Delaware vs. Louisiana in 68 Ventures Bowl: What to know
Blue Hens, Ragin’ Cajuns collide in Mobile, Alabama
MOBILE, Alabama – The Blue Hens seek to put a memorable cap on their first Football Bowl Subdivision season on the night of Dec. 18.
Delaware takes on Louisiana in the 68 Ventures Bowl at Hancock Whitney Stadium, with kickoff at 8:30 p.m. EST and an ESPN audience tuning it.
The Blue Hens and Ragin’ Cajuns each carry 6-6 records into the game, meaning a winning record will be a coveted compliment to the 68 Ventures Bowl Trophy and the Mardis Gras beads adorning it.
While Delaware reached a bowl in its first FBS season, Louisiana is playing in its eighth straight, the longest streak in the Sun Belt Conference and 10th best nationally, though it has lost the last three.
The Cajuns also arrive on a four-game win streak and will be playing less than four hours from campus, likely giving them a possible crowd-related edge.
“It was pretty bleak there for a while when we were sitting there at 2-6,” Cajuns coach Mike Desormeaux said, “and we had really high expectations at the beginning of the year.”
Now Louisiana can complete that late-season surge at Delaware’s expense. The Blue Hens expect a tough test.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us for sure,” coach Ryan Carty said.
Though this is its first FBS year, Delaware is quite familiar with postseason play and won first-round FCS tourney games in Carty’s first two seasons in 2022 and 2023.
“Once we got the opportunity to be bowl eligible and be invited to a bowl, I think it was pretty exciting to be able to prepare for that,” Carty said. “It was just something new, something fresh.”
Now the Blue Hens hope to seize the opportunity.
“We’re really excited in the whole bowl process,” Carty said, “and obviously something we’re gonna continue to strive to do at the University of Delaware. This is certainly the first and God willing it will obviously be something that becomes a tradition for us.”
Hen scratch
Delaware, with 510, is one of four teams nationally that has thrown 500 or more passes this year along with Florida Atlantic (582), Baylor (511) and Middle Tennessee (500) but the only one in a bowl game . . . Delaware’s 302.2 passing yards per game rank sixth in FBS . . . QB Nick Minicucci is the only Division I player with 3,500 passing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. His 3,507 passing yards are No. 2 all-time in a UD season behind Joe Flacco’s 4,263 in 2007, as are his 3,785 total yards behind Flacco’s 4,285 in 2007. His 292.3 passing yards per game is the school record . . . Louisiana had the third best red-zone defense in the Sun Belt Conference . . . Delaware is 24-1 under Carty when scoring 30 or more points.
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Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.
