Louisiana Opens 2019 Campaign Against Mississippi State

LAFAYETTE – Coming off a 7-7 season in 2018, which included a Sun West Division crown, a trip to the inaugural Sun Belt Conference Championship Game and an appearance in the AutoNation Cure Bowl in Orlando, the Louisiana Football team kicks off the 2019 season on Saturday morning in New Orleans when it welcomes Mississippi State to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for an 11 a.m. kick on ESPNU.

The Ragin' Cajuns and the Bulldogs will be meeting for the second-straight season, with Mississippi State coming out on top in the 2018 edition of the series, 56-10. It will be the fifth all-time meeting between the programs.

Who: Louisiana (0-0) vs. Mississippi State (0-0)
Where: Mercedes-Benz Superdome – New Orleans, La.
When: Saturday, Aug. 31 – 11 a.m.
Watch: ESPNU
On the Call: Mike Corey (play-by-play), Rene Ingoglia (color)
Listen: ESPN1420
On the Call: Jay Walker (play-by-play), Chris Lanaux (color), Cody Junot (sideline)
All-Time Series: Mississippi State leads, 4-0
Last Meeting: Sept. 15, 2018: Mississippi State won, 56-10

Game Notes:
Inside the Game
• The Ragin' Cajuns open the 2019 campaign against SEC-foe Mississippi State on August 31 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
• The two programs last met a season ago in Starkville, with the Bulldogs coming out on top, 56-10.
• Louisiana enters the contest against Mississippi State with a 15-33 record in season openers. However, the Ragin' Cajuns have won their last two season-opening games with wins over Southeastern Louisiana (51-48) in 2017 and Grambling (49-17) in 2018.

Louisiana vs. the SEC
• The Ragin' Cajuns have faced an SEC opponent in every season since 2012.
• Despite never beating a team that was a member of the SEC when Louisiana played them (0-44 all-time vs. SEC), Louisiana did score a historic upset against current SEC member Texas A&M (29-25 on Sept. 14, 1996). At the time, Texas A&M was a member of the Big 12.

Savvy Veterans
• Louisiana football has one of the most experienced offensive line units in the country. With the mix of Rico Robinson, Ken Marks, Cole Prudhomme, Kevin Dotson and Robert Hunt, the group has a combine 130 career starts. This ranks second in the country behind Oregon who has 153 returning starts.
• Additionally, the offensive line has 55 starts coming back from its projected starters. This also ranks tied for the third most in all of college football.

New Guy On The Block
• With the loss of Cole Prudhomme due to injury, Louisiana will turn to a new center for the 2019 season.
• All signs are pointing to Shane Vallot being the guy to take on that role. Vallot appeared in three games a season ago.

#2 Nice Wit It
• Senior redshirt wide receiver Ja'Marcus Bradley returns to the gridiron after having one of the best receiving seasons in school history. The Ackerman, Miss. native, caught a team-high 10 touchdowns and added 608 yards to his effort.
• Bradley's 10 touchdowns were the most by a receiver since the 1996 season. He also had a tremendous performance against South Alabama catching three touchdowns. Not only did that tie the most single game touchdowns among wide receivers in school history, it was also the most TD's caught in a single game since Jason Cherry nabbed a three-piece against North Texas in 2008.

Three-Headed Monster
• Louisiana may not return an exceptional amount of passing yards, but its rushing attacks in one of the best in the country.
• Juniors Elijah Mitchell and Trey Ragas and senior Raymond Calais fill out the nationally recognized Cajun backfield trio. Last season, the trio racked up a total of 2,920 yards on the ground, 28 touchdowns and combined for 14, 100-yard rushing performances.
• Ragas had 1181 yards rushing which ranked third in the conference and 28th in FBS.
• Mitchell was 15 yards shy of 1,000 and recorded 985 rushing yards and tallied 16 total
touchdowns, the 14th most in FBS.
• Calais tallied 754 yards on the ground while averaging 9.3 rushing yards per carry. His
breakout game came against Georgia State, where he rushed for 186 yards and three scores. He also set the school record in that ball game with a 92-yard touchdown scamper.

