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  • Louisiana Tech @ Texas 7 PM 8/31 on LHN


    Machinator

    It is no longer "way too early". Game week is here.

    Time to go 1-0.

    H/T to @Bevo for digging this up.

    LA Tech football depth chart projections ahead of 2019 opener at Texas

    https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/sports/college/louisiana-tech/2019/08/23/louisiana-tech-football-depth-chart-projections/2098111001/

    RUSTON — Game week is upon Louisiana Tech, which’ll begin preparations for its season opener versus No. 10 Texas Saturday morning after the team conducts a closed scrimmage Friday.

    The next media availability for Tech head coach Skip Holtz and a few players will be Tuesday for the first weekly press conference of the year and the first official depth chart will be provided.

    With the kickoff to the 2019 season right around seven days away, here are projections on what the Bulldogs’ two-deep at each position could look like:

     
    OFFENSE
    QB: J’Mar Smith, redshirt senior; Westin Elliott, redshirt junior; Aaron Allen, redshirt freshman

    Smith enters his third season as Louisiana Tech’s starter and with offensive coordinator Todd Fitch taking over as his position coach, more is to be expected from the quarterback who already has 27 career starts and has thrown for 6,546 yards, 33 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

    RB: Israel Tucker, redshirt junior; Justin Henderson, redshirt junior AND Jaqwis Dancy, redshirt senior

    Tucker, who started five games a year ago, is primed to take the first snap against Texas. But expect to see plenty of Henderson and Dancy, when healthy, this season as the position will be a by-committee approach.

    X-receiver: Adrian Hardy, redshirt junior; Praise Okorie, redshirt sophomore AND Malik Stanley redshirt senior

    Hardy looks to follow up his breakout 2018 season, where he caught a team-high 75 passes for a career high 1,145 yards and six touchdowns.

    H-receiver: Cee Jay Powell, redshirt junior; Davon “Smoke” Harris, redshirt freshman

    Powell appears set to take over Teddy Veal’s former spot in the receiving corps and get his first amount of significant playing time in his career. In two seasons, the 5-7, 163-pound slot receiver has 22 catches for 138 yards.

    A-receiver: Griffin Hebert, redshirt sophomore; Joshua Matthews, redshirt sophomore

    Hebert put in impressive work on his body over the offseason, filling out with more muscle and he’s followed that up with a solid fall camp.

    Z-receiver: Isaiah Graham, redshirt junior; George Scott III, junior

    Graham, a TCU transfer, has had one of most impressive camps of any players on Tech’s roster and looks primed to be a major difference maker in the passing game.

    Y-receiver: Bobby Holly, redshirt senior; Jacob Adams, redshirt sophomore

    Whenever Louisiana Tech projects to start with an offensive formation that’ll include the Y position, Holly will be there. The Farmerville native started three games last season and two of his four total receptions went for touchdowns.

    RT: Gewhite Stallworth, redshirt senior; Antawn Lewis, junior

    Stallworth has been taking the majority of the first-team snaps in practice, leading to believe he’ll get the start at Texas. The big, 6-8, 322-pound tackle has started three games in his career.

    RG: Ethan Reed, redshirt senior; Joshua Mote, redshirt sophomore Reed, an All-Conference USA honorable mention lineman last year, has started every game the last three seasons for the Bulldogs. Mote adds valuable depth at the position with four starts under his belt.

    Kody Russey, redshirt junior; Abraham Delfin, redshirt sophomore Russey returns to once again anchor Tech’s offensive line in the middle, starting 26 straight games.

    LG: Drew Kirkpatrick, redshirt senior; Carter Habich, sophomore

    After redshirting in 2017, Kirkpatrick emerged as the starting left guard as 2018 progressed, playing in 11 total games.

    LT: Willie Allen, redshirt junior; Biron Rossell, redshirt freshman

    Allen, an LSU transfer, seems to have tapped into the potential coaches saw in him when they recruited him two years ago out of Tyler (Texas) Community College. If he gets the nod next weekend, his first FBS collegiate start will come against Texas.

