University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana UnLimited: New Orleans Bowl Day 1
12/14/2021 9:36:00 PM | Football, Athletics, Louisiana UnLimited
Back in The Big Easy
It only took a few minutes watching Louisiana's football team load its five buses behind the Donald and Janice Mosing Student-Athlete Performance Center Tuesday to get a subtle reminder of something that former athletic director Scott Farmer said years ago.
Never, ever, take a bowl trip for granted.
On the way to becoming one of the dominant forces in the Sun Belt Conference for more than a decade, the Ragin' Cajuns have made eight bowl trips in the last decade. They'll make it nine in 11 years on Saturday at 8:15 p.m. when they play in Crescent City for the first time since 2016 and meet future Sun Belt member Marshall in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl in the Caesars Superdome.
Six times the Cajuns have been the Sun Belt representative in the New Orleans Bowl, a record for most appearances by any school even before Saturday's seventh outing on the Superdome turf. Louisiana became the first school in NCAA history to win the same bowl game in four straight seasons when they took the New Orleans Bowl trophy home in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The Cajuns are also on a four-season bowl streak, having played in the AutoNation Cure Bowl in Orlando in 2018, the Lending Tree Bowl in Mobile in 2019 and the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl in Fort Worth in 2020. Louisiana won the last two of those, giving the Cajuns a 6-2 bowl mark over the last decade.
For the huge majority of the players and staff, bowl games are the only way to end a college football season that they've ever known. Even for most Cajun fans, those who have reveled in their team making the past decade's bowl lineup in every year except 2015 and 2017, their memories are filled with postseason trips, most of which have been successful.
It wasn't always like this.
Let us never forget that before that 2011 season, when first-year coach Mark Hudspeth led the Cajuns from 3-9 the previous season to a 9-4 mark and a storybook-finish 32-30 New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State, a Louisiana team had never played in a true NCAA Division I bowl game.
Yes, there was the 1944 Oil Bowl at Houston's Rice Stadium where Louisiana beat Arkansas A&M (now Arkansas-Monticello) 24-7, ending a 1943 season for what was called at the time "the best team in Louisiana history." But that came in a makeshift season created by World War II and was a rematch of an earlier game between the teams. The NCAA did not fully sanction the Oil Bowl until 1946, and it lasted only two years.
And, yes, there was the Grantland Rice Bowl in 1970 at Baton Rouge's Memorial Stadium where heavy-underdog Louisiana lost to Tennessee State 26-25. But that game matched two teams who were then members of the NCAA's College Division as opposed to the University Division – the forerunners of what is now Divisions I and II.
Even if you consider those "true" bowl appearances, the fact remains there was a 40-year gap between seasons where the Cajuns played a game after their regular season. All of the great Cajun players during that time – household names like Jake Delhomme, Brian Mitchell, Brandon Stokley, Charles Tillman, Chris Gannon, Joe DeForest, Ike Taylor, Orlando Thomas and so many more – never had the opportunity to take the field for a bowl game.
Ten different former Cajuns have played in the NFL's Super Bowl, the biggest football game on the planet annually. Seven ex-Louisiana players have suited up for the NFL's Pro Bowl.
None of them, not one, got the chance to wear a Cajun jersey in a college bowl game.
Dozens of former players were on hand for that 2011 game, and the Louisiana staff did all it could to make that group fell welcome and let them know that they were a part of building the success that has now become commonplace. Ask some of those guys what they would have done had they had a bowl opportunity in front of them.
Never, ever, take a bowl trip for granted.
* * *
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One prominent ex-Cajun who never had a bowl opportunity is new head coach Michael Desormeaux, who starred at quarterback for UL from 2005-08. But at least Desormeaux has had bowl experience with the Cajuns, having joined Hudspeth's staff in 2016. Louisiana played Southern Mississippi in that year's New Orleans Bowl, and he's obviously been a part of coach Billy Napier's staff that's played in bowl games each of the last three seasons.
The same can't be said for Matt Viator, one of Louisiana's true coaching treasures. When "Coach V" stepped on one of the Cajun buses early Tuesday afternoon, it meant that he's going to coach in a bowl game for the first time in what is now a 35-year coaching career.
It's not like Viator hasn't had success. He had a storied run at McNeese State as offensive coordinator and then for 10 years as Cowboy head coach, putting together a 78-33 record that included five FCS playoff appearances, four Southland Conference titles and three SLC Coach of the Year honors. The last of those came after a 10-1 season in 2015, his last before accepting the head position at ULM.
Before that, he had a hugely successful prep coaching career at Sam Houston, Vinton, Jennings and Sulphur, guiding Jennings to the state Class 3A title in 1992.
But none of those successes came while at a Football Bowl Championship-member school, and ULM didn't get to a bowl game during his five years with the Warhawks. ULM was bowl eligible in 2018 at 6-6 but didn't get an invitation.
