2020 First Responders Bowl: Louisiana 31, UTSA 24

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#19 Louisiana has been selected to take on Conference USA foe UTSA in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 26, in Dallas, Texas. Kickoff is slated for 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.

The postseason bowl appearance will be the 10th in program history and the third-straight under head coach Billy Napier. Louisiana holds an official record of 5-2 in bowl games.

Louisiana and UTSA will be meeting for the first time when they square off in Dallas. In the Coach Napier era, the Ragin' Cajuns own a 1-0 record over Conference USA opposition, the lone win coming on Oct. 23, 2020, when the team defeated UAB, 24-20, in Birmingham.

The Ragin' Cajuns were slated to play in their third-straight Sun Belt Conference Championship Game on Saturday, Dec. 19, against No. 9 Coastal Carolina, but the game was canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Chanticleers program. As a result of the cancellation, the Ragin' Cajuns were declared co-champions.

Louisiana Athletics
RaginCajuns.com
PRESS RELEASE

I feel for the team this year, being denied a championship game and justice.

Lots of Louisiana Connections on Roster for the Roadrunners...

https://goutsa.com/sports/football/roster

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Originally Posted by fanof71

Lots of Louisiana Connections on Roster for the Roadrunners...

https://goutsa.com/sports/football/roster

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Makes sense since Frank Wilson was the head coach. I did see jahmal Sam on the roster, he had committed to us before signing with UTSA. If I remember correctly he was going to be a greyshirt and decided to go elsewhere

Wonder if they left an opening? Tennessee just bailed on the Liberty Bowl.

I hope Army gets in!

Cajuns ought to volunteer to play Army after the FR Bowl. Talk about positive publicity!

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Originally Posted by Duggie35

Cajuns ought to volunteer to play Army after the FR Bowl. Talk about positive publicity!

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they would probably accuse us of calling army second responders

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Originally Posted by moorecajun

I hope Army gets in!

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They are in.

UTSA will face No. 16 Louisiana in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl on Saturday, December 26, officials announced on Sunday. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the SMU campus and the game will be televised nationally on ABC

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UTSA.edu

What are your thoughts on the opponent? Seem like the 4 losses were to good teams but TxSt took them to 2 OT.

The wins were all bad teams and the losses were pretty good teams. I think the spread will be hard to cover. But Geaux Cajuns!!!

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Originally Posted by Jacob81

The wins were all bad teams and the losses were pretty good teams. I think the spread will be hard to cover. But Geaux Cajuns!!!

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I know the Cajuns will be ready to make a statement in this game so I expect them to play well and we will see how that transfers on the score board

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Originally Posted by Fais do-do

What are your thoughts on the opponent? Seem like the 4 losses were to good teams but TxSt took them to 2 OT.

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Every team they played which had a decent defense, they lost. The best defensive team they beat was LTU@Ruston. Defensively they are fair, but not outstanding; offensively they have decent numbers, but most of their production was against really bad defenses.

I expect the Cajuns to be focused and a bit angry. We win decisively, and cover the spread.

good guys for Louisiana 52
UTSA 14

Louisiana 34
UTSA 24

Don’t know a thing about UTSA other than their running back. They keep in it with their run game, but I think we’re just better. I think they only have 1 win against a team over .500.

Cajuns 34
Roadrunners 20

I think that there will be lots of built up anger and frustration and that UL will roll up some points just to make a point about the championship game being cancelled. I expect at least 48 points and 3 turnovers

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Originally Posted by Swamphound

Louisiana 34
UTSA 24

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Yeah, I am thinking it will not be a blow out, but we win by 10-14 points.

Roadrunners pulled the short straw, UL 56 UTSA/CCU 10

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Originally Posted by RaginScotsman

Don’t know a thing about UTSA other than their running back. They keep in it with their run game, but I think we’re just better. I think they only have 1 win against a team over .500.

Cajuns 34
Roadrunners 20

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I'm working on my UTSA breakdown as we speak, I am about 1/2 way done. I will have some good information about them coming out soon.

Spread is currently 14

I’ll go
Cajuns 37
UTSA 23

Here is the Ragin’ Dave 2020 ServePro First Responders Bowl UTSA breakdown. I know many of us on this board would have wished for a better opponent in a higher profile bowl, but unfortunately that did not occur, so we have to take what we have, and we have to make the best out of the situation. UTSA is not going to be a pushover by any stretch, they have some talent on this team, and they are going to be out to prove something vs a Top 25 ranked team. So here is a little about the Roadrunners of UTSA. UTSA finished the season with a record of 7-4, they started the season 3-0 with wins over SBC foe Texas State with an overtime win, they then followed that up with Stephen F Austin and Middle Tennessee. Their first loss was to UAB and followed that up with losses to BYU and Army. So, at this point they were 3-3, but all three losses were to very good teams. They finished the season going 4-1 with wins over La Tech, USM, UNT and UTEP, with their lone loss to FAU. They did have one other game cancelled vs Rice, or they may have finished 8-4. Looking at their schedule their best wins were vs La Tech and UNT. But they did play well vs BYU, UAB and Army in losses.

