Game 1 Preview: At Kentucky

LAFAYETTE - The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team will kick off its 114th season of intercollegiate football on Saturday (Sept. 5) when it travels to Lexington, Ky., to face Southeastern Conference member Kentucky at newly refurbished Commonwealth Stadium.

Kickoff is scheduled for 6:02 CDT. The game will be aired nationally on ESPNU with Anish Shroff (play-by-play) and Ahmad Brooks (color) providing the commentary. The season-opener can also be heard on the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Radio Network with Jay Walker (play-by-play), former Ragin' Cajuns letterwinner Richie Falgout (color) and Travis Webb (sideline) calling the action.

Entering its fifth season under head coach Mark Hudspeth, Louisiana looks to build off a fourth consecutive 9-4 record that was culminated by a victory in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. The Ragin' Cajuns, one of only five schools in the country with a four-game win streak in bowl games, return 52 letterwinners and 13 starters.

A pair of juniors - Brooks Haack and Jalen Nixon - will look replace three-year starter Terrance Broadway at quarterback with junior Elijah McGuire set to replace former Cajun Alonzo Harris at running back. Louisiana's passing game will be aided by the return of wide receiver Jamal Robinson, who was limited to four games last season due to injury, while returning letterwinner Al Riles and Gabe Fuselier will look to build off a solid 2014 campaign.

A new defensive staff, led by veteran SEC coaches Melvin Smith (defensive coordinator) and Charlie Harbison (co-defensive coordinator) will look to mold a unit that returns five starters from last season, including preseason All-Sun Belt Conference linebacker Dominique Tovell and All-Sun Belt Freshman member Tracy Walker.

A pair of true freshmen - kicker Stevie Artigue and punter Steven Coutts - will look to replace departed seniors Hunter Stover and Daniel Cadona as the Ragin' Cajuns specialists with Fuselier, McGuire and newcomer Jeryl Brazil expected to see the majority of time as return specialists.

GAME NO. 1
-/- LOUISIANA RAGIN' CAJUNS (2014 RECORD: 9-4, 7-1 Sun Belt)
Head Coach: Mark Hudspeth (Delta State, 1992)
Record at Louisiana: 36-16 (5th season), Career Record: 102-37 (12th year)

-/RV KENTUCKY WILDCATS (2014 RECORD: 5-7, 2-6 SEC)
Head Coach: Mark Stoops (Iowa, 1989)
Record at UK: 7-17 (3rd season), Career Record: Same

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

September 5, 2015 • 6:02 p.m. CDT • Lexington, Ky. • Commonwealth Stadium (61,000)
Series History: First meeting between the schools.

GAME INFORMATION
ESPNU: Anish Shroff, PxP • Ahmad Brooks, Analyst
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: RaginCajuns.com
Twitter Updates: @ULRaginCajuns; Facebook: RaginCajunsAthletics;
YouTube: IAm4RaginCajuns; Instagram: ULRaginCajuns

GAMEDAY STORYLINES
• Louisiana is 517-529-34 against all opponents dating back to 1901.
• Louisiana is 54-55-4 in season-opening games and 5-19 in openers since 1991.
• Louisiana is coming off its fourth consecutive 9-4 season.
• Louisiana's 36 wins in the past four seasons (2011-14) is the best four-year mark in school history, surpassing 28 victories (1967-70).
• The Ragin' Cajuns will open the season against a current member of the SEC for the seventh time since 2000. Louisiana has opened against Texas A&M (2002), South Carolina (2003, 2007), LSU (2006), Georgia (2010), Arkansas (2013) and Kentucky (2015).

DID YOU KNEAUX?
1 - Louisiana is one of two schools in the country (Oregon) to win nine games plus a bowl game in the past four years.
2 - Louisiana's 36 wins since the hiring of Mark Hudspeth in 2011 are the fifth-most among current schools in the Group of 5.
3 - Senior Mykhael Quave will start in his 40th consecutive game for the Ragin' Cajuns.
4 - Elijah McGuire is the second player in school history to rush for 2,000 yards in his first two seasons.
5 - Louisiana's starting offensive line has remained intact from start to finish for the past three seasons.

NEXT UP
• Louisiana will return home on Sept. 12 when it entertains in-state opponent Northwestern State in in the 15th annual Herbert Heymann Classic at Cajun Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will aired on ESPN3.

CONTINUTY ON THE LINE
• Louisiana enters the 2015 season with three returning starters - left guard Mykhael Quave, right guard Donovan Williams and right tackle Octravian Anderson - who have a combined 78 starts under their belt.
• During the past three years under offensive line coach Mitch Rodrigue, the Ragin' Cajuns starting offensive line unit in the season-opener has been the entire season
• Quave, the Ragin' Cajuns left tackle in 2013-14, has started 39 consecutive games with Anderson, a two-year starter, extending his streak to 26 games. Williams, who moves over to right guard replacing 52-game starter Daniel Quave, started all 13 games last season at left guard.
• New starters Grant Horst (left tackle) and Eddie Gordon (center) join the line.

