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Louisiana-Lafayette already has its first bowl invitation in 41 years. The Ragin' Cajuns came close to knocking off a Pac-12 team, too.
The visitors from the Sun Belt Conference rolled up 409 yards but couldn't stop the passing game of Nick Foles in a 45-37 loss to Arizona on Saturday.
Foles, whose status for the game had been uncertain because of bruised ribs, threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns, two of them late in the first half to put Arizona up 21-13 after the Cajuns had taken leads of 7-0 and 13-7.
''They were very deflating,'' Louisiana quarterback Blaine Gautier said. ''I feel we have a great team, we could have done some things better that first half that definitely wouldn't have put us in that hole.''
Foles tied the school career and single-season records for touchdown passes in the game. He already held virtually all other passing records at the school. Foles also topped 4,000 yards passing for the season and 10,000 for his career.
''The quarterback, he reads good,'' Cajuns cornerback Jemarious Moten said. ''He slowed the game down, he speeded it up when they got the momentum; the quarterback is pretty good.''
Moten got the best of Foles once, picking off a pass and returning it 41 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. It was the seventh ''pick six'' of the season for Louisiana-Lafayette, tying an NCAA record set by Tennessee in 1971.
Foles was injured late in last week's 31-27 victory at Arizona State and his status for Saturday's finale was uncertain all week, to everyone except him.
''I knew this was going to be my last one,'' he said, ''so no matter what it was, I was going to gut it out and get the `W.' It's pretty sore, I'm not going to lie, but it was worth all the pain.''
Juron Criner caught nine passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns for the Wildcats (4-8), breaking the school career record for TD receptions at 32, a mark that had stood for 36 years.
Gautier threw for 315 yards and a touchdown and ran for a score for the Ragin' Cajuns (8-4), who cut the Arizona lead to eight points three times in the fourth quarter.
''We still continued to fight, as we always do,'' Gautier said. ''We're a four-quarter team. We continue to battle. It's very unfortunate to come out of here with the loss.''
Gautier tied Jake Delhomme's school record of touchdown passes in a season at 20. Lavon Lawson caught five passes for 137 yards for the Cajuns.
The Cajuns of the Sun Belt Conference accepted a bid to the New Orleans Bowl on Monday, their first postseason appearance in 41 years. A first victory over a Pac-12 team would have been a nice addition to that accomplishment.
''Just too many mistakes,'' Louisiana coach Mark Hudspeth said. ''Penalties absolutely killed us, 10 to their three. I'm totally shocked they only had three and totally shocked we had 10.''
Arizona (4-8) finished 3-3 under Kish after Mike Stoops was fired halfway through the season.
''Seven weeks ago, we were a hundred individuals that were confused, distraught, unsure, and it was not a football team at that point,'' Kish said. ''To battle through that situation where we were at that particular time, at the end of the day, at the end of the season, those 100 individuals became a team.''
New coach Rich Rodriguez visited with tailgaters before the game and was introduced to the crowd at halftime.
Louisiana-Lafayette, 0-4 against Pac-12 teams, pulled within one possession for the final time when Gauthier scored on a 10-yard quarterback draw with 5:05 to play. But the Cajuns never got the ball again as Arizona moved downfield and ran out the clock.
Moten's TD return, on his second interception of the day, cut Arizona's lead to 31-23, but the Wildcats' Daniel Jenkins returned the ensuing kickoff 81 yards to the Louisiana 2. Two plays later, Keola Antolin scored on a 5-yard run to make it 38-23 with 13:28 left.
Again the Ragin' Cajuns came back, going 71 yards in 10 plays, with Alonzo Harris scoring on a 5-yard run to cut it to 38-30 with 10:26 still to go.
Foles' 35-yard pass to Criner at the 6:08 mark boosted the lead to 45-30.
The Cajuns used a fake punt and an onside kick in the first half, both of them successful, to take leads of 7-0 and 13-7.
Gautier's 40-yard pass to Lawson set up Harry Peoples' 11-yard TD run to make it 7-0. Foles came on for Arizona's second series and directed a 16-play, 80-yard scoring drive, with fullback Taimi Tutogi bulling in from the 1 on fourth down to tie it at 7-7.
After the kickoff, Louisiana-Lafayette faked a punt on fourth-and-11 from its 40, with punter Brett Baer throwing 13 yards to the Arizona 47. Ladarius Green's 20-yard run on a reverse set up Gautier's 4-yard touchdown pass to Alonzo Harris. Baer's conversion try bounced off the right upright and was no good, so the Ragin' Cajuns led 13-7 with 9:14 left in the half.
Foles threw two touchdown passes in a span of two minutes, 39 seconds late in the half to put Arizona up 21-13 at the break.
