Nathan Torney, who crossed to the University of Louisiana Lafayette this year as its first choice punter, contested the Sun Belt Conference Championship with the Ragin’ Cajuns on Saturday after they finished first in the SBC West division.
Dylan Joyce’s Miami Hurricanes played Syracuse, with a berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game awaiting the winner. Miami had won nine straight games before losing for the first time to Georgia Tech on November 9.
The Syracuse loss was only their second for the season, but it was enough to end their title hopes. They will have to settle for a bowl game, which is likely to be a New Year's game.
Those two ACC losses meant Miami finished out of the top 10, preventing them from playing in the ACC championship game
Torney’s Rajin’ Cajuns lost 3-31 and didn’t manage a score after quarter time.
Second-year punter Joyce’s team was beaten 42-38 by Syracuse, having led 14-nil at quarter time before surrendering the lead in the third quarter.
Joyce punted on three occasions, for 113 yards, while Torney was called on to punt five times for 190 yards in total.
Torney’s Ragin’ Cajuns faced a team which will be quite familiar to sporting movie buffs, Marshall University’s Thundering Herd. In 1970 a plane crash killed 37 players, five coaches and 28 other members of the university football community.
Torney and his team won their place in the championship game after finishing with a 10-2 record.
Joyce’s Hurricanes were ranked number 13 in the college system with a 10-2 record, but were tipped out of the playoffs with two late season defeats.
The third of the Kyabram punters involved in the US college football system this year, Makenzie Ryan, finished the year with 58 punts (a longest of 59 yards) and a total of 2276 yards for the season.
His team won five of its first six games, but lost the last six to finish on a low - the last of those to Torney’s Ragin Cajuns.
In that game Torney punted twice and Ryan on three occasions, Lafayette winning 37-23.
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