Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Louisiana Tech season with what you need to know and keys to the season.
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Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Preview
Head Coach: Sonny Cumbie, 1st year at Louisiana Tech
2nd year overall: 2-3: 2021 Preview
2021 Record: Overall: 3-9, Conference: 2-6
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Louisiana Tech Top 10 Players | Louisiana Tech Schedule
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Preview 2022
Now we get to see what the master coordinator can do running his own show.
Sonny Cumbie did what he could last year at Texas Tech, stepping in for the fired Matt Wells late in the season and did enough to lead the way to a bowl appearance and win. Now he gets his first full-time head coaching gig, and now Louisiana Tech is going to have a whole lot of fun.
At least the offense is going to be a whole lot of fun.
It might take a little while for the high-octane passing style to find its groove, but in a rebuilding year Louisiana Tech took its lumps at several positions and now has enough veterans and good players to build around to make this all go.
There hasn’t been a conference championship since 2011, just that one since 2001, and just those two since 1984. There was success over the years under Skip Holtz, but the program couldn’t get over the hump even though it got to two Conference USA championship games.
How do you turn around a 3-9 team fast? You crank up the pressure on both sides of the ball.
The offense is going to attack, the defense is going to attack, and this is going to be one of those teams that makes everyone else in the conference worry.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Preview 2022: Offense
Again, 2021 was supposed to be a bit of a rebuilding year, but it wasn’t supposed to be so much of a struggle. The defense was the bigger problem, but the offense didn’t consistently do enough to help the cause.
The O got relatively decent blocking, but the running game wasn’t good enough, the passing attack wasn’t efficient enough, and there were WAY too many turnovers. There are going to be changes, but first …
It would help if the Bulldogs had a quarterback who was ready to be THE GUY. Parker McNeil is a big bomber who started at Troy and spent last year as a backup at Texas Tech – Cumbie knows what he can do.
Former Georgia Bulldog and TCU Horned Frog Matthew Downing at least has a wee bit of experience. Andrew Brister – Bubby’s kid – is on the roster. Someone has to grab the gig in fall camp.
The quarterback situation might be up in the air, but the receivers are there. Smoke Harris is a 5-6 baller who led the way with 71 catches and six scores, Tre Harris is a 6-2 deep threat who caught 41 passes, and Griffin Herbert is a good veteran who fits the new attack.
The offensive line is a plus. The all-star combination of Joshua Mote at one guard spot and Abraham Delfin at center is a great place to start in the interior, and Dakota White is a good-looking tackle on one side.
The passing game might be the star of the offense, and leading rusher Marcus Williams is done, but Greg Garner should be solid with more work and former Vanderbilt transfer Keyon Henry-Brooks should be more of a factor.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Preview 2022: Defense
The defense might need to go several miles to merely be okay, but at least this bunch will be turned loose to try to make a whole lot of big plays. New defensive coordinator Scott Power comes in from Stephen F. Austin where his defense lived behind the line and came up with a whole lot of takeaways.
Experience is going to mean something here – and there’s all-star power to work around – from a group that was 106th in the nation in total defense 114th in scoring D.
There wasn’t enough of a pass rush last season, but again, the new coaching staff is going to go out of its way to make sure the D gets into the backfield. Leading sacker Ben Bell might be in the transfer portal, but he only came up with 3.5 sacks.
301-pound Keivie Rose is a good one on the nose, Mykol Clark earned all-star honors at one end, and the back seven is going to help make big things happen, too, starting with …
Linebacker Tyler Grubbs led the team in tackles and tackles for loss. He’s the best of the bunch with new parts filling in for second-leading tackler Trey Baldwin and the speedy Ezekiel Barnett.
The secondary has a good playmaker in safety BeeJay Williamson and a returning starter in corner Cedric Woods. Expect more out of this group if the pass rush really does rise up.
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Louisiana Tech Top 10 Players | Louisiana Tech Schedule
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats NEXT
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs: Key To The 2022 Offense
Don’t turn the ball over.
It’s not like just any quarterback and group of receivers can show up and run Sonny Cumbie’s high-powered passing attack. It requires amazing timing, precision, and it’s not going to kick in right away – and that’s okay.
