Each week here on the Tangilena.com website I’ll take a look at the state of college football in Louisiana. 

Here we go. 

The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs are for real! Tech should roll through WAC play this season and so far they have been solid in wins over Houston and Rice.

The next three-game stretch for the Bulldogs will give us a gauge if this team will be a top 25 club this season. Tech hits the road for games at Illinois this weekend followed by a trip to Virginia and then they battle Texas A&M on October 13. If Tech can win two of those three, they should finish the season well within the top 25 in 2012.

The battle for the Sunbelt title looks like it will come down to ULM and ULL. The Cajuns are coming off a season in which they won the New Orleans Bowl and the Warhawks have impressed everyone in the country with solid road outings against the SEC’s Hogs and Auburn Tigers.

Last season these two played one of the best games in recent memory as the Cajuns scored two late TDs in the final minutes to win and go on to a bowl.

I think that both of these teams will make it to a bowl this season and that would give Louisiana four bowl teams for the first time in like forever!

ULM QB Kolton Browning is the MVP in Louisiana so far and the young man has raised his stock so far that he is going to be an NFL draft pick who could hear his name way earlier than any of us expected.

Tulane is struggling through growing pains and a new coach. I do think that Coach Curtis Johnson will right the ship in Uptown New Orleans but it is going to take some time.

Tulane is in for a long season but the value of playing many freshmen and sophomores will only make the Green Wave better in coming seasons. Right now the focus should be on improvement and recruiting, two areas that CJ is excellent in. The Wave shall roll again.

McNeese State looks like the class of the Division I-AA schools so far.

Nicholls, Southeastern, Northwestern State and Grambling are all trying to find their identity. The Cowboys are the one constant in Louisiana I-AA football and you can expect McNeese to make a run at the Southland title this season. And we wrap up in the Capitol City of Baton Rouge. The Tigers have some big test upcoming in the form of games at Auburn and in early October a trip to Florida is looking more and more dangerous.

The key for the Tigers is QB Zach Mettenberger improving.

The young gunslinger has all the skills needed to be a very good QB and the Tigers really don’t need him to carry them.

When the game is on the line, Mettenberger will have to lead his team. And finally we end our first Boot Report in Jaguar Land.

After getting 66 points scored on them the first week of the season and then their most recent embarrassing loss to Mississippi Valley, the Jaguars will have a new coach.

Last weekend Southern officially parted ways with Stump Mitchell.

Mitchell was fired last Friday after Southern's loss 6-0 to the Delta Devils on national TV.

Mitchell was not the right man for the job and Southern fans knew it from the start. Mitchell never really understood the importance of being coach at Southern as he seemingly underestimated the level of play in the SWAC. And he overestimated his ability to coach in this conference.

Mitchell embarrassed the Southern fans and the person who hired him had no business being the AD at Southern either.

That chapter is finally over and thank goodness the higher ups did not wait any longer to cut ties with Stump.

This weekend’s state college football games

Baylor @ UL Monroe (Friday)

Ole Miss @ Tulane

LSU @ Auburn

Louisiana Tech @ Illinois

Southern @ Jackson State

Evangel @ Nicholls State

Mississippi Valley State @ Northwestern State

McNeese State @ Southeastern

Wesley @ Louisiana College

**UL Lafayette and Grambling State are both off this weekend