-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
Struggling La Tech looks to play WAC spoiler
Archive
Comments
Story
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs’ 2006 non-conference performance left them with a lot of room for improvement. A rugged schedule against three perennial power conference teams resulted in three losses the Bulldogs would quickly like to forget. Blowout losses at Nebraska and Texas A&M and a 51-0 spanking at Clemson have Louisiana Tech Head Coach Jack Bicknell excited about starting Western Athletic Conference play.
“We’re excited to get in conference, this to me is the start of our season right here,” Bicknell said. “Once you start to get into conference then it really gets exciting and we’re very excited to play a very good football team. Obviously it’s another huge challenge for us, which we’ve been kind of going through this year. But you know I’m excited about it.”
Playing a tough non-conference schedule is nothing new to Louisiana Tech football and they’ll feel like this is advantageous over other WAC opponents.
“Two years ago we go Miami, Auburn, Tennessee and we end up third in the WAC,” Bicknell said. “You know last year we had some tough games and ended up third in the WAC. All I know is this, the last two years, people talk a lot about a lot of different teams, but Louisiana Tech has been third in the WAC the last two years. But the big thing is, hey we’re in our league now, it’s a new season let’s get fired up, the things we got to get taken care of let’s get them taken care of and let’s go get them.”
Last week against No. 18 Clemson, the Bulldog defense surrendered 526 total yards of Clemson offense (393 of which came on the ground). An even tougher statistic to swallow may be that three Clemson running backs went over 100 yards in the game.
“It’s not easy, I mean I’m not going to sit here and say everything’s rosy and everyone is all fired up” Bicknell said. “But I think it starts with the head coach. I think that how you handle things is very important and you know the big thing that I want them to get out of that is look guys, I’ve been in this thing a long time and we’ve played people like this. I’m just telling you this can happen when you play a team of this caliber.”
The Bulldogs don’t plan on letting their early season woes keep them from playing with heart for the remainder of the year.
“The only thing I care about as a coach is that we play hard and we don’t give up on each other and I don’t think we’re going to do that,” Bicknell said. “I tell you what, I really like the character of our football team and how our guys are reacting. We’re down 51-0 and we’re punting the ball out of our own end zone and you look at our team and it looks like its 7-7 in the first quarter.”
The Bulldogs will get a good taste of where they stand in the WAC this weekend as they get set to take on the red-hot Boise State Broncos. When asked about how similar this Boise State team is to the successful Bronco teams of years past, Bicknell said he felt the similarities are everywhere.
“They just seem to reload with great players,” Bicknell said. “First of all their scheme is fantastic, their coaches do a great job and they’ve got great players.”
Even with the struggles his team has gone through early this season, Coach Bicknell doesn’t plan on making any personnel changes.
“You know it sounds crazy obviously with the games that we’ve had, but I like our team very much,” Bicknell said. “We’ve gone through some growing pains but we’re going to stick with what we’re doing. The nice thing is, sometimes as a coach you look out there and say you know what, we may not just be good enough. I don’t feel that way. I’m very happy with our Quarterback, he’s shown extreme confidence, you know he’s a winner. He’s a guy that we can rally around. So it may sound crazy but I’m sitting here fired up and anxious to get into our league and see what we can do."
KYE JOHNSON
Assistant Sports Editor