    DEFENSE
    DE: Ka’Derrion Mason, senior; La’Dante Davenport, redshirt senior

    Mason earned two starts a season ago and had six his sophomore campaign. For his career, the 6-4, 291-pound end has 40 tackles with one sack.

    NG: Courtney Wallace, redshirt senior; D.J. Jackson, redshirt freshman OR Keivie Rose, freshman

    Wallace looks to get his first start of his Tech career against Texas. He’s played in 22 games and has 13 tackles, including three tackles-for-loss and 1.5 sacks.

    DE: Milton Williams, redshirt sophomore; Steven Shaw, redshirt freshman

    Williams (6-4, 262) has garnered a lot of praise from coaches since the spring and he’s parlayed his solid play into an expected starting role on the defensive line. He saw action in seven games last season.

    OLB: Willie Baker, redshirt junior; Tristan Allen, redshirt sophomore

    Baker switched positions from end to outside linebacker in defensive coordinator Bob Diaco’s 3-4 scheme. His pass rush skill set will still be utilized, highlighted by four sacks coming in the Hawaii Bowl last year, but he’ll handle come coverage duties as well.

    MLB: Connor Taylor, senior; Randy Hogan, redshirt senior OR Trey Baldwin, redshirt junior

    The former JUCO National Defensive Player of the Year looks to be more effective this season for the Bulldogs. Taylor ended 2018 with 30 stops.

    MLB: Collin Scott, redshirt senior; Alex Zayed, redshirt junior

    Scott led the team in tackles last season with 87. The senior linebacker is poised to have another solid season along with handling the defensive calls.

    S: James Jackson, redshirt senior; Ezekiel Barnett, redshirt junior

    Jackson started every game a season ago, finishing second on the team in tackles with 74, including 8.5 TFLs and had one interception.

    S: Darryl Lewis, redshirt senior; Bee Jay Williamson, redshirt freshman

    Lewis has collected 130 career stops and six picks in 40 total appearances, including 26 straight starts. He’s one of the veteran leaders on backend of Tech’s defense.

    S: L’Jarius Sneed, senior; Jaiden Cole, redshirt sophomore

    In the spring, Sneed moved from cornerback to safety and it’s paid dividends for Louisiana Tech’s defense. His three interceptions last year was good enough for second-best on the defense to go along with his 59 total tackles.

    CB: Amik Robertson, junior; Zach Hannibal, redshirt junior

    Unquestionably the most notable star for the Bulldogs, Robertson enters his third season starting at corner. He paced Tech with four picks, has nine total in two seasons, and for his career, has 123 total stops.

    CB: Michael Sam, redshirt senior; Aaron Roberson, redshirt senior

    Sam has battled some injuries during his career, but Holtz called him the “most pleasant surprise” this spring after he moved from safety to corner. Sam has pieced together a great fall camp and looks to more talent to an already deep Bulldog secondary.

    SPECIAL TEAMS
    PK: Bailey Hale, redshirt senior; Brady Farlow, redshirt junior

    Hale transferred to Tech from Eastern New Mexico before 2018 and ultimately earned the starting place kicking job. He had a 68 percent field goal rate in his first year, making 15-of-22 with a long of 46.

    P: Brady Farlow, redshirt junior; Jacob Barnes, freshman

    Behind Davan Dyer last season, Farlow punted five times for 179 yards for a 35.8-yard average.

    PR: Davon “Smoke” Harris, redshirt freshman OR Cee Jay Powell, redshirt junior

    The two combined for three punt returns in 2018.

    KR: Davon “Smoke” Harris, redshirt freshman OR Praise Okorie, redshirt sophomore OR Justin Henderson, redshirt junior

    Okorie and Harris piled up a combined 247 yards on 13 kickoff returns last year. Expect those two to be in the mix to field the opening kickoff for Louisiana Tech at Texas next weekend.