CAJUNS ARE BEST IN SUN BELT HOME ATTENDANCE
• Through six games at Cajun Field in 2014, Louisiana averaged 25,775 fans to lead the Sun Belt Conference for the third time in four years under head coach Mark Hudspeth.
• In five games in 2013, the Ragin' Cajuns drew 129,878 fans to Cajun Field for a league-best 25,976 average, edging Arkansas State (24,913) to claim the crown for the second time in three years.
• The 2013 average was the second-highest in a single-season, trailing only the 29,171 from 2011.

THE BOOK OF ELI
• Junior running back Elijah McGuire enters his third season as one of the most decorated players to wear a Ragin' Cajuns uniform.
• In two seasons with the Ragin' Cajuns, McGuire has rushed for 2,127 yards, ranking seventh 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.
• This season, McGuire is a candidate for the Doak Walker Award, the Maxwell Award, the Paul Hornung Award and the Walter Camp Player of the Year.

SETTING A STANDARD
• In addition to four consecutive seasons of appearing in a bowl game, Mark Hudspeth has helped Louisiana tie the school record for wins in a season with nine.
• Prior to consecutive 9-4 records from 2011-14, the Cajuns set the school record for wins with a 9-2 record in both 1921 and 1976.
• The 36 wins in Hudspeth's first four years are the most in in school history.

CAJUNS HAVE ENJOYED BOWLING IN PAST FOUR SEASONS
• Louisiana is one of five schools nationally to have won a bowl/postseason game in each of the past four seasons.
• The Cajuns, with four victories in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, are part of a list that includes Michigan State (Outback, Buffalo Wild Wings, Rose, Cotton), Oregon (Rose, Fiesta, Alamo, Rose), South Carolina (Capitol One, Outback, Capitol One, Independence) and Texas A&M (Meinke Car Care, Cotton, Chick-Fil-A, Music City).
• With a 16-3 win over Nevada in the 2014 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Louisiana became the first school in NCAA history to win the same bowl game four consecutive years.

MORE RAGIN' CAJUNS NOTES
• Three players - Kevin Fouquier, Zach DeGrange and T.J. Worthy - completed their undergraduate degrees from UL during the past year. Fouquier, who is pursuing a Graduate degree - completed his degree requirements in 3.5 years.
• Quarterback Brooks Haack and defensive lineman Chris Prater were part of a 12-day mission trip to Haiti during the summer. The duo were a part a group that included women's basketball players Keke Veal, Sylvana Okde and Jodi Quinn in the Convoy of Hope and Mission of Hope.
• With tonight's game against Kentucky marking the first meeting on the gridiron, Louisiana has now played every current member of the Southeastern Conference with the exception of Missouri and Vanderbilt.

NEW DEFENSIVE STAFF
• A new look for the Ragin' Cajuns in 2015 will be on the defensive side of the ball as the entire staff was changed from last season. New defensive coordinator Melvin Smith (secondary) will lead the defense after serving the past two years at Auburn.
• Smith is joined by former Auburn assistants Charlie Harbison (co-defensive coordinator/outside linebackers) and Levorn Harbin (defensive line) along with former Southeastern Louisiana head coach and veteran defensive coordinator Mike Lucas (inside linebackers).
• They replace former defensive coordinator James Willis (Asst. LB coach, New Orleans Saints), Tim Rebowe (head coach, Nicholls State), Matt Wallerstedt (DC, Charlotte) and Tim Edwards (DL, Buffalo).

"NEW KICKS" FOR THE CAJUNS
• After losing kicker Hunter Stover and punter Daniel Cadona to graduation, a pair of freshmen will debut for the Ragin' Cajuns as Lafayette native Stevie Artigue will handle the kicking chores with Australian Steven Coutts slated to handle the punting duties.
• Artigue was a four-time all-district and three-time Class 5A All-State selection for head coach Jay Domengeaux at nearby Lafayette High School. One of the strongest and most accurate kickers in the state of Louisiana as a junior, Artigue made 9 of 10 field goal attempts with his only miss from 63 yards.
• Coutts is the second Australian to sign with the Ragin' Cajuns in the past three years after following in the footsteps of Cadona (2013-14), who holds school records for single-game (54.8), season (42.9) and career average (42.3).
• Coutts played Australian Rules Football and Rugby while attending Citipointe Christian College.

MR. ROBINSON IS BACK IN HIS NEIGHBORHOOD
• After being limited to four games last season due to knee and foot injuries, senior Jamal Robinson returns for his final season in a Ragin' Cajuns uniform. 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 ninth in school history with 102 receptions and is eighth overall in receiving yards (1,829).

