LAFAYETTE, La. – A Louisiana FBS program qualified nationally this week, and it’s not what you’d expect.
Louisiana Lafayette (3-0), a member of the Sun Belt Conference, dropped from 23st to 21st place on the Amway coaching ticket and in the AP Top 25 on Sunday, the same day, the protective national champion LSU, about 60 miles away. to the east — dropped any of the ratings after his 45-41 loss to Missouri.
The Tigers (1-2) had been number 16.
The reaction to the truth came from the hearts of members of a Group of Five team who spent decades living in the shadow of their brother in the SEC.
“I love it,” said Jalen Williams, a Cajuns catcher who before moving to UL spent the 2016 season as a red blouse on foot at LSU.
“That’s all I’ve ever dreamed of; actually, everyone on the team dreamed it,” Andre Jones added. “We have been labeled a smaller school; Unknown. We’re going to surprise the global now, I just have to move on. “
The Cajuns have something to do precisely on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of ESPNs when they host Coastal Carolina (3-0) in their third 2020 Sun Belt game.
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The fact that UL was ranked in any of the polls at a position below 3-1 in the state of Iowa, which it beat 31-14 in the opening game for any of the schools, did not seem to matter on a day when LSU joined Louisiana Tech and others on a long list. of other votes.
“I don’t care, ” said Jones about the Cyclones who have the number 20. We’re just going to play football.
That was the mantra of Cajuns coach Billy Napier, a little more secretive than some of his players.
“These are all other people’s opinions,” Napier said. “And it’s good.
“You know, it comes with territory when you start building a program and you create a team that has an identity that other people respect from the outside. It’s a smart thing for everyone involved. “
UL qualified nationally this season for the first time since 1943, when it was in the AP Top 20.
The Cajuns broke into the polls this year with their victory at no. The 25th State of Iowa, which progressed after winning its first game against the Sun Belt at Georgia State in overtime, surrendered after beating Georgia Southern 20-18 in its home opener, reappeared for a week and progressed despite not playing last week either.
UL has been in slow motion since winning Georgia Southern’s last-second basket Nate Snyder on September 26.
This is partly because an October 7 game at Appalachian State was postponed until early December due to an outbreak of COVID-19 within the Mountaineers program and partly because its game opposed to Coastal Carolina that was scheduled to play last Saturday was postponed until arrival. Hurricane Delta off the coast of the Gulf of Louisiana.
After losing two days of education due to hurricane readiness, the Cajun and Napier are back in business, which treated their team’s location at the polls on Sunday with a little more exaggeration than last month.
“We want to make sure we use it as a positive thing,” said former Arizona State and Clemson offensive coordinator. “If it motivates you, much better.
“But I think we want to make sure it’s not the way we prepare ourselves, the discipline we have to wear down our routine. We want not to forget what this popularity gained us and why people’s opinions about us have replaced over time, and that’s because we’ve worked hard to improve
“When we see those numbers through our name,” Napier added, “we have to see all the paintings that have been done to create this and we have to keep doing these paintings so we can finish. “
Napier’s message was delivered and heard when the Cajuns practiced on Sunday, because receiver Williams, for his part, echoed his words on Sunday night.
“I would tell a player organization before the start of the season that we should do whatever we wanted,” he said.
“The program we’re in is designed to become champions. We paint harder than anyone else, I think, so we reap the rewards of all the paintings we make.