Do Sonny Cumbie and Louisiana Tech have what they need for a fast start? Willie Roaf ... Troy Edwards ... Fred Dean ... Jaylon Ferguson ... Vernon Butler ... If there's one thing we know about Louisiana Tech, it's that it can produce some high quality players. For most of the Skip Holtz era, the Bulldogs were able to field fun pieces and win games.
That's what made the end so jarring. The offense began to crumble in 2018, and the defense followed suit in 2020. Tech eked out a seventh straight bowl bid in 2020 thanks to some tight wins, but the bottom fell out with a 3-9 record and No. 108 SP+ ranking last fall. This was not a very fun team to watch.
New Bulldogs coach Sonny Cumbie has certainly been around plenty of fun football through the years. The Mike Leach disciple spent most of the last decade bouncing between assistant jobs at Texas Tech and TCU. He likes to play with tempo and sling the ball around, and he's got both a solid pair of receivers in Smoke Harris and Tre Harris and a couple of all-conference caliber linemen in center Abraham Delfin and guard Joshua Mote. We don't know if he's got a quarterback, though: All three of Tech's 2021 signal-callers are gone, so Cumbie brought in TCU backup Matthew Downing and Troy backup Parker McNeil. Downing knows the system, at least.
On defense, Cumbie brought in Stephen F. Austin coordinator Scott Power. SFA ranked 16th in FCS defensive SP+ last season thanks to massive disruption: 105 tackles for loss, 48.5 sacks, 15 interceptions. He should have a lot of fun with sophomores such as end Mykol Clarkand linebacker Tyler Grubbs, but there are almost no seniors, and the Bulldogs have to replace eight regulars. This seems like a recipe for an all-or-nothing unit ... and an all-or-nothing team, for that matter.
Ten Favorite Players:
LB Tyler Grubbs, Louisiana Tech. The only particularly experienced Tech linebacker is a keeper: Grubbs is a high-level talent whether he's pursuing the run (16 run stops) or dropping into coverage (26.1 QBR allowed).
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That's what made the end so jarring. The offense began to crumble in 2018, and the defense followed suit in 2020. Tech eked out a seventh straight bowl bid in 2020 thanks to some tight wins, but the bottom fell out with a 3-9 record and No. 108 SP+ ranking last fall. This was not a very fun team to watch.
New Bulldogs coach Sonny Cumbie has certainly been around plenty of fun football through the years. The Mike Leach disciple spent most of the last decade bouncing between assistant jobs at Texas Tech and TCU. He likes to play with tempo and sling the ball around, and he's got both a solid pair of receivers in Smoke Harris and Tre Harris and a couple of all-conference caliber linemen in center Abraham Delfin and guard Joshua Mote. We don't know if he's got a quarterback, though: All three of Tech's 2021 signal-callers are gone, so Cumbie brought in TCU backup Matthew Downing and Troy backup Parker McNeil. Downing knows the system, at least.
On defense, Cumbie brought in Stephen F. Austin coordinator Scott Power. SFA ranked 16th in FCS defensive SP+ last season thanks to massive disruption: 105 tackles for loss, 48.5 sacks, 15 interceptions. He should have a lot of fun with sophomores such as end Mykol Clarkand linebacker Tyler Grubbs, but there are almost no seniors, and the Bulldogs have to replace eight regulars. This seems like a recipe for an all-or-nothing unit ... and an all-or-nothing team, for that matter.
Ten Favorite Players:
LB Tyler Grubbs, Louisiana Tech. The only particularly experienced Tech linebacker is a keeper: Grubbs is a high-level talent whether he's pursuing the run (16 run stops) or dropping into coverage (26.1 QBR allowed).
Conference USA preview: Can Florida Atlantic, Charlotte take step up?
With changes to Conference USA (and more on the way), we look at the teams that have work to do to challenge the top contenders.