There should be enough of a running game to get by at times, and there will be moments when the machine works like it’s supposed to. However, there can’t be the mistakes like there were last year.
The Bulldogs turned it over 23 times – melting down with eight giveaways in winnable games against Southern Miss and Rice to close things out. They went 0-6 when they turned it over multiple times.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs: Key To The 2022 Defense
Be much, much better in the red zone.
There were a whole lot of issues against a whole lot of mediocre offenses last year. The big issue was the painful inability to hold up at the end of long drives.
Louisiana Tech was among the worst teams in the country – and last in Conference USA – in red zone defense, allowing teams to score more than 90% of the time after getting inside the 20. That was a problem in 2020, too, after allowing teams to score just 65% of the time in the red zone in 2019.
Worst of all, it allowed touchdowns on 71% of those trips – only 12 teams allowed more.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs: Key Player To The 2022 Season
QB Matthew Downing, Jr.
Or Parker McNeil, or Andrew Brister, or Landry Lyddy. The quarterback play was okay over the last few years, but wasn’t anything special. At least it wasn’t at the level it needs to be going forward.
Downing (TCU) and McNeil (Texas Tech) are the two most likely options to run the high-powered passing attack, and there could quickly be a switch if one of them isn’t rocking. Don’t completely discount the potential of another transfer coming late in the process.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs: Key Transfer
WR Devonta Lee, Jr.
The key transfer is actually whatever quarterback takes over the job – assuming it’s one of the two transfers – but that’s a given. If Devonta Lee grows into a star, the Bulldogs might have the best receiving corps in Conference USA.
The 6-2, 215-pound former LSU Tiger was a star recruit, but he didn’t do a whole lot with 11 catches in his three seasons. He’s coming in to be a factor right away.
Louisiana Tech Key Game To The 2022 Season
at UTSA, Nov. 12
It’s going to be a rough start to the season with three road games in the first four – more on that in the next section – but then things start to ease up. The Conference USA schedule just isn’t that bad with Marshall gone to the Sun Belt and with most of the top teams from the East not on the slate.
Even with all of the changes and all the concerns, Louisiana Tech might just be the favorite in five straight games before taking the trip to UTSA to face the defending conference champs. With at Charlotte and UAB to close, it’s going to be a rough finishing kick.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs: 2021 Fun Stats
– Fumbles: Opponents 19 (lost 13) – Louisiana Tech 14 (lost 7)
– Penalty yards per game: Opponents 72.92 – Louisiana Tech 52.08
– Time of Possession: Opponents 31:17 – Louisiana Tech 28:31
O. D Breakdown | Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Louisiana Tech Top 10 Players | Louisiana Tech Schedule
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Season Prediction, What Will Happen NEXT
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Season Prediction, What Will Happen
It’s going to come together, and there will be times when the offense clicks on all levels and rips through defenses like butter, but how fast will that happen?
It’s not like Louisiana Tech is starting from scratch with Sonny Cumbie and the offensive style, and there are plenty of good defensive veterans to make the situation okay after taking a few lumps.
Two other key things will play a role here. 1) Last year’s team went young at times. There’s enough experience back to know where lots of the pieces are going to fit. 2) The schedule just isn’t very hard … in the middle.
Now, to the first part of that, it’s all good, but it would be nice if there was a sure-thing veteran quarterback who could step right in and wing it around for 4,000 yards. And to the second part, the middle might be easy, but the beginning and end are a bear.
Set The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Regular Season Win Total At … 6
Unless something huge happens, Louisiana Tech will lose on the road at Missouri and Clemson to start the season. The South Alabama road game is more than winnable, but that’s a third road game in four weeks coming off that date at Clemson.
At UTSA, at Charlotte, UAB. That’s not like dealing with a slew of superpowers, but that’s a rough final three games. Louisiana Tech has to win one of those, it has to go 2-2 to start the season, and everything in the middle has to click after the week off to start October.
UTEP, at North Texas, Rice, at FIU, Middle Tennessee. Go 4-1 against those five, and it’s going to be a bowl season. Go 3-2 and things start to get a bit iffy.
It’ll be a bowl season in Cumbie’s first year.
Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
Louisiana Tech Top 10 Players | Louisiana Tech Schedule
