In the season where the Ragin’ Cajuns earned national rankings in the AP poll for the first time since 1943, they also became the only ranked team in the state this week in both national polls.
The Cajuns are ranked No. 21 in both the Coaches and AP polls ahead of their matchup with Coastal Carolina at Cajun Field on Wednesday.
Coastal leads the east division of the Sun Belt, while UL leads the west division.
With 18 days in between games to get some guys healthy again, the Cajuns will have several starters back against the Chanticleers, including running back Elijah Mitchell, offensive lineman Max Mitchell, linebacker Joe Dillon, linebacker Chauncey Manac, and cornerback A.J. Washington.
Head coach Billy Napier puts that time off into perspective.
“It’s been a blessing in disguise,” Napier says. “I don’t want to make slight of the hurricane or what App State is going through from a COVID-19 standpoint, but from a timing standpoint we were a little banged up just from a football perspective. We did have a handful of players that were out due to contact tracing or COVID-19. This will be the healthiest we’ve been since the opener. In general, I do think it’s given us an opportunity to work on ourselves. Part of working on ourselves has been getting healthy.”