CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL | CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TICKETS?

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana (10-2, 7-1 SBC) is seeking its fourth Sun Belt football championship (2005, 2020 & 2021) in Saturday’s Hercules Tires Sun Belt Football Championship Game at Cajun Field in Lafayette, La. The game is set for 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN. 
 
A conference-record five-time championship game qualifier in the seven-year history of the event, the Ragin’ Cajuns will aim to keep the home team unbeaten in the contest. Home teams are 5-0 all-time in the championship game and Louisiana is 4-2 at home this season and 12-6 at home in three seasons under head coach Michael Desormeaux. 
 
A Louisiana win over Marshall (9-3, 7-1 SBC) would be the fourth-straight championship game victory by a Sun Belt West Division team (Louisiana in 2021, Troy in 2022 & 2023). Louisiana has already clinched its fourth 10-win campaign over the past six seasons after reaching the 10-win plateau for the first time in program history in 2019.  
 
In addition to appearing in 5-of-7 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Football Championship Games since the event’s inception in 2018, Louisiana is in the midst of a string of seven-straight bowl appearances, trailing only fellow championship game participant Marshall (8) among Sun Belt programs. The Ragin’ Cajuns own an official 5-4 record in 11 all-time Bowl Season appearances.  
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns last played for—and won—the Sun Belt title in 2021 with a 24-16 win over App State at Cajun Field in Lafayette, La., in the last of a string of four-straight championship game berths. 
 
Louisiana opened its season with consecutive victories over in-state foe Grambling, 40-10, and at Kennesaw State, 34-10. After dropping a one-possession game to American Athletic Conference championship game qualifier Tulane, 41-33, at home, Louisiana went on the road and took down autonomy conference foe Wake Forest, 41-38, to close its non-conference slate. The win was 1-of-3 over autonomy conference opposition for the Sun Belt this season and the conference’s 22nd such win since 2016—with 11 of those victories coming since 2022, when the league expanded to its current 14-member configuration.
 
Louisiana opened conference play with three-straight double-digit victories—23-13 at Southern Miss, 34-24 over App State and 34-24 at Coastal Carolina. The Ragin’ Cajuns then prevailed, 23-17, over Sun Belt West Division preseason favorite Texas State in a nationally-televised Tuesday night showdown on the road. A 55-19 win over Arkansas State back at home at Cajun Field extended Louisiana’s winning streak to six games. 
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns trailed 24-3 at halftime against South Alabama—and lost starting quarterback redshirt senior Ben Wooldridge to injury. Entering in relief, fellow redshirt senior quarterback Chandler Fields led Louisiana on four-straight scoring drives to close the game. The Ragin’ Cajuns scored 19 unanswered points, but South Alabama’s defense stopped Fields just short of the goal line on a potential game-tying two-point conversion attempt with 1:16 to play. The ensuing Ragin’ Cajuns onside kick bounced out of bounds, allowing the Jaguars to kneel out the game clock and hand Louisiana its lone blemish in conference action, 24-22. 
 
Since, Louisiana owns multi-possession wins over Troy, 51-30, and at in-state rival ULM, 37-23, with Fields at quarterback. The victory over the Warhawks—behind a 228-yard rushing day from the running back tandem of redshirt sophomore Zylan Perry and redshirt freshman Bill Davis—helped the Ragin’ Cajuns clinch their spot in the 2024 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Football Championship Game, as well as hosting rights for the postseason event. 
 
Louisiana has protected the football this season, ranking second in the country with just two fumbles lost, third in the nation with just eight turnovers lost and ninth in the FBS with a +1.00 turnover margin. The Ragin Cajuns’ have also performed in key situations, with a .464 third-down conversion percentage (18th in the country), .684 fourth-down conversion percentage (16th in the country) and a .947 red zone offense (2nd in the country). The high-powered Louisiana offense averages 445.7 yards and 35.6 points per game, which both rank among the Top 20 in the nation. 
 
Over the final three games of the regular season, Fields threw for 696 yards and five touchdowns. The Ragin’ Cajuns top targets have been redshirt senior wide receiver Lance LeGendre—with 44 catches for 733 yards and six touchdowns; redshirt sophomore tight end Terrance Carter—with 48 catches for 689 yards and four touchdowns; and sophomore wide receiver Harvey Broussard—with 27 catches for 406 yards and three touchdowns. Three different running backs have accumulated over 450 rushing yards for Louisiana—Davis with 150 carries for 777 yards and nine touchdowns; Perry with 95 carries for 621 yards and four touchdowns; and redshirt junior Dre’lyn Washington with 65 carries for 459 yards and five touchdowns. 
 
Defensively, senior linebacker K.C. Ossai has accumulated a team-high 103 tackles and ranks 31st in the country with 8.6 tackles per game. Redshirt junior defensive lineman Jordan Lawson has tallied a team-high 9.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks. In the secondary, redshirt senior defensive back Tyrone Lewis and redshirt junior defensive back Tyree Skipper each own four interceptions, a total that ranks 15th in the country, while senior defensive back Keyon Martin leads the team with six pass breakups. 
 
On special teams, Louisiana is led by Lou Groza Award Finalist redshirt senior kicker Kenneth Almendares. He leads the nation averaging 2.17 field goals per game and ranks among the Top 10 in points scored (8th, 124), points per game (9th, 10.3) and field goal percentage (9th, .929). As a return specialist, Perry ranks 16th in the county averaging 24.9 yards per kickoff return and 31st with 423 combined kick return yards. 
 
A win Saturday would secure the fourth all-time Sun Belt title for the Ragin’ Cajuns and would keep the home team undefeated in the championship game. Louisiana is a perfect 2-0 in the all-time series with Marshall with a 36-21 victory in the 2021 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl in the first game under head coach Michael Desormeaux and a 23-13 win in the first-ever Sun Belt Conference meeting in Huntington, W.Va., in 2022. Saturday’s Hercules Tires Sun Belt Football Championship Game will be the first-ever meeting between the two teams in Lafayette, La.