Bowl Game Betting – Ragin’ Cajuns Want 4th New Orleans Bowl Win vs. Wolf Pack

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans (Dec. 20, 11:00 a.m. Eastern)

Nevada Wolf Pack vs. LA-Lafayette Rajin’ Cajuns (-1, 60.5 o/u)

Not many teams go to the same bowl game four years in a row. Even fewer win the same bowl game four years in a row. However, that’s exactly what the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (8-4) will be hoping to do this Saturday when they play their fourth straight New Orleans Bowl.

This year’s foe is the Nevada Wolf Pack (7-5), who are led by mobile quarterback Cody Fajardo and running backs Don Jackson and James Butler. The trio has led the Wolf Pack to more than 215 yards rushing per game, 32nd-best in the nation.

“They [Nevada] are a program that has had a lot of bowl experience and it will be quite a challenge as we go down to play them,” said Ragin’ Cajuns head coach Mark Hudspeth. “They’re very competitive. When you look at the way they’ve played against teams that have gone on to bowl games, they’ve played the majority of them within one score. In other games they were supposed to win, they won those and did their job.”

He added, “They’re an outstanding team. They can run it, they can throw it and they play good defense. They are a very multiple team on offense and they spread the ball a lot of different ways to a lot of different people. [Fajardo] does a great job in distributing the football.”

After a disappointing 2013 season, Nevada head coach Brian Polian said it’s nice to back in a bowl game.

“I am very excited that our players and staff will have one more opportunity to compete together at the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl,” Polian said. “The game presents us a chance to pursue an eighth win on the season and also serves as a reward for our players, who have worked so hard this year.

“This bowl also gives our young people a chance to spend some time in New Orleans and continue to enjoy the opportunities and experiences that being a football player at the University of Nevada provides,” added the coach.

Nevada will be facing a LA-Lafayette team that resembles itself in a lot of ways. Like the Wolf Pack, the Cajuns are a run-oriented team on offense (228.4 rushing yards per game versus 188.9 passing) but are suspect on the defensive side of the ball, surrendering almost 28 points per game.

The Ragin’ Cajuns are hoping the Wolf Pack experience perhaps too much of the Big Easy. That’s why taking the Cajuns – who will have the Creole crowd behind them – and laying the points (-1) is the play.

(Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.)