Louisiana Tech Bulldogs College Football Pregame Quote, 09/29/2020

On LA Tech so far this season:

It’s been anything but normal to get to where we are right now. It has certainly been a testament to this team that we’ve been able to be 2-0 at this point. To go out and do what we did against Southern Miss with all the hurdles off the field that we had the two weeks prior to that game. To find ourselves down 17 points and to go win that game. I made the comment that week we were going to learn a lot about our football team. Being heavily favored last week, we were going to learn a lot about our team and how we were going to play when we were expected to win. If we were going to go out and we were going to try and play to a standard, or if we were going to try to play to our opponent. I was really proud of the job the football team did on the field Saturday. There were some great individual performances. They were really focused. They were dialed in. Offensively, any time you can score that many points, you’re doing something right. A number of guys on the two-deep really stepped up and did some great things for us. Defensively, we continue to be a work in progress with a new defensive coordinator, new terminology, a lot of new faces, a lot of younger players that are playing. Graduating seven of your defensive backs last year is certainly not the year you want to come in and miss spring ball and miss all your summer conditioning and try to learn a little bit about your team. On top of that, we’ve had to play three quarterbacks who all of them will probably have to be ranked in the top 10 if not the top five when you look at Jack Abraham and the production that he’s had throwing the ball at Southern Miss. When you look at Bailey (Zappe) last week in Houston Baptist and what we’re facing this week in BYU. We have had not only to break in some new faces and some new players and try to get everybody on the same page, but we have had one heck of a challenge here for the first three weeks. It’s why I said we keep learning a little bit about our team each and every week, and I’ve been excited about the way they’ve answered the first two challenges, but certainly understanding the challenge we have this week with BYU.

On BYU:

They are putting up gaudy numbers right now when you look at them statistically. Offensively, they have six or seven statistics that they’re ranked the top 10 in the country. We talked about time of possession. That’s hard to do when Navy is one of your opponents. Normally, Navy is one of those teams that runs up the time of possession because of the way they run the ball. BYU did just the opposite. They controlled the line of scrimmage. They have a big offensive line. Then, came back the next week against Troy and dominated it with the passing game and controlled the ball. They’re very accurate with what they do. It’s going to be one heck of a challenge for our defense because when you have an offense that is as multiple and can be successful on the ground as well as through the air, it makes them very difficult to stop when they have the balance BYU has right now. They’re a very experienced team. They’re a very seasoned team. They’re a very mature team, big, physical, strong, athletic. It’s going to be a heck of a challenge on defense. The same thing when you look at them on defense, statistically they’re even better. They lead the country in four statistics defensively. They’re doing some great things. It starts in the middle, obviously, with that defensive line. They’re big. They’re fundamental. They’re very well-coached. They do what they want to do. They’re not real complicated. It’s not scheme with what they’re doing, it’s talent and it’s fundamentals. I’ve really been impressed. They’re a fun team to watch play because they are so well-coached. There are not a lot of holes. This isn’t a gimmick game. This isn’t a scheme game. This is a game you’re going to have to line up and earn it. That’s one of the reasons BYU is a ranked team. A lot of people have said it’s one of the better BYU teams they’ve had in quite a while. I’ve certainly been impressed watching them outscore their opponents 103-10 in their first two football games. Last week is gone, this is a new week. I’m just trying to get our football team ready for a short week, travel, first plane game where we’re going to get on a plane to go play the game. We’ll learn even more about our football team through this week as we play this game on the road. I regret that BYU is not able to have any fans in the stands right now. It’s always one of the things I’ve enjoyed about going to BYU the most has been they have a very passionate fanbase and it’s been a great venue and a great environment to play in because of the crowd noise. With them not being there, it’s still going to be a beautiful setting in having the opportunity to visit there, but I’m certainly going to miss the environment that their fanbase creates in that stadium.

On how important the momentum from LA Tech’s offensive performance against Houston Baptist is going into BYU:

As we talked about, statistically, it’s just gaudy. You look at it and say, ‚ÄòHow in the world are you going to move the ball on their defense?’ You say, ‚ÄòWell, hopefully, our defense will be able to shut down our offense.’ But then you ask how in the world are we going to stop their defense? Hopefully, we can control the ball, but you have to go against that defense. It is a heck of a challenge for us this week. Confidence? I was proud of the way the offensive line played and the things they did led by Kody Russey, Joshua Mote, Tank (Antawn) Lewis, (Abraham) Delfin, Donavaughn Campbell keeps getting better and better being forced into a new position at tackle. Those guys are playing well. But, really, as well as Luke Anthony played, the receivers really stepped up. It’s nice to see that three-headed monster in the backfield continuing to do what they’re doing. Both Justin Henderson and Israel Tucker averaged seven yards a carry last week. We had seven receivers who had two or more catches at prominent times in the game somewhere between 30 to 80 or 90 yards. There’s a lot of guys who are contributing to that right now. This is not, ‚ÄòOh, I’m just looking for that guy and throwing to him.’ Luke’s doing a really nice job of taking what a defense is giving him. Guys are stepping up like Wayne Toussant and Jawaun Johnson who are starting to give us a little bit more depth at the wide receiver position which is going to be critical for our success against a quality defense like we’re playing this week.