Football: Bowl win makes Cajun offseason sweet

Tim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, Dec. 23, 2013

UL Ragin’ Cajuns running back Alonzo Harris holds up three fingers to signify their third straight R�L Carriers New Orleans Bowl victory following the team’s triumph over Tulane . / Paul Kieu, The Advertiser

NEW ORLEANS — Three straight 9-4 seasons, none of them easy.

Three straight New Orleans Bowl victories, all in the Big Easy.

A whole lot of University of Louisiana at Lafayette fans will feel they got their best present of the year over the weekend.

The Ragin’ Cajun football team beat Tulane 24-21 in the New Orleans Bowl late Saturday night in front of a bowl-record 54,728 at the Superdome, an overwhelming majority of them Cajun supporters in UL-style red. They made the 135-mile trek from Lafayette for a third straight year.

With all that in the bag, though, just what will the Cajuns have to look forward to when 2014 rings in next week?

Plenty, if you ask third-year coach Mark Hudspeth.

“It gives you a lot of momentum heading into the offseason,” said Hudspeth, whose Sun Belt Conference co-champ Cajuns are the first team to win three straight New Orleans Bowls since the event was started in 2001.

(North Texas went four straight times 2001-2004, but it won just once).

“These guys now get a much-deserved break,” said Hudspeth, whose club beat San Diego State to win the New Orleans Bowl in 2011 and East Carolina to win the New Orleans Bowl in 2012. “They can go home with a smile on their face and enjoy some down time until they come back Jan. 12.”

Most of them, that is.

On offense, UL loses three-year starting center Andre Huval, a St. Thomas Moore product; slot receiver and return man Darryl Surgent, another three-year starter; and tight ends Ian Thompson and Jacob Maxwell, who shared both playing time and starts the last couple of seasons.

On defense, the Cajuns lose linebacker Justin Anderson, their leading tackler the last two years, and defensive lineman Brandon McCray, also a senior like the others.

But they do return 17 starters on offense and defense combined, including junior quarterback Terrance Broadway, who threw for 143 yards Saturday night despite having broken a bone in his now surgically repaired throwing arm just three weeks earlier.

And that has Hudspeth, who called Cajun fans the greatest “in the country” moments after the win, with high hopes heading into his fourth season at UL.

It is one he is looking forward to already.

That’s rather easy to surmise.

“I think with that type of momentum heading into the offseason,” Hudspeth said, “(it) really sets us up, hopefully, for another outstanding season.”