Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 91. Louisiana
I'm an Agein' Ragin' Cajun Engagin' in Outragin'
I love UL Lafayette. They rebranded as just “Louisiana” in 2017, but growing up I knew them as UL Lafayette. I was weirdly obsessed with 2005-08 starting RB Tyrell Fenroy, who I thought looked cool in the Ragin’ Cajuns uniform. Fenroy ran for 1000+ yards in each of his 4 seasons, only the 7th player in NCAA history to do so. Outside of that, Louisiana’s been a fairly solid Group of 5 team, especially in the 2010s, with their top 6 seasons all coming after 2010.
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+-----------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+-----------+------+--------------+--------+
| 9 | Louisiana | 2020 | 29.225 | 10-1 |
| 12 | Louisiana | 2021 | 28.062 | 13-1 |
| 26 | Louisiana | 2019 | 18.851 | 11-3 |
| 48 | Louisiana | 2012 | 3.915 | 9-4 |
| 53 | Louisiana | 2013 | 1.628 | 9-4 |
| 45 | Louisiana | 2011 | 1.519 | 9-4 |
| 37 | Louisiana | 1993 | -2.034 | 8-3 |
| 57 | Louisiana | 2014 | -2.942 | 9-4 |
| 47 | Louisiana | 1989 | -6.348 | 7-4 |
| 63 | Louisiana | 1988 | -11.636 | 6-5 |
| 63 | Louisiana | 1995 | -13.591 | 6-5 |
| 64 | Louisiana | 1986 | -14.435 | 6-5 |
| 72 | Louisiana | 2005 | -14.835 | 6-5 |
| 80 | Louisiana | 2022 | -14.93 | 6-7 |
| 64 | Louisiana | 1994 | -16.36 | 6-5 |
| 87 | Louisiana | 2018 | -17.372 | 7-7 |
| 64 | Louisiana | 1987 | -17.851 | 6-5 |
| 68 | Louisiana | 1984 | -18.497 | 6-5 |
| 72 | Louisiana | 2006 | -19.29 | 6-6 |
| 69 | Louisiana | 1996 | -19.519 | 5-6 |
| 79 | Louisiana | 2009 | -20.292 | 6-6 |
| 80 | Louisiana | 2008 | -20.693 | 6-6 |
| 83 | Louisiana | 2016 | -20.829 | 6-7 |
| 80 | Louisiana | 1990 | -23.602 | 5-6 |
| 84 | Louisiana | 1983 | -31.122 | 4-6 |
| 92 | Louisiana | 2004 | -33.474 | 4-7 |
| 104 | Louisiana | 2015 | -36.373 | 4-8 |
| 87 | Louisiana | 1985 | -36.501 | 4-7 |
| 111 | Louisiana | 2017 | -37.171 | 5-7 |
| 93 | Louisiana | 2003 | -38.467 | 4-8 |
| 89 | Louisiana | 1991 | -40.047 | 2-8-1 |
| 101 | Louisiana | 2002 | -44.093 | 3-9 |
| 108 | Louisiana | 2007 | -44.428 | 3-9 |
| 109 | Louisiana | 2010 | -47.67 | 3-9 |
| 103 | Louisiana | 2001 | -48.348 | 3-8 |
| 101 | Louisiana | 1992 | -54.925 | 2-9 |
| 108 | Louisiana | 1998 | -55.934 | 2-9 |
| 109 | Louisiana | 1999 | -56.273 | 2-9 |
| 112 | Louisiana | 2000 | -62.113 | 1-10 |
| 110 | Louisiana | 1997 | -64.028 | 1-10 |
+------+-----------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: 7653 (91st)221-247-1 record
6 conference titles
7-3 bowl record
0 consensus All-Americans
26 NFL players drafted
Like I alluded to in the intro, Louisiana would be a lot lower without the past decade. They’ve gone 98-57 since 2011, and just 123-190-1 before. 3 conference titles have come in the last decade, 1 in 2005, and 2 Big West titles under coach Nelson Stokley in 1993 and ‘94. Nelson is the dad of Louisiana all-time leading receiver and 15-year NFL veteran WR Brandon Stokley, who won 2 Super Bowls, had a 1000+ yard season with Peyton Manning at QB, and was the recipient of the famous “STOKELY! SIDELINE! TOUCHDOWN! WOW!” call from Gus Johnson on a winning TD in 2009. Stokley’s just one of many notable names to come out of Louisiana since 1983, others including QB Jake Delhomme, CB Charles “Peanut” Tillman, CB Ike Taylor, and RB Elijah Mitchell.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 1997 (1-10 overall, Independent)
Speaking of Nelson Stokley, in addition to winning 2 Big West titles, he had the worst season here. And I tell you what, the bar for failure just seems to keep getting raised for the “worst” teams on this list. UL Lafayette, back then known as Southwestern Louisiana, scored just 16.3 PPG while giving up the nation’s worst 50.3 PPG. It’s somewhat excusable given their first 4 games were against Pitt, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M, but it’s like they didn’t even try, losing 14-59 to Tech and 0-66 to A&M. WR Brandon Stokley did set the Louisiana school record for career receptions in the game against Texas A&M, with 173. The game was personal for A&M—just last year, Louisiana had beaten #25 Texas A&M 29-22 in the second week of the season, sending the Aggies into a tailspin and finishing just 6-6. After Louisiana started 0-5, they got their only win over eventual 2-9 team Arkansas State. They quickly followed it up with a 42-48 OT loss to FCS North Alabama, and lost the rest of their games with the final 3 weeks consisting of 0-56 to Tulane, 7-77 to #16 Washington State and Ryan Leaf, and 24-63 to Louisiana Tech. Nelson Stokley had built up enough good karma to stay for 1998, but was fired after going just 2-9.
