The 2023 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 In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

played on December 16, 2023, at

Caesars 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 ...

located in

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

. The 23rd annual

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 ...

game featured the

Louisiana 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 ...

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 ...

and the

Jacksonville State Gamecocks The Jacksonville State Gamecocks are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Jacksonville State University (JSU) located in Jacksonville, Alabama, United States. The Gamecocks athletic program is a member of the ASUN Conference, which it rejoined ...

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 ...

. The game began at approximately 2:15 p.m. CST and was aired 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 ...

. The New Orleans Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by freight shipping company

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 ...

and officially known as the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Jacksonville State defeated Louisiana in overtime, 34–31, to claim their first bowl win in program history.

Teams

The game featured the

from the

and the

from

. This was the first time that Louisiana and Jacksonville State have played at the FBS level, with the Gamecocks having defeated the Ragin' Cajuns as an FCS school in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, 28–14.

Louisiana

The Ragin' Cajuns started the year 4-2, scoring at least 24 points in each of their first six games, including a 35–24 loss to Big Ten foe

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. After defeating

South Alabama South Alabama is the various parts of southern Alabama. Although it is not a strictly defined geographic region, it generally includes all Alabama counties south of the Black Belt. In that view, ''South Alabama'' consists of just the two counties ...

33–20 to improve to 5-3, starting quarterback Zeon Chriss suffered a broken fibula in the middle of their ninth game, which was followed by a three-game losing streak as the team fell to 5-6. Needing a win in the

Battle on the Bayou The Battle on the Bayou is the name given to the college football rivalry between the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns and the Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks The Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks (ULM Warhawks) are the intercollegiate athletics teams represent ...

to clinch bowl eligibility, backup quarterback

Chandler Fields Chandler Fields (born February 4, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. Early life and high school Fields grew up in Metairie, Louisiana and attended Holy Cross School before transferring to Archbishop R ...

led the Ragin' Cajuns to a rout of rival Louisiana–Monroe, 52–21, securing Louisiana a spot in the New Orleans Bowl. This was Louisiana's seventh New Orleans Bowl, extending their record for most appearances in the game. The Ragin' Cajuns' overall New Orleans Bowl record entering the 2023 game was 3–1 (excluding two wins vacated by the NCAA).

Jacksonville State

Due to NCAA transition rules for teams moving from FCS to FBS, Jacksonville State would be ineligible to play in a bowl unless not enough six-win teams were available to fill all of the season's bowl games. The Gamecocks won five of their first six games competing as an FBS school, with the sole loss coming in Week 3 to

Coastal Carolina Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, it became an in ...

. They reached the six-win threshold on October 17 by defeating

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

, 20–17, on a walk-off field goal. The Gamecocks finished their season with an 8–4 record and secured bowl eligibility when not enough teams reached six wins to fill all available bowl games.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Jacksonville State Gamecocks bowl game navbox

New Orleans Bowl

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football bowl games Jacksonville State Gamecocks football bowl games