This team is coached by 1st year coach Jeff Traylor who has had stints as an assistant at Texas, Arkansas and SMU. Their Offensive Coordinator is Barry Lunney JR, who played at Arkansas as QB a few years back and their DC is Tyrone Nix who played at USM, but has been around for a while with stops at Middle Tennessee as well as Ole Miss and Va Tech.
On offense this is a very balanced attack as they average 214 yards a game running the ball and 199 yards a game through the air and they do not turn the ball over much, they have only lost 3 fumbles while throwing 7 interceptions (5 of them by their starting QB). They are not flashy at all on offense, but they don’t make a ton of mistakes either. And on Defense they are very stingy vs the run as they only allow 153 yards a game on the ground, but they do give up 228 through the air and they are opportunistic on defense as they have intercepted the ball 11 times and recovered 7 fumbles. So on the year they are plus 8 as a team.

This is a team that is lead on offense by their Redshirt Junior QB Frank Harris, Harris numbers do not jump off the screen at you, but he is very efficient. Harris has completed 64% of his passes in 10 games with 9 starts. He did miss the UAB game. He has 10 TD’s through the air and 5 ints on the season. But he can also hurt you with his legs as he is the 2nd leading rusher on the team with 531 yards on the ground with a 5.7 yard average per attempt and has recorded 8 TD’s. So between his 10 TD’s in the air and 8 TD’s on the ground he has accounted for 18 TD’s on the season.

But they love to give the ball to their all world Sophomore RB Sincere McCormick. McCormick in 10 games has rushed for 1345 yards in 10 games and scored 11 TD’s. His average per rush is 6 yards per carry. He can also catch it out of the backfield where he has 18 receptions for 122 yards an 0 TD’s. There is a huge dropoff in the rushing attack after McCormick and Harris as no one else has more than 50 carries.

As far as the WR and TE's go, they are pretty good at the top, but limited on how many guys really make a difference catching the ball. Only 5 players have caught TD passes, and of those 1 player leads the team with 6. He is also their #1 receiver, Zachari Franklin has caught 44 passes for 579 yards with 6 TD's. The #2 receiver is Joshua Cephus who has caught 55 catches for 521 yards and 4 TD's. Between these 2 guys they have caught 1/2 of their passes and all but 4 of their TD's. They are the main guys. The reality is like App State, if you stop their #1 and #2 WR they are not strong beyond that. They do have a pretty good TE in Leroy Watson who has 12 catches for 139 yards, but no TD's.

On the Offensive line, they have 3 guys who were all CUSA players, all of them were 2nd Team. These 3 guys are all Juniors, they are OL- Ahofitu Maka, OL- Makai Hart,OL- Spencer Burford. All 3 of these guys are over 6'3" and close to or over 300 lbs. They are big on the OL and hence the reason that they run the ball so well. They will try to run the ball against us first to open up the pass.

Their front 7 is the strength of their Defense. They have have 3 players that were all CUSA players and both DT were. DT Brandon Mattison (JR) and DT Jaylon Haynes (SR) were both HM All CUSA players. These guys combined in the middle of the line for 6 of the teams 25 sacks. They are good getting a push up the middle. On the DE side they have a really good one in Lorenzo Dantzler, Dantzler finished with 30 Tackles on the season. Trumaine Bell was the leader as a pass rusher with 4.5 sacks on the season, he was not much of a tackler, but he is definitely the guy who pressures the QB the most, kind of the Pat Swilling to the Saints Rickey Jackson. For those of you that remember the Saints "Dome Patrol", Jackson was probably a much better player than Swilling, but because of Jackson being double teamed all the time, Swilling who couldn't tackle that well got a ton of sacks. Similar to Hendrickson this year on the other side of Cam Jordan.

They have three really good LB's, in Charles Wiley, Jamal Ligon and Trevor Harmanson. Ligon and Harmanson were 2nd and 3rd on the team in tackles. Ligon was tied for the team lead in sacks with 4 but these 2 guys finished the season with 150 tackles between them. They are good in the front 7 and they rotate a bunch of guys on the DL and LB positions.

In the back 4, they have 2 really good players, Rashod Wisdom at Safety was their leading tackle guy, he finished the season with 82 tackles and led the team in INT's with 4. He is really "friggin" good. The other guys is their CB who was HM All CUSA player Corey Mayfield JR. he finished 2nd with 2 picks on the season.

Their Special Teams are really good, and not just their kickers who are some of the best in the CUSA. Hunter Duplessis only missed 3 kicks all year, 1 XP and 2 FG. He was 16-18 including a 50+ yarder on the season. Lucas Dean is the punter he had an average of 46.3 yard per punt average and had 21 of his 55 punts were over 50 yards. Both their punter and placekicker were All CUSA 1st Team players. Brennon Dingle is their kick returner he averages over 20+ yards on returns and their punt returner while not flashy makes the catches, he is Sheldon Jones returned 20 punts on the season with a long of 14 yards.

We are the better team, but as I stated before UTSA is going to try to prove a point. They can run the ball and are good at it. They are going to try to play a ball control game and keep us off the field.

My prediction is Cajuns 42--Road Chickens 21.

We shall see.......

Louisiana 31
UTSA 21

if they barely beat usm this year something is wrong