List of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns head football coaches

Billy Napier in a suit at a press conference.
Billy Napier served as head coach at Louisiana from 2018 to 2021.

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns college football team represents the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the Sun Belt Conference. The Ragin' Cajuns compete as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 27 head coaches since it began play during the 1901 season. Since December 2021, Michael Desormeaux has served as head coach at Louisiana.[1]

Five coaches have led Louisiana in postseason bowl games: Louis Whitman, Russ Faulkinberry, Mark Hudspeth, Billy Napier, and Desormeaux. Seven coaches have won conference championships: Johnny Cain and Louis Whitman each captured one as a member of the Louisiana Intercollegiate Conference; Faulkinberry captured three and Raymond Didier one as a member of the Gulf States Conference; Nelson Stokley captured two as a member of the Big West Conference; and Napier captured two and Rickey Bustle one as a member of the Sun Belt Conference.

Faulkinberry and Stokley are the leaders in seasons coached with 13 years as head coach. Faulkinberry is the leader in overall wins with 66, and Napier has the highest winning percentage of those who coached more than three games at 0.769. Jerry Baldwin has the lowest winning percentage at 0.182. Of the 27 different head coaches who have led the Cajuns, Cain has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Key

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
† Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 5]
No. Name Season(s)
[A 6] 		GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT CC NC Awards
1 Ashby Woodson 1901–1902 5 3 2 0 0.600 — — — — — — — — — —
2 J. Ovey Herpin 1903 2 1 1 0 0.500 — — — — — — — — — —
3 Edwin F. Gayle 1904 3 2 0 1 0.833 — — — — — — — — — —
4 Herbert McNaspy 1906 2 1 0 1 0.750 — — — — — — — — — —
5 Jefferson Caffery 1907 1 1 0 0 1.000 — — — — — — — — — —
6
8
11 		Clement J. McNaspy 1908–1911
1913
1917–1918 		53 34 15 4 0.679 — — — — — — — — — —
7 H. Lee Prather 1912 7 3 4 0 0.429 — — — — — — — — — —
9 R. B. Dunbar 1914–1915 16 10 5 1 0.656 — — — — — — — — — —
10
12
14 		T. R. Mobley 1916
1919
1921–1930 		111 56 48 7 0.536 16 23 0 0.410 — — — 0 — —
13 Herbert O. Tudor 1920 10 2 8 0 0.200 — — — — — — — — — —
15 Truman F. Wilbanks 1931–1936 53 19 32 2 0.377 8 20 1 0.293 — — — 0 — —
16
18 		Johnny Cain† 1937–1941
1946 		57 33 19 5 0.623 16 9 1 0.635 — — — 1 — —
17 Louis Whitman 1942–1945 30 14 14 2 0.500 6 4 1 0.591 1 0 0 1 — —
19 Gee Mitchell 1947–1949 27 18 8 1 0.685 10 5 0 0.667 0 0 0 0 — —
20 A. L. Swanson 1950 9 5 4 0 0.556 2 3 0 0.400 0 0 0 0 — —
21 Raymond Didier 1951–1956 58 29 27 2 0.517 16 15 2 0.515 0 0 0 1 — —
22 John Robert Bell 1957 10 4 5 1 0.450 1 3 1 0.300 0 0 0 0 — —
23 Red Hoggatt 1958–1960 28 11 17 0 0.393 5 10 0 0.333 0 0 0 0 — —
24 Russ Faulkinberry 1961–1973 131 66 63 2 0.511 30 34 1 0.469 0 1 0 3 — —
25 Augie Tammariello 1974–1979 67 30 35 2 0.463 11 17 2 0.400 0 0 0 0 — —
26 Sam Robertson 1980–1985 65 29 34 2 0.462 4 5 1 0.450 0 0 0 0 — —
27 Nelson Stokley 1986–1998 143 62 80 1 0.437 14 4 0 0.778 0 0 0 2 — —
28 Jerry Baldwin 1999–2001 33 6 27 — 0.182 2 4 — 0.333 0 0 — 0 — —
29 Rickey Bustle 2002–2010 106 41 65 — 0.387 30 32 — 0.484 0 0 — 1 — —
30 Mark Hudspeth
[A 7] 		2011–2017 67 29 38 — 0.433 22 19 — 0.537 2 1 — 0 — —
31 Billy Napier 2018–2021 52 40 12 — 0.769 27 5 — 0.844 2 1 — 2 — —
32 Michael Desormeaux 2021–present 27 13 14 — 0.481 7 9 — 0.438 1 2 — 0 — —

Notes

  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[2]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[3]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[4]
  5. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FCS football season.
  6. ^ Louisiana did not field a team for the 1905 season.
  7. ^ Louisiana vacated 22 wins from 2011 to 2014, including the 2011 and 2013 New Orleans Bowls and 2013 Sun Belt Conference co-championship, due to NCAA violations involving a former assistant.[5][6] Without the vacated wins, Louisiana went 9–4 in each season between 2011 and 2014.

References

  1. ^ Thamel, Pete (October 12, 2022). "Louisiana football coach Michael Desormeaux is the perfect fit with Ragin' Cajuns". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  2. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  3. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  4. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  5. ^ Johnson, Luke (October 11, 2015). "Exam fraud, recruit payments among NCAA accusations against ex-Cajuns assistant". The Advocate. Baton Rouge. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  6. ^ Buckley, Tim (March 8, 2016). "Here's what games UL has vacated following NCAA probe". The Daily Advertiser. Lafayette, Louisiana. Retrieved September 6, 2016.