5. 2013 (9-4 overall, 5-2 Sun Belt)
Most people think of 9/4 as Bo Pelini day for his time at Nebraska, but Mark Hudspeth and UL Lafayette were right there with him. Hudspeth led the Ragin’ Cajuns to 4 straight 9-4 seasons from 2011-14, so this was the 3rd iteration. A lot of talent returned from the 2012 team that finished 2nd in the Sun Belt, so the media picked Lafayette to win their first conference title since ‘05. After an 0-2 start against Arkansas and Kansas State, they locked in for conference play, winning 8 straight to improve to 8-2 with a 5-0 Sun Belt record. For no reason, they lost their last 2 games against 5-6 ULM and 5-6 South Alabama to fall to 8-4 and 5-2 in the Sun Belt, but thankfully on the final day, Arkansas State gave up a TD to Western Kentucky with 10 seconds left to have them fall to 5-2 just like UL Lafayette, and the two teams shared the Sun Belt title. Louisiana won the New Orleans Bowl for the 3rd straight year, 24-21 over Tulane, and they’d win it again next year for the 4th time. Both UL Lafayette RBs Alonzo Harris and Elijah McGuire made 1st Team All-Sun Belt with a combined 2219 yards and 25 TD from scrimmage.
4. 2012 (9-4 overall, 6-2 Sun Belt)
According to my algorithm, the 2012 team’s resume was ever so slightly better. A 5-3 UL Lafayette team had mostly beaten the teams they should’ve and lost to the teams they should’ve. They then took a trip down to Gainesville to play #7 Florida, who had one of the top defenses in the country but one of the weaker offenses in the Power 5. As usual, Florida was playing in the sand, down 13-20 with just 2:00 to go. Florida QB Jacoby Brissett fired a 2 yard TD with 1:30 left to tie it, and with just 10 seconds left, Florida blocked a punt and Jelani Jenkins took it back 36 yards for the winning TD. By some Will Muschamp black magic, the Gators had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat no matter how hard they tried to give the game away. Lafayette didn’t let the loss bother them, and finished the regular season on a 3 game win streak. They finished 2nd in the Sun Belt to Arkansas State, who won their 2nd straight title, and would go on to win 3 more over the next 4 years. Louisiana won a 43-34 shootout in the New Orleans Bowl over East Carolina and OC Lincoln Riley.
UL Lafayette kicker Brett Baer finished his career as the NCAA’s all-time leader in FG percentage (minimum 50 attempts) at 90%, going 45/50 over his career and 20/23 in 2012. He’s still #1 to this day. Sophomore QB Terrance Broadway completed 65% of passes for 2847 yards 17 TD 9 INT, and ran for 769 yards and 9 TD on 6.5 YPC, earning 2nd Team All-Sun Belt. Broadway would go on to throw for 7985 yards and rush for 1936 yards in his career, ranking 15th in Sun Belt history in total yards.
3. 2019 (11-3 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
Now we’ve entered the Billy Napier zone. His final 3 years at Louisiana, 2019-21, all show up here, just slightly out of order with the last 2. 2019 Louisiana had a DANGEROUS run game combined with super efficient passing from QB Levi Lewis, and a very good defense as well. Just a 28-38 loss to Mississippi State on the opening day was a sign of things to come. Louisiana beat up on their early schedule, including a 77-6 wipeout of Texas Southern, racking up 748 yards of offense. A 7-17 loss to Appalachian State was the projected Sun Belt title game coming into the year, and gave us an early taste of where the two teams stood. The two had a date with destiny, as Louisiana rolled through the rest of their schedule to finish 10-2 and face #21 11-1 App State in the title game. App took an early 21-0 lead and the Cajuns had to play catch up the whole time, scoring late TDs to make it a 38-45 result. App State was just a team of destiny that year, going 13-1 and finishing #19 in the nation. UL Lafayette still finished how they usually do—with a bowl win, this time over MAC champion Miami (OH).
