It sure wasn't pretty a lot of the time, but Auburn used some timely catches from D'haquille Williams, a solid performance defensively and Kansas State made a few key mistakes along the way (3 missed field goals and what should have been a TD catch turning into an interception immediately come to mind) as the Tigers escaped Manhattan, Kansas with a 20-14 Thursday night win. Auburn will look to get the offense back on track this week as they take on Louisiana Tech from Conference USA. They will need to correct some things as after this game with Louisiana Tech, Auburn faces nothing but top 25 teams the rest of the way with the exception of a visit from the Samford Bulldogs on November 22nd. That game is sandwiched by road games at Georgia and Alabama. We can't worry about any of those yet though, the focus has to be on the Bulldogs from Ruston, Louisiana.
Now to talk about the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. They enter this game at Jordan-Hare Stadium with a 2-2 record, 1-0 in Conference USA play. They began the season with a loss on the road to Oklahoma, but then proceeded to bounce back with strong road performances against Louisiana Lafayette and North Texas. They routed the Rajin' Cajuns by a 48-20 score and the Mean Green 42-21. Their most recent game was a home loss to FCS Northwestern State by a final of 30-27. Five turnovers ended up doing in the Bulldogs as they blew a 27-17 lead with about eight and a half minutes remaining in that game. Louisiana Tech was a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 2001 through 2012 before conference realignment took over and they wound up in Conference USA. They are coached by Skip Holtz. Yes, Skip is the son of former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz. Prior to taking the job at Louisiana Tech, Skip had successful stops at UConn (before the Huskies were a FBS program) and East Carolina. He coached at South Florida for three years where he had a nice first year, but then the bottom fell out in 2011 and 2012 where he and the Bulls when a combined 8-16 and he lost his job. Skip is in his second season as the head coach at the helm of the Louisiana Tech program where he is hoping to get back on his feet and win some games in Ruston.
The Bulldogs starting QB is Cody Sokol, who has an interesting story. He began his college career out here in Scottsdale at Scottsdale Community College. He was all-region as a freshman before truly taking off as a sophomore where he was the Regional Player of the Year. Cody threw for 3807 yards to go along with 43 TD passes against just 10 interceptions. That got attention from FBS programs across the country. Cody decided the Iowa Hawkeyes were the team he wanted to play for. He redshirted in 2012 and didn't really play at all last year for Iowa. He only got into one game and had no stats. He decided things weren't working out for him in Iowa City and transferred to Louisiana Tech where he had immediate eligibility. His stats don't look too bad through four games as he's thrown for 1009 yards and has a 2 to 1 TD to interception ratio (10 TDs, 5 INTS). He had a clunker of a game against Northwestern State where he threw three interceptions. Cody doesn't seem to be much of a threat as a runner as he has only rushed for 57 yards through four games. Running back Kenneth Dixon has had a solid start to the season as he has rushed for 404 yards and 5 touchdowns and has also caught 8 balls for 63 yards and a couple scores. They have a balanced wide receiving core. Paul Turner, Hunter Lee, Sterling Griffin and Trent Taylor have all caught at least 14 balls, have at least 150 yards receiving and they've split the TD catches nicely amongst themselves (Griffin has 1 TD catch while Turner, Lee and Taylor have two apiece). Looking at their website, I'm honestly not too sure what to expect out of them defensively. I'm sure they'll try and slow down Auburn's rushing attack in hopes of making Nick Marshall a passer like Kansas State did.
For Louisiana Tech to have a shot in this one, they're gonna need to slow the game down to a snail's pace. Their best defense will be to keep Auburn's offense on the sidelines. I just can't see it happening. While it might make sense that Auburn could be looking slightly ahead to their matchup with LSU the following week, there's no doubt head coach Gus Malzahn will want to make sure to work out the kinks from the last game so he feels good about the offense going into the rest of the season. Cameron Artis-Payne, Nick Marshall and Corey Grant should put on a show while Sammy Coates and D'haquille Williams also get into the act. The defense will be mostly solid, forcing Cody Sokol into a couple bad throws while keeping Kenneth Dixon at bay. Auburn wins in a rout.
My Call: Auburn 55, Louisiana Tech 17
No comments:
Post a Comment