SUN BELT BOWL TIE-INS
• Louisiana and the Sun Belt Conference will have four bowl tie-ins for the 2015 season beginning with the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans - Dec. 19), the Raycom Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala. - Dec. 19), the AutoNation Cure Bowl (Orlando, Fla. - Dec. 19) and the GoDaddy Bowl (Mobile, Ala. - Dec. 23).

NEW FACILITIES FOR RAGIN' CAJUNS FOOTBALL
• The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team will officially move into a new 100,000-square foot Student-Athlete Performance Center in September. The new building, which is part of the University's $115 million Athletics Facilities Master Plan that was unveiled in March of 2013, will house the football coaches offices and will include new locker rooms, an Athletic Training Room, a new weight room, a new equipment room and a 150-seat auditorium.
• Ground was broken on the project in August of 2014 and is part of Tier 1 projects that included the expansion of Cajun Field. Upgrades at Cajun Field, which were completed prior to the 2014 season included the addition of seats in the South End Zone, raising capacity to 41,426, plus a new concession stands and restrooms in the South End Zone facility.
• Also included in Tier 1 were upgrades to the Ragin' Cajuns Soccer/Track Facility.

NEW VOICES IN THE BOOTH
• New voices in the booth and on the sideline are just some of the changes fans will notice when they tune in to radio broadcasts of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns this fall, announced by rights-holder Townsquare Media of Lafayette.
• Former Ragin' Cajuns wide receiver Richie Falgout will join play by play voice Jay Walker in the broadcast booth as color analyst, while KATC-TV sports anchor Travis Webb will serve as the radio network's sideline reporter.
• Steve Peloquin and Gerald Broussard will continue to be part of the broadcasts as they will serve as co-hosts of the two hour pre-game show, one hour of which will be broadcast on the eight-station Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Radio Network.
• Falgout, who was a wide receiver for the Cajuns from 2007-2010, begins his first year as part of the network broadcast team. Webb is in his eighth year at the local ABC affiliate. He also hosts the "Ragin' Cajuns All-Access" television show during the athletic year on KATC's CW affiliate Wednesday's at 9 p.m.
• Peloquin (13th season) and Broussard (fourth season) will go on the air with local pregame two hours before kickoff.

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.

TATFORD NAMED TO SUN BELT LEADERSHIP TEAM
• Senior tight end Evan Tatford was one of 11 student-athletes named to the Sun Belt Conference's Leadership Team, which recognizes outstanding work off the field.
• Tatford, a Lafayette native, played in all 13 games for the Ragin' Cajuns as a special teams member and reserve tight end. In his first season with the Ragin' Cajuns, Tatford caught passes against Southern, Boise State and Texas State, and helped Louisiana record its fourth consecutive nine-win season, culminated by a fourth straight win in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
• In the classroom, Tatford has been a member of both the Dean's List and President's List at UL and carries a 3.76 grade point average in biology. Tatford was named the UL Male Student-Athlete of the Year for the 2014-15 academic year and is currently serving a two-year term as the Sun Belt Conference representative on the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

LOUISIANA VS. THE SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE
• Louisiana is 1-61 all-time in games played against current members of the Southeastern Conference and 0-39 against SEC members at the time of the game.
• The Ragin' Cajuns played 16 games against LSU prior to the Tigers' admission to the SEC in 1932 and have played six games against Texas A&M when the Aggies were in the Big 12. The 1991 game against Arkansas was when the Razorbacks were in the final year playing in the Southwest Conference.
• Louisiana's win came against Texas A&M as quarterback Jake Delhomme leads the Cajuns to a 29-22 upset win over the No. 25-ranked Aggies on Sept. 14, 1996 in front of 38,783 at Cajun Field.

• Alabama: 0-8
• Arkansas: 0-5 (0-4 since 1992)
• Auburn: 0-4
• Florida: 0-5
• Georgia: 0-1
• LSU: 0-22 (0-6 since 1932)
• Kentucky: 0-0
• Ole Miss: 0-4
• Mississippi State: 0-3
• Missouri: 0-0
• South Carolina: 0-2
• Tennessee: 0-2
• Texas A&M: 1-5 (all games with A&M in the Big 12)
• Vanderbilt: 0-0

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Octravian Anderson

Stevie Artigue

Jeryl Brazil

Terrance Broadway

Daniel Cadona

Steven Coutts

Kevin Fouquier

Gabe Fuselier

Eddie Gordon

Brooks Haack

Alonzo Harris

Grant Horst

Elijah McGuire

Jalen Nixon

Chris Prater

Daniel Quave

Mykhael Quave

Al Riles

Jamal Robinson

Hunter Stover

Evan Tatford

Dominique Tovell

Tracy Walker

Donovan Williams

T.J. Worthy

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