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    11 hours ago, Hairy Biped said:

    Can't speak to the climate, but federal law (Telecommunications Act of 1996) prevents HOAs from prohibiting satellite TV dishes.  I freaking love LHN.  I get to see tons of baseball, basketball, whatever sports I'd never get to see.  Plus lots of cool stuff like All Access.  IMHO the LHN is one of the best things to happen for Texas sports fans in my lifetime.  I don't get the animosity for it.

    This.

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    15 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

    Me and Mrs. MM are making the road trip from Florida to watch the game. Our first in DKR, pretty stoked to see it. Rulz and shit

    15 hours ago, Machinator said:

    Damn. That is a tempting betting lien considering how Herman has performed as a favorite, but I don’t know about betting against my own team.

    9 hours ago, ztejas said:

    Don't do it. This is going to be an ass-beating. 

    Well, now I’m convinced.

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    IT with a "functional" depth chart:

    Who knows how the staff will write the depth chart up, but here's how we see it functionally.

    QB: Sam Ehlinger, Casey Thompson, Sam Saxton

    RB: Keaontay Ingram, Jordan Whittington, Roschon Johnson

    *Daniel Young is most likely out

    LT: Sam Cosmi, Denzel Okafor
    LG: Parker Braun, Junior Angilau
    C: Zach Shackelford, Derek Kerstetter
    RG: Derek Kerstetter, Junior Angilau
    RT: Denzel Okafor, Derek Kerstetter OR Christian Jones

    *I'm sure we'll see some other names, but expect reshuffling rather than plug-and-play unless it's Angilau going in directly for Braun or Kerstetter.

    XWR: Collin Johnson, Malcolm Epps
    HWR: Devin Duvernay, Jake Smith
    ZWR: Brennan Eagles, John Burt

    *We could see some ORs but this should be the first six.

    YTE: Cade Brewer, Reese Leitao

    *I think Brewer will be good to go.

    DE: Ta'Quon Graham, T'Vondre Sweat (strong-side - 3-tech or 4i)
    NT: Keondre Coburn, Gerald Wilbon
    DE: Malcolm Roach, Marqez Bimage OR Jacoby Jones (weak-side - 4i or 5-tech)

    *There could be some ORs here to get some guys listed who will surely contribute.

    BLB: Joseph Ossai, Byron Vaughns
    RLB: Jeffrey McCulloch, Caleb Johnson
    MLB: Dele Adeoye, Juwan Mitchell

    *Juwan Mitchell is the first LB if one of McCulloch or Adeoye go down. I still think Ossai is the Rover in dime.

    NS: BJ Foster, Josh Thompson
    FS: Brandon Jones, Montrell Estell

    *If Brandon were to be hurt I don't think Estell would get the nod. You'd likely see a reshuffling of Sterns to field and Brown to boundary.

    BS: Caden Sterns, Chris Brown

    Joker: Chris Brown, De'Marvion Overshown

    *Brown has been getting most of the first team reps at Joker when in dime.

    FCB: Kobe Boyce, D'shawn Jamison

    *La Tech has some receivers so this isn't an easy game for the corners. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Cook when he returns in the 2nd half from suspension.

    BCB: Jalen Green, Anthony Cook

    Punt Return: Jake Smith, D'shawn Jamison

    Kick Return: Devin Duvernay, D'shawn Jamison

    Punter: Ryan Bujcevski

    Kicker: Cameron Dicker

    This week the team return to its regular schedule: Tuesday is full pads, Wednesday is thud, Thursday is shell, Friday is walk through, Saturday is go time.

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    1 hour ago, CoTex said:

    I’ll be in Arlington for a kid soccer tournament.
    Any advice on game watching destinations?

    Your phone? iPad? Tablet?

