Game 11 Preview: The Appalachian State Game

LAFAYETTE - The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team will make its first-ever trip to Boone, N.C., on Saturday, Nov. 28, when it faces Appalachian State in a Sun Belt Conference contest at Kidd-Brewer Stadium.

Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN3 with Matt Stewart (pxp), John Gregory (color) and Kati Morse (sideline) providing the commentary. The game can also be heard statewide on the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Radio Network with Jay Walker (pxp), Richie Falgout (color) and Travis Webb (sideline) on the call.

The game against App State (8-2, 5-1 SBC) will mark the first trip to the state of North Carolina for Louisiana (4-6, 3-3 SBC) since the 1988 season when it earned a 48-36 win at East Carolina.

Louisiana suffered a disappointing 37-34 loss to New Mexico State on Saturday as the Aggies scored 10 points in the final 3:59 to claim their first win at Cajun Field since the 2001 season.

Quarterback Brooks Haack set personal-bests for completions (24), passing yards (283) and touchdown passes (2), while tying his previous mark in attempts (37). The junior gave Louisiana a 7-3 lead in the first quarter when he connected with Al Riles on a 20-yard scoring pass before his 31-yard strike to Jamal Robinson with 6:27 remaining snapped a 27-27 tie.

The performance of Robinson (12 catches, 183 yards, 1 TD) and Elijah McGuire (18 carries, 159 yards, 2 TDs) marked the first time this season and 26th time in school history that a receiver and running each topped the 100-yard mark in a game. The performance marked the first time since the 2013 season when McGuire rushed for 107 yards and had 125 yards receiving at Georgia State.

Game No. 11
November 28, 2015 • 1:00 p.m. CT • Boone, N.C. • Kidd-Brewer Stadium (23,150)

-/- LOUISIANA RAGIN' CAJUNS (4-6, 3-3 Sun Belt)
Head Coach: Mark Hudspeth (Delta State, 1992)
Record at Louisiana: 40-22 (5th season), Career Record: 106-43 (12th year)

RV/- APPALACHIAN STATE MOUNTAINEERS (8-2, 5-1 Sun Belt)
Head Coach: Scott Satterfield (Appalachian State, 1996)
Record at APP State: 19-15 (3rd season), Career Record: Same

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

Series History: Appalachian State leads the series, 1-0, claiming the 2014 contest in Lafayette, 35-16 … today's game will be the first-ever meeting between the schools at Kidd-Brewer Stadium.

TV/RADIO INFORMATION
ESPN3: Matt Stewart, PxP • John Gregory, Analyst • Kati Morse, 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 521-535-34 against all opponents dating back to 1901.
• Elijah McGuire is four catches shy of becoming the first Ragin' Cajuns running back with 100 receptions.
• McGuire is 71 yards shy of posting the ninth 1,000-yard rushing season in school history.
• McGuire would become the first player since Tyrell Fenroy and Michael Desormeaux in 2007-08 to rush for 1,000 yards in consecutive years.
• Jamal Robinson needs one touchdown reception to pass Donald Richard (1993-96) and move into third-place on the school's all-time list with 21.
• Robinson is three receptions shy of passing former Ragin' Cajuns standout and current San Diego Chargers tight end Ladarius Green (149 receptions) for fifth-place in school history.
• The Ragin' Cajuns will play a game in the state of North Carolina for the first time since the 1988 season when they defeated East Carolina, 48-36, in Greenville, N.C.

DID YOU KNEAUX?
1 - Senior Dominique Tovell has started 42 games in his career for the Ragin' Cajuns, including 36 straight.
2 - Senior Octravian Anderson has started 36 consecutive games at right tackle.
3 - The next win by the Ragin' Cajuns would give Mark Hudspeth 41, tying him with Ricky Bustle for the fourth-most in school history.
4 - The Ragin' Cajuns are 34-4 overall under Mark Hudspeth when scoring 30 or more points in a game.
5 - Elijah McGuire is the only active FBS player with 3,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in his career.

WHAT'S ON TAP
• Louisiana will close out the regular season on Saturday, Dec. 5, when it plays host to Troy in a 4 p.m. game at Cajun Field. The game will mark the final appearance at home for the Ragin' Cajuns 18-man senior class.

NOTES FROM THE NEW MEXICO STATE GAME
• Captains were Chris Prater (DE), Effrem Reed (RB) and Jamal Robinson (WR).
• New Mexico State won the toss and elected to receive.
• Donovan Williams started his first game of the season at left guard after starting first nine at right guard. Adrian Goodacre earned his first career start for the Ragin' Cajuns at right guard.
• Dominique Tovell's 13 tackles were a career-high. His two stops for loss gave him 13.0 on the season and 38.0 in his career, moving him past Andy Martin (36, 1979-82) and Paul Cabble (37, 1993-96) into second-place on the school's all-time list.
• Kickers Carlos Alvarez and Aaron Bird each made their 2015 debuts for the Ragin' Cajuns. Alvarez, a fifth-year senior, made his first appearance since the 2011 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl as he handled kickoff duties. Bird, a redshirt freshman, replaced Stevie Artigue on extra point and field goal attempts in the second quarter and kicked field goals of 23 and 31 yards while going 3-for-3 on PATs.
• The Ragin' Cajuns started a pair of linemen – Chris Prater and Taboris Lee – while employing three linebackers and six defensive backs.
• Jamal Robinson's 12 receptions tied Harry Peoples (vs. Florida Atlantic, Oct. 1, 2011) and Brandon Stokley (vs. Louisiana Tech, Nov. 4, 1995) for the fifth-most in a single game in school history. His 31-yard touchdown from Brooks Haack with 6:27 remaining was the 20th of his career, tying him with Donald Richard (1993-96) for third on the school's all-time list.
• Robinson increased his career receiving totals to 147 catches, two shy of tying Ladarius Green (149, 2008-11) for the fifth in school history.