Napier brought Viator into the Louisiana fold as a quality control coach and analyst last January and helped the Cajuns put together their current 12-1 season and 12-game win streak.
He'll have an even bigger role for this weekend's bowl game. With some staff shuffling following Napier and other Cajun coach departures for Florida, Viator took over quarterback coaching duties last week and will be on the press box headsets helping Desormeaux and offensive coordinator Tim Leger – who coached under Viator at both McNeese and ULM.
"Pretty excited," Viator said Tuesday. "It'll be fun to back up in the press box and helping where I can."
Viator said it has also been fun to work with Cajun record-setting quarterback Levi Lewis during the bowl preparations.
"Our quarterback meetings have mostly been me asking Number 1 (Lewis' jersey number) what he thinks about this and that," he said, "and if he's OK with it, that's what we're doing.
He's such a great person and so knowledgeable in what we're doing, it makes things pretty easy."
* * *
Another ex-Cajun who never had a bowl-playing opportunity is part of the caravan this week. That being said, Jeff Mitchell has more New Orleans Bowl experience than just about anyone in the traveling party.
Mitchell, a defensive standout for the Cajuns from 1992-95, currently serves as a Louisiana State Police trooper and has served on the team escort and security staff for each of the previous five New Orleans Bowl appearances. He was in the LSP's escort vehicle when the team made the two-hour trip Tuesday, a duty he's handled hundreds of times during his 25-year law enforcement career.
"It's been a while," Mitchell said, remembering both the four straight wins at the bowl from 2011-14 and the loss to Southern Mississippi in 2016 in Louisiana's last Crescent City bowl trip.
Most of the Cajun defenders probably don't realize their police escort was an undersized dervish of a defensive end while he wore a Cajun uniform. The product of Loreauville won 17 prep letters in four different sports for Loreauville High and was a two-time All-State selection in football, but that was just a warmup for when he signed with Louisiana.
By the time Mitchell was done, he held three Louisiana career records that still stand a quarter-century later – most tackles for losses (45), most yards on tackles for losses (227) and most sacks (21), the latter which was tied by current New Orleans Saint Christian Ringo in 2014. He also still holds the single-season record for tackles for losses in a season (21) and is second all-time in sacks in a season (11), both set as a sophomore in 1993. The next year, Louisiana left the independent ranks and joined the Big West Conference, and Mitchell was a first-team All-Big West selection the following two years. A few years later, he was inducted into the Louisiana Athletics Hall of Fame.
And if you doubt he's fit and athletic enough to still get out there and rush an opposing quarterback, just shake hands with him. It's an experience you won't forget.
Â
Never, ever, take a bowl trip for granted.
On the way to becoming one of the dominant forces in the Sun Belt Conference for more than a decade, the Ragin' Cajuns have made eight bowl trips in the last decade. They'll make it nine in 11 years on Saturday at 8:15 p.m. when they play in Crescent City for the first time since 2016 and meet future Sun Belt member Marshall in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl in the Caesars Superdome.
Six times the Cajuns have been the Sun Belt representative in the New Orleans Bowl, a record for most appearances by any school even before Saturday's seventh outing on the Superdome turf. Louisiana became the first school in NCAA history to win the same bowl game in four straight seasons when they took the New Orleans Bowl trophy home in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The Cajuns are also on a four-season bowl streak, having played in the AutoNation Cure Bowl in Orlando in 2018, the Lending Tree Bowl in Mobile in 2019 and the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl in Fort Worth in 2020. Louisiana won the last two of those, giving the Cajuns a 6-2 bowl mark over the last decade.
For the huge majority of the players and staff, bowl games are the only way to end a college football season that they've ever known. Even for most Cajun fans, those who have reveled in their team making the past decade's bowl lineup in every year except 2015 and 2017, their memories are filled with postseason trips, most of which have been successful.
It wasn't always like this.
Let us never forget that before that 2011 season, when first-year coach Mark Hudspeth led the Cajuns from 3-9 the previous season to a 9-4 mark and a storybook-finish 32-30 New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State, a Louisiana team had never played in a true NCAA Division I bowl game.
Yes, there was the 1944 Oil Bowl at Houston's Rice Stadium where Louisiana beat Arkansas A&M (now Arkansas-Monticello) 24-7, ending a 1943 season for what was called at the time "the best team in Louisiana history." But that came in a makeshift season created by World War II and was a rematch of an earlier game between the teams. The NCAA did not fully sanction the Oil Bowl until 1946, and it lasted only two years.
And, yes, there was the Grantland Rice Bowl in 1970 at Baton Rouge's Memorial Stadium where heavy-underdog Louisiana lost to Tennessee State 26-25. But that game matched two teams who were then members of the NCAA's College Division as opposed to the University Division – the forerunners of what is now Divisions I and II.
