilities Master Plan that was unveiled in March of 2013, will house new offices and locker rooms for the Ragin' Cajuns football team, as well as a state-of-the-art Athletic Training Room, new weight room, new equipment room and 150-seat auditorium that will benefit all Ragin' Cajuns student-athletes.
• Ground was broken on the project in August of 2014 and is part of Tier 1 projects that included the expansion of Cajun Field. Upgrades at Cajun Field, which were completed prior to the 2014 season included the addition of seats in the South End Zone, raising capacity to 41,426, plus a new concession stands and restrooms in the South End Zone facility.
• Also included in Tier 1 were upgrades to the Ragin' Cajuns Soccer/Track Facility, that includes new locker rooms and coaches' offices for both the soccer and track and field programs, a new pressbox, restrooms, a concession stand and retail area.

RAGIN' CAJUNS REPEAT AS SUN BELT ACADEMIC CHAMPS
• The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team earned the best cumulative grade point average among Sun Belt Conference schools for the second consecutive year as the league announced its Team GPA Awards for the 2014-15 academic year.
• Louisiana posted a 2.81 team GPA during the 2014-15 academic year to lead all football schools competing in the Sun Belt.
• During the Fall 2014 semester, the Ragin' Cajuns recorded their highest GPA in team history (2.923) and posted its sixth consecutive semester of 2.6 or higher. Fifty-two percent of the student-athletes on the roster earned a 3.0 GPA or higher during the fall with six players earning a 4.0, and 11 receiving their degree during Fall Commencement ceremonies.

SUN BELT RECEIVES FIFTH POSSIBLE BOWL DESTINATION
• The Arizona Sports and Entertainment Commission announced the creation of the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl. The bowl game will debut on Dec. 29, 2015 and will match two teams from the Mountain West Conference, Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference. The game will be played at the University of Arizona's Stadium in Tucson, Ariz.
• The NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl is the first-ever bowl game to have a digitally-focused broadcast strategy to be orchestrated by primary digital media partner Campus Insiders. Details and technology partnerships along with the television broadcast partner will be announced at a later date.
• The Sun Belt Conference has grown from having just one primary bowl game from 2001 through 2010 to now having four primary postseason bowl game tie-ins. The Cure Bowl, which will debut in 2015, the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, the GoDaddy Bowl and the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl are the Sun Belt's primary bowl tie-ins. In addition the Sun Belt Conference is also part of a coalition that will send teams to the Miami Beach Bowl and the Bahamas Bowl on a rotating basis.

Game 10 Preview: The New Mexico State Game

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Octravian Anderson

Stevie Artigue

Savion Brown

Daniel Cadona

Steven Coutts

Jesse Freeman

Gabe Fuselier

Christian Goodlett

Eddie Gordon

Brooks Haack

Grant Horst

Dominick Jones

Elijah McGuire

Jalen Nixon

Otha Peters

Daniel Quave

Mykhael Quave

Al Riles

Christian Ringo

Jamal Robinson

Hunter Stover

Dominique Tovell

Corey Trim

Tracy Walker

Donovan Williams

D'Aquin Withrow

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