Welcome Back (x2)
• Louisiana Football gets back two key members this upcoming season in outside linebacker Joe Dillon and kicker Stevie Artigue.
• Dillon has an impressive resume. He is a 2017 Third Team All-Sun Belt Conference member, 2016 Second Team All-Sun Belt Conference member and was named the LSWA Freshman of the Year.
• Dillon will add speed off the edge to a much needed Cajun defense having a career 11.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss.
• Like Dillon, Artigue has earned some accomplishments as well. He was named 2017 to the Lou Garza Award Watch List and a 2017 Preseason First Team All-Sun Belt Conference selection. Artigue was 29-for-38 before his injury in before the 2018 season.

All-Conference Honors
• Louisiana Football had seven players named to All-Sun Belt Conference Teams after the conclusion of last season. They are: Kevin Dotson, Elijah Mitchell, Robert Hunt, Trey Ragas, Zi'Yon Hill, Ja'Marcus Bradley and Jacques Boudreaux.
• All of the seven players listed returned to this year's team. Not only did the team have the fifth most all-conference players at the end of last season, they are one of three programs in the conference that has all of their all-conference members returning for the 2019 season.

Inexperienced
• Levi Lewis has been slated to start for the Cajuns since the end of last year.
• Although he is QB1, Lewis has only started three games, which came during his true freshman season.
• Out of all the projected starting quarterbacks in the league, Lewis just owns a higher amount of starts over the current quarterback situations at Arkansas State and South Alabama.

Inspector Jacques Boudreaux
• After earning a spot on the Sun Belt Conference Third Team, Jacques Boudreaux headlines the returners on the Ragin' Cajun defense.
• Boudreaux had an incredible season last year recording 93 total tackles which ranked fifth in the conference.
• Boudreaux also paced the team in average tackles per game with 6.6 which was tied for the 11th best in the conference.

Humphrey Dumpty
• Highly regarded defensive tackle Tayland Humphrey isn't sitting on a wall like humpty dumpty. However, the 6'5" 350 nose tackle is still sitting on the sidelines waiting to hear about his eligibility from the NCAA.
• Prior to coming to Louisiana, the Houston product attended FIU for a season after turning down offers from Alabama, Florida State, and Georgia coming out of Hutchinson Community College.
• If the massive defensive tackle is deemed eligible for the upcoming season, expect him to be a major run stopper on the Cajuns defense this year.

Manac is Back
• Former Georgia defensive end Chauncey Manac is back for year two with the Ragin' Cajuns.
• Last year, Manac has 8.0 tackles for loss, 4.0 sacks and 47 total tackles.
• Aside from leading the team in both TFL and sacks, Manac ranked within the top-15 in TFL and top-20 in sacks among other pass rushers from around the Sun Belt Conference.

Billy and the Jets
• Louisiana had a very successful season in Billy Napier's up-tempo and fast paced offense.
• Just within the Sun Belt conference, the team was able to record top-three finishes in scoring offense, total offense, pass efficiency, and rushing offense.
• Furthermore, Billy's quarterbacks threw the second most touchdowns in the conference (28), owned the third most rushing touchdowns (31), and the second most overall touchdowns (58).

Louisiana Opens 2019 Campaign Against Mississippi State

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Players Mentioned

Stevie Artigue

Jacques Boudreaux

Ja'Marcus Bradley

Raymond Calais

Joe Dillon

Kevin Dotson

Zi'Yon Hill-Green

Tayland Humphrey

Robert Hunt

Levi Lewis

Chauncey Manac

Ken Marks

Elijah Mitchell

Cole Prudhomme

Trey Ragas

Rico Robinson

Shane Vallot

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