Even if you consider those "true" bowl appearances, the fact remains there was a 40-year gap between seasons where the Cajuns played a game after their regular season. All of the great Cajun players during that time – household names like Jake Delhomme, Brian Mitchell, Brandon Stokley, Charles Tillman, Chris Gannon, Joe DeForest, Ike Taylor, Orlando Thomas and so many more – never had the opportunity to take the field for a bowl game.
Ten different former Cajuns have played in the NFL's Super Bowl, the biggest football game on the planet annually. Seven ex-Louisiana players have suited up for the NFL's Pro Bowl.
None of them, not one, got the chance to wear a Cajun jersey in a college bowl game.
Dozens of former players were on hand for that 2011 game, and the Louisiana staff did all it could to make that group fell welcome and let them know that they were a part of building the success that has now become commonplace. Ask some of those guys what they would have done had they had a bowl opportunity in front of them.
Never, ever, take a bowl trip for granted.
* * *
Â
The same can't be said for Matt Viator, one of Louisiana's true coaching treasures. When "Coach V" stepped on one of the Cajun buses early Tuesday afternoon, it meant that he's going to coach in a bowl game for the first time in what is now a 35-year coaching career.
It's not like Viator hasn't had success. He had a storied run at McNeese State as offensive coordinator and then for 10 years as Cowboy head coach, putting together a 78-33 record that included five FCS playoff appearances, four Southland Conference titles and three SLC Coach of the Year honors. The last of those came after a 10-1 season in 2015, his last before accepting the head position at ULM.
Before that, he had a hugely successful prep coaching career at Sam Houston, Vinton, Jennings and Sulphur, guiding Jennings to the state Class 3A title in 1992.
But none of those successes came while at a Football Bowl Championship-member school, and ULM didn't get to a bowl game during his five years with the Warhawks. ULM was bowl eligible in 2018 at 6-6 but didn't get an invitation.
Napier brought Viator into the Louisiana fold as a quality control coach and analyst last January and helped the Cajuns put together their current 12-1 season and 12-game win streak.
He'll have an even bigger role for this weekend's bowl game. With some staff shuffling following Napier and other Cajun coach departures for Florida, Viator took over quarterback coaching duties last week and will be on the press box headsets helping Desormeaux and offensive coordinator Tim Leger – who coached under Viator at both McNeese and ULM.
"Pretty excited," Viator said Tuesday. "It'll be fun to back up in the press box and helping where I can."
Viator said it has also been fun to work with Cajun record-setting quarterback Levi Lewis during the bowl preparations.
"Our quarterback meetings have mostly been me asking Number 1 (Lewis' jersey number) what he thinks about this and that," he said, "and if he's OK with it, that's what we're doing.
He's such a great person and so knowledgeable in what we're doing, it makes things pretty easy."
* * *
Another ex-Cajun who never had a bowl-playing opportunity is part of the caravan this week. That being said, Jeff Mitchell has more New Orleans Bowl experience than just about anyone in the traveling party.
Mitchell, a defensive standout for the Cajuns from 1992-95, currently serves as a Louisiana State Police trooper and has served on the team escort and security staff for each of the previous five New Orleans Bowl appearances. He was in the LSP's escort vehicle when the team made the two-hour trip Tuesday, a duty he's handled hundreds of times during his 25-year law enforcement career.
"It's been a while," Mitchell said, remembering both the four straight wins at the bowl from 2011-14 and the loss to Southern Mississippi in 2016 in Louisiana's last Crescent City bowl trip.
Most of the Cajun defenders probably don't realize their police escort was an undersized dervish of a defensive end while he wore a Cajun uniform. The product of Loreauville won 17 prep letters in four different sports for Loreauville High and was a two-time All-State selection in football, but that was just a warmup for when he signed with Louisiana.
By the time Mitchell was done, he held three Louisiana career records that still stand a quarter-century later – most tackles for losses (45), most yards on tackles for losses (227) and most sacks (21), the latter which was tied by current New Orleans Saint Christian Ringo in 2014. He also still holds the single-season record for tackles for losses in a season (21) and is second all-time in sacks in a season (11), both set as a sophomore in 1993. The next year, Louisiana left the independent ranks and joined the Big West Conference, and Mitchell was a first-team All-Big West selection the following two years. A few years later, he was inducted into the Louisiana Athletics Hall of Fame.
And if you doubt he's fit and athletic enough to still get out there and rush an opposing quarterback, just shake hands with him. It's an experience you won't forget.
Â
Players Mentioned
QB
/ FootballMichael Desormeaux Media Availbility (Oct 13, 2025)
Monday, October 13
Kristi Gray Media Availability (Oct 13, 2025)
Monday, October 13
Chris McBride Media Avialbility (Oct 13, 2025)
Monday, October 13
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Tuesday, October 07
