Week 2 Preview: LA Tech at LSU
Death Valley awaits our arrival...
Too Cold
Louisiana Tech has played LSU a grand total of 21 times, having won only one game in their 125-year series of play. That was in 1904 when LSU made the grand ol’ three and a half hour trip up to Ruston where they would be beaten 6-0 by the Bulldogs. LSU has not been to Ruston to play a football game since 1913 and has not had an athletic team travel to Ruston for any competition at all in almost four years. It is a running joke among Bulldog fans that Ruston is just north enough to be too cold for our Tiger cohorts in Baton Rouge. Although 1904 was Tech’s last win, they have managed to keep a handful of games close, with a 16-24 loss in 2009 and a more recent 21-38 loss in 2018, not to mention last year’s defensive successes in holding LSU to 23 points while Brian Kelly lost his way. Now, Tech hopes to roll over any of their success against Northwestern State to at least show up as a formidable adversary in Tiger Stadium.
Louisiana State Strengths
Ten years ago, any given college football fan would have told you that an LSU-Clemson home and home series to stake the claim for the “Death Valley” stadium moniker was a legendary opportunity for back-to-back classics. Now it seems that Dabo Swinney has lost his way and so the longtime ACC paladins have become akin to punching bags for many teams with a pulse on their schedule, LSU being the Mike Tyson of this metaphor. Kiffin managed to score 51 points while holding Clemson to 10 (and only three for almost the entire game). Similar to Louisiana Tech, it may be necessary to evaluate LSU’s first game results with a grain of salt because of how far Clemson has fallen, however I will not act like Northwestern State and Clemson are equal opponents. It was a quality win and a statement to succeed against a tenured and historically talented program such as Clemson.
Offensively, you must give LSU credit for assembling an impressive cast of playmakers in the offseason. It is evident in just one game that Sam Leavitt is prepared for big time football again, going 16/28 passing for 230 yards through the air and a single touchdown. He would score another two TD’s on the ground after leading the team in rushing with 113 yards on 12 carries. The rest of their run game looks quite promising after an uncharacteristically down year last year for the LSU rushing attack. Dillin Jones reached 113 yards as well on a relatively high 23 carries, averaging about 5 yards after punching in two scores. We’ll see if that many carries continue to find Jones or if more backs get some chances to break out against the bulldogs.
I think we all expected the Blake Baker defense to persist in its improvement, especially alongside elite senior leaders that have hung around to make something special happen in their final year. One could draw many similarities between LSU and LA Tech’s teams last year, especially with the less-than-desirable quarterback play and defensive prowess throughout the season. Both teams are ultimately seeking offensive success to sit opposite of their existing elite defenses. LSU’s defense looked like it will continue this trend into this year after a supreme handling of Clemson’s offense. Four sacks, 10.5 TFLS, and a pick six makes you fear a squad on the schedule. I want to give this LSU team credit for these successes, and I will, but Clemson simply looked lost out on that field. It is obvious that they are going to have to continue searching for their guy at quarterback and the Clemson offensive line had pitiful push all game. As bad as Clemson may be now with Dabo’s refusal to acknowledge the modern era, LSU has appeared to be ready to move forward and plow through anyone with Kiffin at the helm.
Strategies and Goals
If you ask me, Louisiana Tech truly succeeded in their game against LSU last year. The bulldogs specialty is high performing defense that prevents easy first downs and emphasizes takeaways. That’s the Luke Olson way. When Garrett Nussmeier tossed one of his early passes right into the hands of Michael Richard last year, I exploded with joy. It was a display of fight. That is what I want this year.
Tech could get beat 14-56 but those 14 points would be hard earned and well respected. I just want Tech to get 3rd down conversions when they shouldn’t. I just want Tech to stop an inside zone here and there to make Lane Kiffin try hard to scheme against our defense. I want Sam Leavitt to throw less than 250 yards and turn over the ball at least once because of what looks we gave him. The most important thing Tech can do of course is avoid injury against living, breathing football machines being paid more than NFL rookies. The next best thing in my eyes is to make people in that stadium aggravated early, upsetting the expectation of dominance and forcing respect for my school.
Conclusions
This game might not really allow for anyone to learn anything yet again. Tech will search for chances to pick apart mistakes among LSU’s attempts to test players, concepts, and boundaries. Yes the main goal is to stay healthy but you always want to compete against the “bigger” school that expects victory by default. There is a chip on your shoulder as a state school that is a fraction of the size of the “flagship.” The million-dollar paycheck to play is nice but proving others wrong is a feeling money can never achieve. I’ll be there to watch my bulldogs attempt the impossible and I’ll have a good time regardless of the results. I’m just counting down the days until conference play where, in my mind, the most anticipated part of the fall really begins.
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