2021 New Orleans Bowl: LOUISIANA (36) MARSHALL (21)

[Turbine]

Thought it was funny as heck. Lucky we didn’t get flagged.

Napier would not approve. Undisciplined moments in the game harkened back to the game mid season our discipline was an issue, especially on 3rd down (forgot which one), next game Billy had that fixed.

Since he, made the gesture during halftime, could they have called a penalty?

[RaginDave]

Since he, made the gesture during halftime, could they have called a penalty?

Yes, and it would have been enforced on the kickoff.

[CharlieK]

Yes, and it would have been enforced on the kickoff.

The ref behind him gave him a look (but I'm sure was laughing on the inside).....

[RaginDave]

The ref behind him gave him a look (but I'm sure was laughing on the inside).....

Yeah, I know, I think he basically said, "come on kid, get off the field".

It was hilarious. Nate may not have had a good career here but he will give you some great moments to remember, the GSU FG and then the bowl game Time Out gesture.

Geaux Nate, great having you here. I said in one of the earlier podcasts that we were going to need Nate at some point this year and he came up big in the bowl game when we needed him. I think that the 3 first half FG's were huge for us. If he misses them we are down 14-7 at the half, instead we were up 16-7.

Very happy for Nate.

[CharlieK]

Grade for Dez as Head Coach: Given the challenges of a short staff, missing starters, worst case A-.

Grade for Dez as OC: Considering I don't know 1/10,000 the football the offensive coaches do, it's hard but my gut says overall B, with the opening sequences being top tier. We fell into offensive doldrums for a bit, but we also had pretty poor field position for a good part of that. Clearly re-juggling the line made a big difference late in the game.

The future looks bright.

[KajunKrazy]

1) Scripted plays to begin the game - Excellent
2) Defensive readiness for Marshal to begin the game - very good
3) Players in position to make plays - very good
4) Emotionally ready to start the game - very good
5) Defensive adjustments to Marshals offensive adjustments - took time, but once they figured out how to attack marshal's blocking schemes for Ali they stopped Marshal cold. Very good
6) Offensive adjustments to marshal's defensive adjustments - There was a stretch where Marshal's defense was able to stop UL's offensive attack during the middle of the game. UL had to rearrange the O. Line to create effective blocking schemes & take control of the LOS. Once again, it took a while but once they figured it out that was church. Very Good.
7) Critical play calling at critical times. Both of the big bombs that Levi got off were daggers to Marshal. They were the difference in that game. It took a lot of nerve for Desormeaux to call the second play to Bernard. Pulling that play off sealed the deal for UL. - Excellent

A head coach will probably never have a more nerve racking game than his first one. In this case Desormeaux wasn't just an interim coach coaching a bowl game for someone leaving the team. It was his baby & he knew people would have the gavel out judging his performance following a local legend. So the pressure was on for him. Coaching short handed with a lot of key players out & having to deal with his first recruiting classes is about as tough a situation as this guy may ever have to deal with. Considering all of those factors. He & his staff did a very admirable job.

Agree with you 100%.

[Duggie35]

There were three Marshall fans who snuck up to the 500 section & that was it. There were 5 people on the 200 & 300 section of the Cajuns side. there were maybe 500 people in the suites & on the Marshall side of the field in the 200 & 300 sections & that's a stretch. There was no one sitting in the end zones at any level that I recall. The 100 section on the Marshal side could have moved over to the Cajuns side & still not filled every seat. So if you take half of the lower deck & put every single fanny in that place in the seats, there still would have been seats left over. I don't know what your point is, but I can tell you for a fact there wasn't 12,000 people in that place unless there were a thousand in the press boxes.

Is there a reason why we want to focus on those that were not there, rather than those that were?

[UL_Cajuns]

21,642 in Attendance is not all that bad considering all the excuses people had with the Covid Protocols. We had less at some of the home games this year.

Those who missed the game sure did miss a good time had by those that attended. WOW it was my first NOLA bowl and we had a ball!

[CajunNation]

The biggest issue with NOLA Bowl attendance this year was the quick turnaround from the CCG.

We’ve never dealt with this before. A lot of people spent their “bowl money” and had the “bowl experience” at the CCG.

This season, if the NOLA bowl were near New Year’s with a better opponent, we would have brought 30k, easy.

[CajunEXPRESS]

He probably was very consistent in practice, giving the coaches enough evidence to stay with him. Like everyone I’m very happy for him, and thank God he settled into a great mentality when it mattered most.