| Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
 | |||
| First season | 1901; 123 years ago | ||
| Athletic director | Bryan Maggard | ||
| Head coach | Michael Desormeaux 3rd season, 20–15 (.571) | ||
| Stadium | Cajun Field (capacity: 41,426) | ||
| Year built | 1971 | ||
| Field surface | Turf (ProGrass) | ||
| Location | Lafayette, Louisiana | ||
| NCAA division | Division I FBS | ||
| Conference | Sun Belt Conference | ||
| Division | West | ||
| All-time record | 569–581–34 [1] (.495) | ||
| Bowl record | 5–4 (.556) | ||
| Conference titles | 10 | ||
| Division titles | 4 | ||
| Rivalries | Louisiana Tech (rivalry) ULM (rivalry) Lamar (rivalry) McNeese State (rivalry) Southeastern Louisiana (rivalry) | ||
| Consensus All-Americans | 4 | ||
| Colors | Vermilion and white[2] | ||
| Fight song | Ragin' Cajuns Fight Song | ||
| Marching band | Pride of Acadiana | ||
| Outfitter | Adidas | ||
| Website | RaginCajuns.com | ||
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football program is a college football team that represents the University of Louisiana at Lafayette at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. Since 1971, the team has played its home games at Cajun Field in Lafayette, Louisiana. Michael Desormeaux has served as Louisiana's head coach since 2021.
The RCAF (Ragin Cajun Athletic Foundation) is the supporter association that assists with funding for all Ragin Cajun sports.
The program began play in 1901 when the school was known as Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute. The school's sports teams were known as the Southwestern Louisiana Bulldogs from 1921 until 1973. The school's fight name was formally changed to Ragin' Cajuns in 1974, which had been in use since the 1960s. In 1999, the university took on its current name, at which point its sports teams were referred to as Louisiana–Lafayette. A rebranding in 2017 dropped "Lafayette" from the Cajuns' name.
Between 2011 and 2014, the Cajuns won four consecutive New Orleans Bowls, representing the most successful stretch in the program's history at the time, but later had to vacate two of the victories due to NCAA violations.[3]
Between 2018 and 2021, during the tenure of head coach Billy Napier, the Cajuns reached many milestones, including the first National ranking in program history, four consecutive division championships, two conference championships, three bowl championships, and the best season finish and conference finish in the 2021 season, finishing 13–1 and 7–0 in conference play.
The Cajuns have had several players go to play professionally in the National Football League (NFL), including Jake Delhomme, Charles Tillman, Brian Mitchell, Orlando Thomas, Brandon Stokely, Elijah McGuire, Elijah Mitchell, Kevin Dotson, Chris Cagle, Ike Taylor, Robert Hunt
- ^ NCAA Statistics https://stats.ncaa.org/teams/history?utf8=✓&org_id=671&sport_code=MFB&commit=Search
- ^ "ULL Brand Guide and Graphic Standards Manual" (PDF). Retrieved March 27, 2016.
- ^ "Exam fraud, recruit payments among NCAA accusations against UL-Lafayette, ex-assistant coach David Saunders". The Baton Rouge Advocate. October 11, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.