Bowl Bound!

The Chopin family has been blessed with some amazing football this year. All of our teams are on a roll! The LSU Tigers are 13-0 and playing for the national championship. The Saints and the Packers are dominating the NFL. Very exciting times! But it is hard to deny that the most pure joy has come from the surprise success of the UL Ragin' Cajuns. Despite being ranked dead-last by several prognosticators, the Cajuns, let by fiery first-year coach Mark Hudspeth, achieved a record of 8-4 and accepted an invitation to play in this year's R+L Carriers' New Orleans Bowl. This was the first bowl game that the Ragin' Cajuns have played in since 1970, when they lost to Tennessee State in the Grantland Rice Bowl. This would be the first Cajun bowl game in my lifetime, and the lifetimes of my kids as well. You can imagine it is arguably a little more meaningful to me.

So with the Cajuns playing in the New Orleans Bowl, there was no way the family's major football enthusiasts, Gus and me, were going to miss it. Accompanied by Uncle Brian and Sam (Gus's age), we traveled to the Big Easy to cheer on our beloved Cajuns. And we weren't the only Cajun fans there. There were people wearing UL gear all over the city! As we went to the Insectarium, the Riverwalk, and places in between, we saw red, vermilion and white everywhere! The pregame gatherings took place at Rouse's and Champion Square, next to the stadium. While Gus and Sam were able to toss the pigskin, Brian and I savored the moment, watching tens of thousands of passionate Cajun fans act as giddy as we did, relishing the feeling of not only relevance, but confidence. It didn't matter the opponent (sorry San Diego State), there was not way Cajun Nation would be denied.

The Cajuns started red hot and jumped out to a comfortable first-half lead. They were enthused by the 40,000+ Cajun fans cheering them on.

The Aztecs made a game of it in the second half and charged back to take the lead with less than 40 seconds to go. The never-say-die Cajuns marched half the field with precision to set up the drama--a 50-yard Brett Baer field goal. Here's what we saw...

He nailed it! Cajuns win 32-30! On top of the most exciting finish in New Orleans Bowl history, the Cajuns set all types of records. Cajun QB Blaine Gautier set a N.O. Bowl record with 470 passing yards. His receivers set a record receiving yards. But the best record set has attendance--42,841--which shattered the previous record by more than 10,000. The Ragin Cajuns came to paint New Orleans red and that's what they did!

Truly a moment to cherish for the rest of our lives! For Brian and I, all the emotions of cheering for medicore (and offense worse) teams and dreaming of the sweet satisfactions of bowl victories were rewarded. For the boys, they have started their young lives knowing that the Ragin Cajuns are winners. They will certainly expect to play in a bowl game every year. And maybe that's not a bad thing--expectations!

We got back to our hotel room pretty late--after 1am. As tired as I was, I couldn't sleep because I was so excited. As tired as the boys were, they couldn't sleep either.....largely because they had video games to play. Regardless, satisfaction!

I was really glad to have this experience with a best friend and a godchild, but most importantly, I truly savored getting to experience it with Gus. It was his first time in the Superdome and obviously his (and my) first bowl game. The excitement, the anticipation, the anxiety, the elation--glad we could share that!

Looking forward to pulling for the Ragin Cajuns for years to come!