The Louisiana Rajin’ Cajuns 2009 campaign started off with a bang, beating Kansas State in week 2 for their first win over a BCS opponent since 1996.  But the momentum fizzled down the stretch, and despite finishing 6-6, Louisiana was not selected for [...]]]> Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order.

The Louisiana Rajin’ Cajuns 2009 campaign started off with a bang, beating Kansas State in week 2 for their first win over a BCS opponent since 1996.  But the momentum fizzled down the stretch, and despite finishing 6-6, Louisiana was not selected for postseason play.

Ryan Masson, the starting quarterback, returns with seven offensive teammates and six others on the defensive side.  The coaching staff is stable and the Sun Belt always offers room for a good team to emerge, but the nonconference schedule is going to make life difficult for the Cajuns again.

Schedule

9/4/2010    at Georgia
9/11/2010    Arkansas State
9/25/2010    Middle Tennessee State
10/2/2010    at North Texas
10/8/2010    Oklahoma State
10/16/2010    at Troy
10/23/2010    Western Kentucky
10/30/2010    at Ohio
11/6/2010    at Ole Miss
11/13/2010    at Florida Atlantic
11/20/2010    Florida International
11/27/2010    at ULM

Three BCS schools and a MAC division champ is not an ideal out of conference schedule for a Sun Belt team looking to gain some momentum (yes, they’re set a long time ago, but still- ouch).  No sooner do they get back from Athens then they have two vital Sun Belt games with Arkansas State & Middle Tennessee coming to Lafayette.  And much like 2009, the season could ride on a season finale with rival ULM.

Coaching

Rickey Bustle starts into his 9th season as head coach at Louisiana.  He’s on a two year run of 6-6 seasons, which is better than it may sound given the schedules his team always gets.  His seat may be a little warm after a long time in the job without big results, but he’s not in the most precarious spot either.

Rankings

The Sun Belt media have Louisiana 3rd in their poll, while the coaches have them 4th.

Outlook

It’s always difficult to get a read on the Sun Belt in the preseason because every year someone surges and someone else collapses.  That being said, I think the Rajin’ Cajuns are one of the better teams in the league, and could win anywhere from five to seven league games.  And since I’m skeptical of their chances to crack their out of conference schedule, five to seven wins is about right for the year.

Louisiana Connections

Official Football Site

Official Twitter Feed

Rajin Pagin – independent message board

Lafayette Advertiser – Local coverage of the Rajin’ Cajuns.

Western Kentucky at Navy, 3:30 PM- WKU will need to be a different team [...]]]> Things get interesting in the Belt this week, with a matchup of conference favorites and some quality out of conference opponents lined up as well.  There are teams that will take big steps forward towards the New Orleans Bowl bef0re Saturday is out.

Western Kentucky at Navy, 3:30 PM- WKU will need to be a different team than we’ve seen so far to beat Navy.  Navy can be stopped, Pitt showed the way last week, but I doubt if WKU has what it will take to pull it off.

Louisiana Monroe at Florida Atlantic, 4 PM- Neither of these teams has played a game against a non-BCS school yet.  In fact, neither team even put up much of a fight in their losses to the big boys.   So while their wallets have been expanding, it’s tough to know what to expect out of this one.

Troy at Arkansas State, 4:30 PM- Troy stumbled out of the gate, but looked good against UAB, which puts them right back in the SBC title conversation.  Meanwhile Arkansas State put up the 2nd highest point total anywhere in week 1, then got run out by Nebraska in week 2.  After a bye week, they should be well prepared for this one.

Louisiana-Lafayette at Nebraska, 7 PM- I continue to think Nebraska has one of the lamest non-conference schedules I’ve ever seen.  Fattening up on Sun Belt teams might help with bowl eligibility, but it sure didn’t get them ready to play against Virginia Tech last week.

Middle Tennessee State at North Texas, 7 PM- I was really high on North Texas after they beat Ball State, and I still think they should be a mid-pack or even better team in the Belt this year (that being said, we haven’t seen enough SBC teams face mid-major competition to really have a picture of future standings).  Meanwhile MTSU is on a huge roll, beating Memphis and Maryland back to back.  If the Mean Green can hang with Middle Tennessee, then we’ll know they’re legit, but I think MTSU will be tough to stop in this one.

Toledo at Florida International, 7 PM- I mentioned this in the MAC preview this morning, but FIU was hoping to make some noise this season.  The week 1 bye and 2 BCS losses later, and we have no idea if they will.  Toledo’s a pretty good MAC team, so a win here would give FIU some credibility, but I would count it as a substantial upset.

Troy still has potential, but they need to play for [...]]]> Week 2 had its ups and downs for the Belt.  Their teams mostly struggled against the BCS leagues, but Louisiana Lafayette scored big with a win over Kansas State.  Things are shaping up to be very interesting when conference play really gets going.

What We Learned This Week

Troy still has potential, but they need to play for four quarters.  They put up a ton of fight against the Gators for the first quarter, but once Florida started clicking, Troy seemed to lose focus.  I still think they’ll be alright in conference, but if Ark State or FIU get out ahead in the first, do they give up hope?

Speaking of FIU, they gave Alabama a respectable game in their opener this weekend.  It’s tough to keep pace with those teams for 60 minutes, but it should be enough to give fans some hope as the season gets going.

Middle Tennessee continued the Sun Belt’s ownage of Memphis (can I say ownage in semi-serious blog?  I’m going to say ownage).  And their own, for that matter, now 2-0 since coming up to 1-AA.  Nice win for the Blue Raiders.

The Nebraska onslaught continues.  Arkansas State was the victim this time.  I never like seeing these guys get blown out, because I’ve seen what that can do to a teams confidence.  There’s no question that Troy and Ark State can be competitive this year, but if the games from this weekend get in their heads, it can do damage.

Western Kentucky Watch: they put up 13 points this time, going down to South Florida at home.  Like the conference powers in their big losses, I still think WKU has what it takes to win a few games this year- but they’re going to need to play with confidence, which can be tough after getting knocked around by BCS schools all through September.

This Week in the Sun Belt

North Texas plays up at Alabama, Middle Tennessee has a chance to keep things rolling up at Maryland, Troy welcomes UAB for a pretty big rivalry game- fighting for the #3 slot in Alabama football, FIU heads north to play a Rutgers team that looked really bad in week 1 before winning this weekend over 1-AA Howard.  Lafayette heads over to Baton Rouge for LSU, Western Kentucky gets a break from BCS squads by bringing in Central Arkansas, Florida Atlantic heads to Columbia for South Carolina, and Monroe heads west to play Arizona State.  All in all, a nice group of games with some upset potential to be found.

Sun Belt Power Ratings

1. Louisiana Lafayette
2. Arkansas State
3. Middle Tennessee State
4. North Texas
5. Louisiana Monroe
6. Florida International
7. Troy
8. Florida Atlantic
9. Western Kentucky

Watch for the conference players of the week to be released this afternoon, and then we’ll have Mountain West and C-USA wrapups tomorrow (hint- things went well for them).