RAGIN' CAJUNS HEADING BACK TO THE TAR HEEL STATE
• Today's game will mark Louisiana's first football game in the state of North Carolina since the Ragin' Cajuns earned a 48-36 victory over East Carolina on Oct. 1, 1988 in Greenville.
• Louisiana and ECU have played 11 times in school history with five games being played in Greenville between 1977 and 1988.
• Below are results of Louisiana's football games played in the state of North Carolina:

Oct. 29, 1977 – at East Carolina, (W, 9-7)
Sept. 13, 1980 – at East Carolina, (W, 27-21)
Oct. 8, 1983 – at East Carolina, (L, 21-18)
Oct. 4, 1986 – at East Carolina, (W, 21-10)
Oct. 1, 1988 – at East Carolina, (W, 48-36)

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 six games for the Ragin' Cajuns at left tackle.
• Octravian Anderson, a two-year starter, has started the last 36 games for Louisiana with Donovan Williams, who moved over to right guard replacing 52-game starter Daniel Quave, starting in 23 straight games after playing every game last season at left guard.

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.

THE BOOK OF ELI 3.0
• Junior running back Elijah McGuire entered the 2015 season as one of the most decorated players to wear a Ragin' Cajuns uniform and after 10 games this year, he has continued his assault on the school record books.
• In his third season in a Ragin' Cajuns uniform, McGuire has rushed for 3,056 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-) - 4,370

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 – 3,056 rush / 1,130 rec
Storm Woods, Oregon State – 2,674 rush / 1,094 rec
Josh Ferguson, Illinois – 2,546 rush / 1,407 rec
D.J. Foster, Arizona State – 2,353 rush / 2,386 rec
Deandre Washington, Texas Tech - 3,201 rushing / 996 receiving

MCGUIRE IN ELITE COMPANY
Junior Elijah McGuire is one of the top active players in NCAA football history in terms of his dual threat ability, but is also among a class of players who have rushed for 3,000 yards and recorded 1,000 yards receiving. Below are players who have rushed for 3,000 or more yards and recorded 1,000 or more receiving in their career:

Brock Forsey (Boise State, 1999-2002) -- 4,045 rushing / 1,175 receiving
Tarrion Adams (Tulsa, 2005-08) -- 3651 rushing / 1,149 receiving
Jacquizz Rodgers (Oregon State, 2008-10) -- 3,877 rushing / 1,056 receiving
Reggie Bush (USC, 2003-05) -- 3,169 rushing / 1,301 receiving
(Note: participation in 2 games in 2004 and all of 2005 later vacated due to NCAA penalty)

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, 200-125, in the first half in 10 games this season.
• Opponents are outscoring Louisiana, 79-61, in the first quarter before extending their advantage to 121-64 in the second.
• Louisiana has set the tone in the second half, outscoring the competition, 168-113, in the final 30 minutes. The Ragin' Cajuns have scored their most points (89) in the fourth quarter while holding opponents to 52 points in the fourth for their top defensive effort.

"NEW KICKS" HAVE BEEN IMPRESSIVE IN 2015
• 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 26 of 28 extra point attempts for the Ragin' Cajuns while going 8-for-14 in field goals.
• 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 46th nationally and third among freshman punters, averaging 42.5 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 10 games of the season.
• With a Sun Belt-leading seven sacks on the year, Tovell has 13.0 sacks in his career and 38.0 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 38.0 tackles for loss are second behind the 45 stops for loss set from 1992-95 by Jeffrey Mitchell, a current member of head coach Mark Hudspeth's security detail.

MR. ROBINSON HAS RETURNED TO THE 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 45 passes for 741 yards and five touchdowns.
• Robinson has posted consecutive 100-yard games in his last two contests, setting career-highs with 10 receptions for 188 yards and a touchdown at South Alabama, before eclipsing his single-game reception record with 12 catches for 183 yards and a touchdown against New Mexico State.
• 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 sixth in school history with 145 receptions and is third overall in receiving yards (2,570).

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.

ALVAREZ, BIRD GIVE BOOST TO KICKING GAME AGAINST AGGIES
• Kickers Carlos Alvarez and Aaron Bird were each pressed into service against the Aggies after regular kicker Stevie Artigue was pulled due to an injury suffered earlier in the week. Alvarez, a fifth-year senior, handled the kickoff chores for the Ragin' Cajuns as he saw his first action since handling kickoffs in the 2011 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl against San Diego State.
• Bird, a redshirt freshman, saw his first career action as he handled all extra point and field goal attempts for Louisiana. Bird was successful on all three PAT attempts while kicking field goals of 23 and 31 yards for the Ragin' Cajuns.

Game 11 Preview: The Appalachian State Game

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Players Mentioned

Carlos Alvarez

Octravian Anderson

Stevie Artigue

Aaron Bird

Daniel Cadona

Steven Coutts

Adrian Goodacre

Eddie Gordon

Brooks Haack

Grant Horst

Taboris Lee

Elijah McGuire

Jalen Nixon

Chris Prater

Daniel Quave

Mykhael Quave

Effrem Reed

Al Riles

Christian Ringo

Jamal Robinson

Hunter Stover

Dominique Tovell

Donovan Williams

D'Aquin Withrow

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