You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who could debate the statement “Jake Delhomme is the best quarterback Louisiana has ever produced.” His long NFL career and Super Bowl appearance in 2003 solidified his spot and justified the retirement of jersey number 12. Yet, it is harder to say that he is the best quarterback to play at Louisiana.
That distinction belongs to a far more recent player, one only a few years removed since he suited up for the vermilion and white. A quarterback who was born and raised in Louisiana and led the Ragin’ Cajuns to their greatest period of program success. That quarterback would be QB1, Levi Lewis.
He was listed as a three-star, dual– threat quarterback by 247Sports and the 39th best recruit in Louisiana in the 2017 class. Lewis committed to Louisiana on July 28, 2016, before the start of his senior season and officially signed with the Ragin’ Cajuns in February of 2017.
Lewis’ first ever collegiate start would come on Nov. 4, 2017, against the South Alabama Jaguars. He would lead the Cajuns to a 19–14 win with 239 total yards and two passing touchdowns, his first-ever collegiate touchdown being a 54-yard bomb.
That season Louisiana finished 5–7 and failed to make a bowl game. Due to scandals related to illegal recruiting, which forced Louisiana to vacate 22 wins, the University forced Hudspeth to resign.
To replace Hudspeth, they hired Arizona State offensive coordinator and former Alabama wide receivers coach, Billy Napier, to take over the program.
Napier’s hire quickly proved to be the right choice as Louisiana won the West and made it to the Sun Belt Championship game. The Cajuns lost that game to Appalachian State, who will be a recurring character going forward, and lost the Cure Bowl to Tulane, finishing the season 7–7.
That season saw Lewis play in all 14 games, though he was not the starter. Instead, Napier would employ a two QB system with him and starter Andre Nunez. Lewis finished his sophomore season with 585 passing yards and seven touchdowns with a 62.7% completion rate.
The now junior Lewis became the full-time starter in 2019. Napier and Lewis led the Cajuns to an 11–3 record, including a second straight appearance in the Sun Belt Championship against the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Lewis played extremely well in the 45–38 loss, throwing for 354 yards and four touchdowns in the effort to come back from a 21–7 deficit after the first.
Lewis would win his first bowl game as a starter in the LendingTree Bowl, taking down Miami (OH) 27–17.
That 2019 season ended with Lewis breaking both the single-season passing yards (3,050) and passing touchdowns (26) records for Louisiana. He became the first-ever quarterback in Louisiana history to surpass 3,000 passing yards, something even Jake Delhomme fell 99 yards short of.
The 2020 season was slated to be massive for both the Cajuns and Lewis as he prepared for what should have been his final season. COVID-19 complicated matters as the world shut down. For months, it was unknown if football would even be played during the 2020 season.
The Sun Belt Conference announced that the season would be played on Aug. 4, 2020. Though the season was to start following Labor Day, much later than normal, that did not matter to many as long as some normalcy could come back to the world.
The Cajuns kicked off the season with a win over 23 Iowa State Cyclones 31–14, their first ranked win since beating Texas A&M in 1996, setting the tone for the rest of the season.
Lewis would lead the Cajuns to their third straight Western Division title and the chance to play for the Sun Belt Championship against Coastal Carolina, a revenge game against the only team they lost to in the regular season. That game never came to be as a positive COVID-19 test within the Coastal program forced the game to be canceled.
Following a second straight bowl win in the First Responder Bowl against UTSA, the Cajuns finished the season 10–1 and ranked 15th in the country, the highest the team had ever been rated. Lewis was named Second Team All–Sun Belt Conference, the first Louisiana quarterback to earn All Conference honors since Blaine Gautier.
Though 2020 was Lewis’ senior season, due to COVID-19 he was able to play one more season of college football. The 2021 season proved to be the greatest season in Louisiana history.
After a loss to open the season against Texas 38–18, Lewis and the Cajuns won their next 13 games in a row. This included finally taking down the Mountaineers twice, with a 24–16 win during the Sun Belt Championship game at Cajun Field.
In his last game as a Cajun, Lewis would lead the team to its third straight bowl win over Marshall in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, 36–21.
His 270 passing yards and a touchdown, along with another 74 yards on the ground, earned him the bowl’s MVP.
Lewis ended his career with the Cajuns as the winningest quarterback in Cajuns history, going 35–7 as a starter.
He broke numerous records and currently holds the single-season passing yards and passing touchdowns records, as well as the career leader in touchdowns (74).
Lewis is second in career passing with 9,203, which falls just short of Delhomme’s 9,213.