NEW ORLEANS — The Ragin’ Cajuns football team was playing Tulane back in September, and a skirmish broke out among players.

A large man with a gun and a bone-crushing handshake ran onto Cajun Field, and the feeling he experienced was familiar — yet different.

He had been on the field before, plenty of times. Just never with a weapon, holstered as it was.

But it has been Louisiana State Police senior trooper Jeff Mitchell’s second job all this season to shadow Mark Hudspeth wherever he goes on game weekends.

Mitchell, a former Loreauville High standout and two-time first-team All-Big West defensive end when he played for the Cajuns from 1992-95, is here this week for Saturday’s New Orleans Bowl meeting between UL and East Carolina.

He was in Florida twice, at UL Monroe when things got a bit rowdy up there, at North Texas, at Oklahoma State and at Troy too.

And he was right behind Hudspeth when the Cajun head coach ran across the field against the Green Wave, keeping him within reach of his bulky arms while using them to help separate players too.

"It was all reaction," Mitchell said, laughing in hindsight as he waited for the Cajuns to finish a pre-New Orleans Bowl practice. "I’m there to protect him, and he ran on the field — so I ran with him."

It was an odd sight, but game officials said nothing to Mitchell.

Stadium security officials, however, did.

"They were like, ‘You weren’t supposed to go on the field,’ " Mitchell said. "I said, ‘Well, nobody told me not to.’ "

As big around the barrel as he is, pistol by his side, few folks tell the broad-chested Mitchell what not to do.

Seventeen years removed from his last days as a Cajun, Mitchell still holds UL records for career sacks (21), most sacks in a season (11 in 1993, tied with teammate Conrad Lewis); most tackles for loss in a career (45), a season (21 in ’93) and a game (five at Northern Illinois in ’93); and most yardage lost on tackles in a career (-227), a season (-119 in ’93) and a game (-26 at Northern Illinois in ’93).

"He’s not shy to let us know he still holds some of those," Hudspeth joked.

The only one that’s gotten away from Mitchell is sacks in a game, lost when Rodney Hardeway topped his three with four at Middle Tennessee in 2007.

"When I was getting those records, we were winning games," said Mitchell, who played on NFL quarterback Jake Delhomme-led teams that won eight games and the Big West Conference in ’93, six games and the Big West in ’94, and another six games in ’95.

"I have a feeling that if the program continues to do what it’s doing now, those (other) records are gonna come down soon."

The Cajuns, 9-4 with a New Orleans Bowl win last year and a 8-4 heading into Saturday’s bowl, have been doing plenty of winning since Hudspeth took over prior to last season.

That’s one reason Mitchell and also-in-New Orleans Chris Owens, a Louisiana state trooper who lettered for the Cajuns in 1986, agreed to help staff Hudspeth’s security detail prior to the start of this season.

"We’re proud of where the program is now," said Mitchell, assigned to the Louisiana State Police’s DUI Task Force.

"I’m a Ragin’ Cajun to the heart, and it’s just great that the program has turned around and a lot of good things are happening."

When he played, the Cajuns went a combined 20-13 in his last three years. But they never went to a bowl.

Now, Mitchell said, Saturday’s game against East Carolina "is my bowl game."

He wasn’t standing guard to Hudspeth last year, but Mitchell was at the Superdome to watch the Cajuns beat San Diego State in 2011.

"They overcame some obstacles," he said, "and just kept believing that they could win it."

Now, Mitchell believes the best thing he can do for the program is stick close to its coach.

He doesn’t draw an actual salary for the work, and spends personal time in addition to work time on the chore.

He usually drives to road games, including a 10-plus hour trip to Gainesville for the Florida game, so he can meet the team when it arrives and escort its travel party in his SUV to hotels, stadiums and airports.

And when Hudspeth’s on the field, he’s right next to him. He’s there for postgame field interviews too, and there when Hudspeth trots on and off.

"All your major programs in the country — you look at them on television, they have the state police on the sideline," Mitchell said.

"If anything did happen — with my training as far as law enforcement, and just the makeup of what it takes to be a football player — I guess he feels comfortable I could take good care of him."

Hudspeth does, indeed.

"It’s a comfort zone," he said of the big body next to him. "No question about it."

The Cajun program also gets assistance from UL University Police.

"We’re very proud our UPs have been integral part of what we do. "» But as we expand our university, being the University of Louisiana, we felt like it was important also to have the state troopers from Louisiana to represent us," said Troy Wingerter, UL’s director of football operations.

"The bottom line is it looks good. And to be able to have former players do it makes it more worthwhile."

Hudspeth, however, isn’t the only beneficiary of the relationship.

Mitchell, a trooper the past 10-plus years, feels as connected as ever to the team.

The 2001 UL graduate was inducted into the Ragin’ Cajuns Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.

"The whole way," he said, "I feel like part of the program — because every now and then the coaches will chit-chat with me, ‘Whatca think about this, whatcha about that?’

"It’s been fun. It feels like I’m playing all over again. Everybody connects me to the program like I’m a player now."

Once they realized the identity of the burly man so frequently near Hudspeth, Cajun fans have made Mitchell feel more and more welcome with back-pats and, for those who dare, handshakes.

"I really feel like those guys appreciated what I gave to the program and respect what I did," he said. "I look back at that and think, ‘I guess I really did some good things.’ "

Then there’s the physical nature of the assignment.

Mitchell may have been an all-conference defensive end who played like a chase-’em-down linebacker back in the day, but Hudspeth can be a quick cat to keep up with.

"During the week I make sure to get a little bit of cardio in," Mitchell said, "because during the game he moves around a bunch.

"Runs down the tunnel at the start of the game. After the game he seems like he circles the whole stadium, dapping everybody. Run up at halftime, and down at the end of the half.

"He keeps me in shape."