The 2021 New Orleans Bowl was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game played on December 18, 2021, with kickoff at 9:15 p.m. EST (8:15 p.m. local CST) and broadcast on ESPN. It was the 21st edition of the New Orleans Bowl, and was one of the 2021–22 bowl games concluding the 2021 FBS football season. Sponsored by freight shipping company R+L Carriers, the game was officially known as the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

Teams

The bowl matched Louisiana of 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 ...

against Marshall of

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

(C-USA). This was the first meeting of the two programs. Marshall previously announced that they plan to join the Sun Belt for the 2023 season.

Louisiana

The Cajuns (12–1, 8–0 in

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — des ...

play) entered the contest with a 12-game win streak, ranked 23rd in the nation, two consecutive bowl victories ( 2020 LendingTree and 2020 First Responder), four consecutive divisional championship, two consecutive conference championship, and a new head coach in Michael Desormeaux following Billy Napier's sudden departure to Florida. This was the Cajuns sixth time in the New Orleans Bowl (2011–2014, 2015), with an overall record of 2–1 following two vacated victories in the 2011 and 2013 matchups. The Cajuns' overall bowl record was 7–3, with its most recent bowl game, the

2020 First Responder Bowl The 2020 First Responder Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 26, 2020, with kickoff at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, EST (2:30 p.m. local Central Time Zone, CST) on ESPN College Football on ABC, ABC. It was the 11th e ...

, resulting in a win over UTSA.

Marshall

The Thundering Herd finished the 2021 regular season with a 7–5 (5–3 C-USA) record to finish in a tie for second place in the East Division. This game was the team's first appearance in the New Orleans Bowl and 18th overall bowl. This was Marshall's first bowl game against a team from the Sun Belt Conference since the 2011 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl, a win over

FIU Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest university in Florida ...

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Marshall Thundering Herd bowl game navbox New Orleans Bowl New Orleans Bowl Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football bowl games Marshall Thundering Herd football bowl games New Orleans Bowl New Orleans Bowl