This 2019 edition was (arguably) better than the top 2 seasons on this list. The offense averaged 37.9 PPG (10th in the nation) and gave up just 19.7 PPG (18th in the nation). Like I said, the run game was stacked. The offensive line consisted of OT Max Mitchell (4th round NFL pick), OG Robert Hunt (2nd round), OG O’Cyrus Torrence (2nd round) and OG Kevin Dotson (4th round). Starting RB Elijah Mitchell (6th round) ran for 1147 yards and 16 TD on 5.8 YPC, backup Raymond Calais (7th round) ran for 886 yards and 6 TD on 7.6 YPC, and 3rd string Trey Ragas ran for 820 yards and 11 TD on 7.1 YPC. Overall, Louisiana ranked 6th in the nation in rushing YPG, and 3rd in YPC. Pretty unstoppable. Levi Lewis was a great QB for the team as well, taking care of the ball and throwing 3050 yards 26 TD 4 INT.
2. 2021 (13-1 overall, 8-0 Sun Belt)
It was getting hard for Louisiana to hold onto Napier, and the 2021 season was the final straw. #23 Louisiana at #21 Texas was one of the more underrated non-conference matchups of the season, with the Longhorns taking it 38-18. Afterwards, Louisiana lived up to their preseason ranking and then some, going on a 13 game win streak that overlapped to next year for a total of 15 games. After losing the conference championship game in 2019 and the game being cancelled in 2020, 3rd time was the charm and UL Lafayette was the sole winner of the 2021 Sun Belt title, beating 10-2 Appalachian State 24-16. Louisiana was never in danger of not making the title game, as the 2nd place team in their division, Texas State, went just 3-5 in the Sun Belt. But the road to the title didn’t come without struggles—close wins were 27-24 over FCS Nicholls State, 20-18 over South Alabama, 28-27 over Arkansas State, 21-17 over Georgia State on a late TD, and 21-16 over rival UL Monroe. Still, they won the title, and won the bowl game to boot, 36-21 over Marshall.
QB Levi Lewis finished his career with a 2917 passing yard 20 TD 4 INT season, totalling 10,291 yards from scrimmage for his career and ranking 10th in Sun Belt history. Lewis also had a record of 34-5(!) over his last 3 years as a starter. A whopping 6 players on offense and 8 on defense were 1st-3rd Team All-Sun Belt. Napier won Sun Belt Coach of the Year for a 2nd time. 4 players from the team have been drafted in the last 2 NFL Drafts, including 2nd round pick OL O’Cyrus Torrence, who transferred to Florida in 2022.
1. 2020 (10-1 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt)
And in the 1 spot, we’ve got 2020 Louisiana. The Ragin’ Cajuns made a statement in week 1, beating #23 Iowa State 31-14 thanks to a 95 yard kick return TD and 83 yard punt return TD. Iowa State would go on to win the Fiesta Bowl and finish #9 in the nation, with their only other 2 losses coming to top 10 teams by a combined 4 points. Louisiana gave Iowa State their toughest test all year. After that came wins over (final records) 6-4 Georgia State and 8-5 Georgia Southern. A 27-30 loss on the final play to Coastal Carolina, who finished 11-1, was Louisiana’s only loss all season. A mid-season win over 6-3 UAB and a last week win against 9-3 Appalachian State built a very good resume. Unfortunately, the Sun Belt title game against Coastal Carolina was cancelled, and we were robbed of a potential classic. Even though Coastal had beaten Louisiana earlier in the year, the two shared the Sun Belt title. A 31-24 win over UTSA in the bowl finished off a 10-1 year, and a #15 finish (9th in my rankings).
Louisiana’s numbers weren’t eye popping—just 33.6 PPG to 22.0 PPG allowed. Only 1 player, RB Elijah Mitchell, made 1st Team All-Sun Belt on offense and defense. Most of Louisiana’s success came from key contributors playing as a team, as they dominated the 2nd/3rd all-conference teams with 6 players on offense and 4 on defense. This was the first season Louisiana was ever ranked by the College Football Playoff Committee, and the first time they had beaten Appalachian State (0-8 previously). Chris Smith was an All-American kick returner, averaging 26.8 yards per return with 2 TD.
5th Quarter
How would you rank the 3 best teams between 2019, 2020, and 2021? The 2020 team had 3 less wins than ‘21, but was better in my algorithm. Who’s your favorite all-time player from UL Lafayette? And just how good were the Billy Napier years?
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