The 2011

R+L Carriers R+L Carriers is a privately owned American freight shipping company based in Wilmington, Ohio, which grew over the course of 50 years from one truck to a fleet of 21,000 tractors and trailers. The company serves all 48 contiguous American states ...

New Orleans Bowl The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2001. It is normally held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans; when the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due to ...

, part of the 2011–12 bowl game season, took place on December 17,

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, at the

Mercedes-Benz Superdome The Caesars Superdome, commonly known as the Superdome (formerly known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome), is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. The 11th edition of the game featured the

Louisiana–Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns are the athletic teams of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The college has been competing athletically since 1901. The Ragin' Cajuns compete in NCAA Division I, fielding 16 varsity teams. Nickname The univ ...

from the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

(Sun Belt), and the

San Diego State Aztecs The San Diego State Aztecs are the athletic teams that represent San Diego State University (SDSU). San Diego State currently sponsors six men's and eleven women's sports at the varsity level. The Aztecs compete in NCAA Division I ( FBS for foo ...

from the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

. The game was telecast at 8:00 p.m. CT on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and

ESPN 3D ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The co ...

. In March 2016, Louisiana–Lafayette vacated its 2011 and 2013 New Orleans Bowl wins, due to major NCAA violations including ACT exam fraud and payments to recruits.

Teams

Louisiana–Lafayette accepted a bid to compete in the 2011 edition of the game on November 21, while San Diego State accepted a bid on December 4.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

On November 21, 2011, the UL Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns accepted an invite to represent the

.Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns Accept Invitation
. neworleansbowl.org. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2011. Prior to the start of the 2011 season, the Ragin' Cajuns were expected to finish last in the Sun Belt Conference and be ranked last among the 120 FBS school.Gemmell, Kevin
Instant analysis: UL-Lafayette 32, SDSU 30

. 18 December 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2011. However, the Ragin' Cajuns team was a surprise and finished the regular season with an 8-4 record. The New Orleans Bowl marked UL Lafayette's first ever division I FBS bowl appearance and their first bowl appearance since the 1970

Grantland Rice Bowl The Grantland Rice Bowl was an annual college football bowl game from 1964 through 1977, in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's College Division, for smaller universities and colleges, and later NCAA Division II, Division II. The ...

.Brett Baer's 50-yard FG lifts La.-Lafayette vs. SDSU
ESPN. 17 December 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2011.Hedlin, Kate
San Diego St. at LA Lafayette

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. 13 December 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2011. Because of UL Lafayette's close proximity to New Orleans, the New Orleans Bowl set an attendance record at 42,841. However, in 2015, Louisiana–Lafayette was forced to vacated all nine wins including the New Orleans Bowl due to major NCAA violations including ACT exam fraud and payments to players.

San Diego State University

On December 4, 2011, the San Diego State Aztecs accepted an invite to represent the Mountain West Conference.San Diego State Aztecs Accept Invitation
. neworleansbowl.org. 4 December 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2011. The Aztecs entered the bowl with a record of 8–4. SDSU's season was helped by

Ronnie Hillman Ronald Keith Ryan Hillman Jr. (September 14, 1991 – December 21, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the San Diego State Aztecs, earni ...

, who rushed for 1,656 yards and 19 touchdowns.Gemmell, Kevin
New Orleans Bowl Keys
ESPN. 16 December 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2011. This marked SDSU's sixth bowl appearance and their second consecutive following the

2010 Poinsettia Bowl The 2010 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the San Diego State Aztecs and the Navy Midshipmen on December 23, 2010 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. The sixth edition o ...

. The bowl game also marked the first time the Aztecs appeared back-to-back division I bowl games. Neither team previously appeared in the New Orleans Bowl. The bowl game marked the first ever meeting between the two schools.

Game summary

The Aztecs scored first with a 27-yard field goal from Abelardo Perez. The Ragin' Cajuns responded with a touchdown to make the score 6–3, after the point after was blocked. In the second quarter, the Ragin' Cajuns went up 13–3 when Darryl Surgent scored on an 87-yard punt return. Lafayette added to their lead when they scored a touchdown in the third quarter to go up 19–3 (the PAT failed). However, the Aztecs closed the deficit to two at the end of the third quarter with two San Diego State touchdown passes from quarterback Colin Lockett. Lockett's second touchdown pass capped off a seven-play, 99-yard drive. Louisiana-Lafayette scored another touchdown in the fourth quarter to make it 26–17. The Aztecs responded with their own touchdown to make it 26–24 with 5:40 left. On their next possession, the Ragin' Cajuns marched towards the three-yard line but had to settle for a field goal with 2:09 left. The Aztecs then scored a touchdown to take the lead 30–29 with 35 seconds left. The Aztecs attempted go up by three points on a two-point conversion, but failed. With no timeouts left, Louisiana managed to get in range for a 55-yard field, before the Aztecs were called for an "illegal stemming" penalty, thus reducing the field goal range to 50-yard. Placekicker Brett Baer made the kick, sealing a 32–30 victory for the Ragin' Cajuns. UL Lafayette's Blaine Gautier had 470 passing yards in the game, breaking the previous New Orleans Bowl record of 387 passing yards set in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. Gautier's performance in the bowl game also helped him finish the season with 2,958 yards passing and 23 touchdowns, breaking the previous school single-season record set by

Jake Delhomme Jake Christopher Delhomme (; born January 10, 1975) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL). Delhomme played college football at Louisiana, then known as the University of Southwestern Louisian ...

. Aztec running back

was limited to only 55 yards; Hillman had been averaging 138 yards per game coming into the New Orleans Bowl.

Reaction

Controversy

Prior to a 55-yard field goal attempt by the UL-Lafayette Cajuns with four seconds to go, an official called a five-yard "illegal stemming" penalty against the SDSU Aztecs to set up the Cajuns' 50-yard game-winning field goal. Following the game, Aztecs coach

Rocky Long Roderick John Long Jr. (born January 27, 1950) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the defensive coordinator at Syracuse. Prior to being hired by Syracuse, Long was the defensive coordinator at New Mexico. He played ...

said it was a "phantom call," claiming that no one was moving on the Aztec's side.Schrotenboer, Brent
SDSU falls in New Orleans, 32-30

The San Diego Union-Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

. 17 December 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2011. However, replays clearly show the Aztec defender moving.

Scoring summary

Statistics

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Orleans Bowl, 2011 2011–12 NCAA football bowl games

December 2011 sports events in the United States 2011 in sports in Louisiana 2010s in New Orleans