Cure Bowl: What to Know

In collaboration with M!KEDROPSPORTS

AutoNation Cure Bowl

Louisiana Rajin’ Cajuns (7-6) vs Tulane Green Wave (6-6)

Date/Time: Saturday December 15 at 1:30 ET

Location: Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida

Bowl History

Originated: 2015

History of conferences: In the three year history of the Cure Bowl, the Sun Belt teams are 2-1, winning each of the last two years; AAC lost their only appearance in 2016 (UCF’s last loss) 

Last year’s result: Georgia State beat Western Kentucky, 27-17

Louisiana bowl history

Officially, Louisiana has a bowl record of 2-1, but unofficially they have appeared in five bowl games in school history. Two of their wins (2011 and 2013) were vacated due to NCAA sanctions.

After joining FBS in 1978, it wasn’t until 2011 that Louisiana made their first bowl game experience. They have only appeared in the New Orleans Bowl. They appeared in the game from 2011-2014 and again in 2016. They did not make a bowl n 2017.

Tulane bowl history

Tulane is 4-7 all-time in bowl games. This will be the school’s first bowl since 2013, which was a New Orleans Bowl loss to this same Louisiana team. The school’s last win came in 2002, in the Hawaii Bowl over Hawaii. There’s only been three total bowl appearances in the last 30 years.       

Series history

The Cure Bowl will be the 27^th all-time meeting between schools. The most recent was in the 2016 regular season, a game Tulane won 41-39. As noted above, they have bowl game history from 2013. Louisiana won 24-21 in the New Orleans Bowl.

Game Notes

Key players to watch for each team

Louisiana: Trey Ragas/Elijah Mitchell/Raymond Calais, Running Backs

Tulane: Darnell Mooney, WR 

Louisiana

Louisiana won the Sun Belt East at 7-5, after beating rival Louisiana-Monroe during the final week. They lost the Sun Belt Championship game to Appalachian State to finish at 7-6. 

Louisiana has a very exciting rushing attack -Trey Ragaas ran for 1,141 yards and 8 touchdowns, Elijah Mitchel ran for 951 yards and a team-high 12 touchdowns, and Raymond Calais ran for 713 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Tulane

Tulane recovered from a slow start to win 4 of their last 5 games. With two regular season games remaining, they were in contention to win the AAC West. They clinched bowl eligibility on the last day of the regular season, by beating Navy 29-28 after converting a two-point conversion in the game’s final minute.Tulane is coached by Willie Fritz and is an option-based offense. They split time between quarterbacks and those QBs combined for just 5 interceptions on 282 pass attempts and only 50% completions. They also combined for 14 touchdown passes, 8 of which went to Darnell Mooney. 

The 6 wins are Tulane’s most since winning 7 in 2013 and is just the second time they’ve reached 6 wins since 2002.

Final analysis

These teams have similar styles and both focus on the run game offensively. Both coaches, Willie Fritz for Tulane and Billy Napier for Louisiana, are coaching in their first bowl game for their respective schools and they will certainly try every trick in the book to get the win.

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