Head Coach: Sonny Cumbie is entering his 3rd year as the head coach of the Bulldogs with a 6-18 record. It felt like he was going to hit his breakthrough last season when they opened with a 3-3 record (2-0 in conference), but they absolutely collapsed down the stretch with an 0-6 finish. Louisiana Tech expects to compete toward the top of this conference so Cumbie will be hoping that breakthrough comes this season.
Program Outlook: Rewind to 2019, Louisiana Tech picked up an incredible yet ugly 14-0 bowl win over the Miami Hurricanes, it was their 6th straight bowl victory and most of those seasons were between 8-9 wins, with that Independence bowl victory being their first 10 win season. Covid interrupted the success the Skip Holtz era had, they dropped to 5-5 in 2020 and then collapsed to 4-8 in 2021, and Holtz was let go. This program is itching to get back into contention and it’s clear they’re plenty capable of doing so, the challenge will be getting out of the slump they are currently in.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: There’s some question marks here. For starters, Louisiana Tech had some really electric pieces for their passing game the first 2 years of the Cumbie era and it never really came together. Now there’s a lot of new pieces here. Hank Bachmeier is off to Wake Forest, leaving sophomore Jack Turner who played/started a few games last year as the likely starter, although they could call on Southern Miss transfer Ty Keyes as well. Receiver is a question mark too, their top 3 receivers from last season are all gone. Bowling Green transfer Abdul-Fatai Ibrahim is a candidate to lead the way, and maybe hopefully this is finally the year we get to see Decoldest Crawford unleashed. The run game being more reliable could help, getting Marquis Crosby back this season is a huge boost he missed most of last season due to injury. The offensive line lost a few pieces from last year but there’s some really good transfers that will help there. Mentioning transfers the Bulldogs went very transfer heavy on defense, whether it was from the portal or the JUCO route they took on all comers on the defensive side. It is with good reason, they struggled immensely on this side of the ball last year, their run defense struggled to provide any sort of resistance and it wasn’t that much better against the pass.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: This schedule isn’t bad, La Tech only needs a few pieces to come together to make a bowl. NC State will be a rough game, and maybe Arkansas will be as well. The CUSA schedule does them a favor because they avoid Liberty. There’s no gimmie games either. Nicholls won the Southland last year and could have a good FCS team again, and Tulsa will have a young talented team as well.
Vegas Projection: Louisiana Tech’s win total is set at 4.5 with the odds geared toward the over. Some improvement seems to be expected but not enough for a bowl.
2024 Best Case: The offense is finally consistent and the transfers help the defense improve. The Bulldogs open with a win and then give NC State a run for their money before relenting. They beat Tulsa and then take down FIU to start conference play strong. This allows La Tech to pick up momentum and they win the next 5 to set up a showdown with Western Kentucky in a game that decides who will play Liberty for the conference title. Turner throws a late TD to lead the Bulldogs over the Tops for a massive win! They get an opportunity against a struggling Arkansas with interim head coach Bobby Petrino, the Razorbacks players have mostly given up at this point and it’s apparent when Louisiana Tech surprisingly routs them by 21. They finish with a strong win over Kennesaw State to set up a conference championship showdown with Liberty. The Bulldogs aren’t able to pull off the victory over the Flames but after a bowl win to end with 12 wins it’s apparent the program is back in a great spot. What’s even better is LSU collapses, Tulane/Louisiana disappoint leaving La Tech as the only double digit win team from the state.
2024 Worst Case: The new pieces in the passing game don’t come together and the defense continues to struggle. It’s apparent from the beginning that things are wrong when the Bulldogs lose the opener to Nicholls and are blown out by NC State. They never gain momentum from there in a total collapse, eventually ending up 0-12. It’s a disaster of a season and the program wonders how they can get back to competing.
Welcome to Updog Sports Talk 
Leave a comment