A Win to be Remembered

Like many people, I personally consider an 80-6 victory over a school you have a little hatred for to be a moderate success. This win also meant a multitude of broken scoring records, including most first half points ever scored by Louisiana Tech with 63 and most points scored in a game by Tech while they have been a D1 Football Team with 80. There are numerous things to take away from this game, but most of them should be evaluated with a grain of salt. Northwestern State is really, really bad right now. Their program is obviously in a ruinous state and it is tough to accept any positive performance against a team that has been struggling to find success for over a year now. That being said, 80 points is 80 points and if you are going to play a distraught, broken team, 80 points is a good way to show that you may be good enough to compete against a team with actual competence.

Offensive Reflections

Let’s begin discussing quarterback play. At about the halfway mark in the first quarter, Blake Baker had three total passes, all completions, two of which were touchdown throws. The first play of the season was Baker’s first pass, an apparent RPO that was bulleted to Jalen Mickens between the hashes for a 75 yard touchdown. The second, an eight yard out route to Eli Finley in the slot for a first down. The third, a 27 yard cannon shot to Jay Wilkerson that also got into the endzone. His third TD came on another deep throw to Eli Finley for a 29 yard score in the second quarter. Just like I had hoped, the playcalling really did test Baker’s ability to succeed in the middle of the field and although there were a lot of quick throws, almost all of them between the hashes were through traffic and succeeded for big gains, making me excited for the slot potential this year. Baker would end the night 10/14 passing with 232 yards and three touchdowns.

Trey Kukuk also showed up to play very well as promised. Kukuk had multiple big runs out of the shotgun to earn first downs in the first half and would be allowed to throw four total times in the second half, all completions with two resulting in touchdowns. I am so excited for the use of Kukuk in this offense, especially after this game. Sophomore Jackson Bradley also had some time in at QB, but his role was mainly to hand the ball off for clock draining purposes. One of my favorite plays of the night came on a trick play touchdown that got the ball into the hands of now-tight-end Josh Brantley where he tossed the ball to Talyn Shettron for a 16-yard score. Brantley was a state champion quarterback that played for Ruston High School and began his college career at Tulane where he was unable to see any action. He took his talents to Ruston in the offseason transfer portal and now he is using his athleticism in the TE spot to do incredible things like this. It seems like OC Nathan Young and his staff really understand what they have on the roster and from the playcalling and player usage in this game, I think offensive success is going to be possible in a lot of different ways.

I have a little more faith about the wideout position after seeing who we have running routes on most of the snaps. Jalen Mickens especially impressed, working his way in as a playmaker in many ways. Not only did Mickens catch three balls for 133 yards and a touchdown, he also worked his way into the game as a rusher on plays that picked up 31 yards on two carries. His speed and catching through traffic was astounding and I already have confidence that the staff knows how to use his abilities well in the scheme. Talyn Shettron also looked exciting even if he had limited targets, with his few receptions highlighted with outstanding speed for his size. Jay Wilkerson looks good in his return from injury and Luke Watkins may be primed for a breakout as he had a sweet 35 yard touchdown grab getting deep quickly in a great play action call. I haven’t even touched on Eli Finley who is already getting the attention he deserves with his talent. Finley was given numerous opportunities to get the ball and delivered every time, including a great 29-yard grab of a great throw early in the game. It’s nice to finally see some more intentional incorporation of Finley into the scheme and he is obviously going to be a reliable, consistent target moving forward.

Now I think where we really learned the least about this team offensively is with the running back room. While the team did total 232 rushing yards, carries were spread and their successes seemed to result from a very dominant offensive line that simply outclasses NSU. Jaden Miller got much fewer carries than we were expecting, with most of the first half touches going to Dylone Brooks who would average eight yards on six carries for 49 total yards. Brooks had noticeable quickness and game sense for allowing blockers to get ahead so that he could get the most out of plays. Miller did manage to fight his way in for a score on a red zone run, which did prove promising for his abilities in that part of the field. Andrew Burnette was saved for the second half where he would be utilized to burn the game clock, amassing 34 yards on seven carries for a 4.9 average to pick up right where he left off with excellent field vision and bursting speed to power through defenders. Depth looks alright for now, but we will need to see how these backs will respond to higher carry counts. Maybe it won’t ever even need to happen though.

