The 2017 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team represented the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the

2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2017. The regular season began on August 26, 2017, and end ...

. The Ragin' Cajuns played their home games at Cajun Field in

Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette (, ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the most populous city and parish seat of Lafayette Parish, located along the Vermilion River. It is Louisiana's fourth largest incorporated municipality by population and the 234th- ...

, and competed in 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 ...

. They were led by seventh-year head coach

Mark Hudspeth Mark Douglas Hudspeth (born November 10, 1968) is an American football coach and former player who was most recently the head football coach at Austin Peay State University in 2019. Hudspeth served as the head football coach at University of No ...

. They finished the season 5–7, 4–4 in Sun Belt play to finish in a three-way tie for fifth place. On December 3, the day following their final season game (a blowout lost against

Appalachian State Appalachian State University (; Appalachian, App State, App, or ASU) is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Dough ...

63-14), head coach Mark Hudspeth was fired. He finished with a seven-year record of 51–38. However, due to NCAA sanctions in 2016 because former assistant coach David Saunders arranged fraudulent college entrance exams for recruits, his official record was 29–38. On December 15, the school hired

Billy Napier William Hall Napier (born July 21, 1979) is an American football coach currently serving as head coach at the University of Florida. From 2017 until 2021, he served as head coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, amassing a 40–12 rec ...

as head coach.

Offseason

Recruiting class

Preseason

Award watchlists

Sun Belt Media Day

Predicted standings

Preseason All–Conference Team

''Offensive'' :OL Kevin Dotson (second team) :WR Keenan Barnes (Third Team) :OL Robert Hunt (Third Team) :OL D'Aquin Withrow (Third Team) ''Defense'' :DL Joe Dillon (first team) :DB Tracy Walker (Third Team) ''Specialists'' :K Stevie Artigue (first team)

Roster

Schedule

Louisiana announced its 2017 football schedule on March 1, 2017. The 2017 schedule consisted of five home and seven away games in the regular season. The Ragin' Cajuns hosted Sun Belt foes

Georgia Southern Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hin ...

Louisiana-Monroe The University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Ce ...

, New Mexico State, and Texas State, and traveled to

, Arkansas State, Idaho, and South Alabama The Ragin' Cajuns hosted one of the four non-conference opponents, Southeastern Louisiana from the Southland Conference, and traveled to Tulsa from the American Athletic Conference and Southeastern Conference members Ole Miss and Texas A&M. :Schedule Source:

Game summaries

Southeastern Louisiana

At Tulsa

At Texas A&M

Louisiana–Monroe

At Idaho

Texas State

At Arkansas State

At South Alabama

At Ole Miss

New Mexico State

Georgia Southern

At Appalachian State

References

{{Louisiana–Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns football navbox Louisiana Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football seasons

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football 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 t ...