My final offensive takeaway regards the line. Our starters looked great in this game. Strong blocks to force holes in the run, smart directional choices, good pass pro and very clean football apart from an early holding call. I wasn’t too worried about our starters up front going into this year, and even if our guys clearly outmatched the NSU trenches, I was reaffirmed in my confidence about the line. Now things did shift a bit when we got into the late third and fourth quarter and the backups funneled in. The push for zone runs inside was noticeably less successful, and that is honestly most of what was run at that point in the game. Like all less wealthy programs, Louisiana Tech is going to have to be extremely careful in trying to maintain health on this offensive line, as the depth is a point of weakness and while we may not need to worry yet, prepare to freak out if we ever lose any pieces of this blocking corps.

Defensive Reflections

I think it is safe to say that Tech’s defense in this game completely controlled their opponent for almost all 60 minutes. NSU only scored six points on two field goals and finished the game with only 129 total offensive yards, a grand majority of which were achieved on their first drive and on the downs played against Tech third-stringers.

Tech only had two total sacks, with two half-sacks coming from Donovan Rieman and Kaleb Coleman and a full sack from Jacob Bradford, all defensive lineman. While that sack number might be low, being at this game I could tell you that there was immense pressure on the quarterback, causing many premature inaccurate throws via hurries. For almost the entire game, almost zero success came for NSU on runs between the tackles and on their two scoring drives, most of their first downs were achieved running or short-passing to the outside. I haven’t even mentioned the forced fumble from Jacob Bradford to top off his day. A pretty strong start for our D-line that I wanted to see more production from this year. We will have to see how they perform against elite blocking and running talent next week, especially with the need to contain a QB so comfortable running like Sam Leavitt.

The linebackers in this game were absolutely as promised, with a plethora of impactful TFL’s and involved tackles from almost every headliner we have. Kolbe Fields seemed to ward the ball away from him on most plays and his pursuit of the ball was almost preemptive every time. Zheric Hill, Alonzo Jackson, and Jadon Mayfield all looked phenomenal, with Jackson even managing an athletic backwards-diving interception on a midfield lurk. It looked like something right out of an EA game. Again, safe to say that so far these highly touted linebackers are as advertised.

An underrated part of this defensive performance was from the DB’s, who only allowed five total completions for 43 total yards. Additionally, JUCO transfer Sam Fongang had seven total tackles, three solo tackles and a TFL in his bulldog debut. He was consistently involved in the presence of the ball when it entered his side of the field. Janard Lockhardt was a part of three pass breakups and had two solo tackles as well. Amari Butler, Damien Richard II, and Jordan McCrae are some more names to begin hyping up as their impacts in defending the pass game looked good on Saturday.

Special Teams, Special Players

A big concern for many bulldogs fans over these past couple years has been the effectiveness of the special teams unit. More specifically the kicking group, since our kick and punt returning has been actually surprisingly successful in recent seasons. This year, Kaegan Kent has heeded the role of kicking extra points and was 10/10 on Saturday, giving us consistency where there was less than desired last year. Hunter Rioux is kicking off this year and every kick against NSU was booted through the end-zone, almost entirely unreturnable. Rioux also kicked on our only field goal attempt in this game and made it from 49 yards. Although his kick may have been a bit low, I have been given some reassurance on this phase of the game already. We only had to punt twice, both times towards the end of the game but both were well placed, shorter attempts by Lexington Matthews. I’m willing to bet we will see a lot more of him against LSU so we will have a better grasp on how Tech hopes to replace the immaculate production of John Hoyet Chance from last year. Lastly, I must mention the Sun Belt special teams player of the week, Dedrick Latulas. Latulas has been a consistent bright spot in the punt return game for many years at Tech now, but versus NSU, he was able to achieve his first punt return touchdown on a 58 yard return and totaled 97 return yards on the night. Pretty good showing from a fan-favorite, loyal bulldog for life in #3.

Conclusions

Yes, this was an FCS opponent. Yes, it was a team that lost to NAIA Louisiana Christian. Yes, NSU may never win another football game as a D1 school again. To be honest, I really don’t care. Northwestern State has plagued the hearts and minds of Tech fans for over a decade and retribution can be found in games like these. Playing another school in the state, especially one that you shared many many rivalry games with in the past, is a heated game. I will want to demolish them, every time. Especially when said team walked into my town 12 years ago and made us suffer one of the most embarrassing losses in college football history. I celebrate the win against a school that deserved such a beating and I will never forget this night, as it was my final first game of the football season as a student at Louisiana Tech.