    ESPN app? Reddit streaming? If you have DirecTv, they have an app 

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    We haven't seen a Texas team blow anyone out in a long time.   And our opponent isn't bad.  I would be all over La Tech +20.5 until proven otherwise.  I mean even if we are actually up 3 or more scores in the 4th we really need to develop depth (something we really couldn't do at all last season) so wouldn't be surprised at a late cover.

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    I won't be in the stands for either the La Tech or LSU games.  I cheaped out and only bought a mini-plan, don't get to attend until OSU.  Really wanted to see the opener, but I think LHN can help me out with that.

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    It is that glorious time of the year again. It officially week one, everything is right with the world. No losses, no crappy coaching, no going into a shell and expectations are raised. Great things can once again happen. The only thing that gets better than this time of year is beating OU, winning one of the big five bowl games, winning a conference championship and winning the NC. I am going to take it in since I am getting older and I have fewer of these first week of a season left in me.

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    23 minutes ago, Mudcat35 said:

    I won't be in the stands for either the La Tech or LSU games.  I cheaped out and only bought a mini-plan, don't get to attend until OSU.  Really wanted to see the opener, but I think LHN can help me out with that.

    dude. stubhub is your friend. if i don't get a tickets from a friend, i go to the stadium and enjoy all the pregame festivities and buy tickets within the last hour from stubhub as the prices go down. better than buying any plan.

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    1 minute ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

    I know we have a thread dedicated to this guy, but man CDC has been an even better hire than I could have imagined.  Is there a better AD in the country?

    Texas Tech AD is doing pretty well.

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    30 minutes ago, po elvis said:

    dude. stubhub is your friend. if i don't get a tickets from a friend, i go to the stadium and enjoy all the pregame festivities and buy tickets within the last hour from stubhub as the prices go down. better than buying any plan.

    shit right now stubhub is showing at least 325 just to get in the door.  I wonder how low they might go outside the stadium prior to kickoff.

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    1 minute ago, TornACL said:

    I'm still astonished that there are people out there who, after all these years, still can't figure out a way to get their eyeballs on LHN during a game. 

     

    As mentioned previously, we who are Horns baseball fans cannot get enough of it. I just hope we get a better product to watch this year.

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    I watched the Hawaii Bowl (dad is a UH alum).  La. Tech QB Smith mostly just dumped a bunch of short passes that created YAC opportunities against a slow and undersized Hawaii secondary.  Had a screen pass and a hitch turn into 50+ yard plays just like that.  One completed deep ball.  Those 2 plays were 40% of their yardage from 2 of the 31 pass attempts.  Their pass rush looked pretty good but I think most of them are gone after last year.

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    18 hours ago, Hairy Biped said:

    Can't speak to the climate, but federal law (Telecommunications Act of 1996) prevents HOAs from prohibiting satellite TV dishes.  I freaking love LHN.  I get to see tons of baseball, basketball, whatever sports I'd never get to see.  Plus lots of cool stuff like All Access.  IMHO the LHN is one of the best things to happen for Texas sports fans in my lifetime.  I don't get the animosity for it.

    I can kind of understand the animosity, since I just dumped Dish network for Youtube TV to save over a grand a year (I'm not a Surly whale) for TV that nobody in my house watches.  I will miss All Access, baseball and post Shaka basketball but it wasn't worth the money.  I waited quite a while to cut the cord, but I am betting that LHN will be available to everyone by streaming soon.

    TL;DR - LHN is awesome, but if you don't have a way to access it, it can really piss you off.

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    1 hour ago, sushihorn said:

    3I watched the Hawaii Bowl (dad is a UH alum).  La. Tech QB Smith mostly just dumped a bunch of short passes that created YAC opportunities against a slow and undersized Hawaii secondary.  Had a screen pass and a hitch turn into 50+ yard plays just like that.  One completed deep ball.  Those 2 plays were 40% of their yardage from 2 of the 31 pass attempts.  Their pass rush looked pretty good but I think most of them are gone after last year.

    Funny, I had a post earlier about this that never made it.  I dunno man, that bowl game has me worried.  My impression was that LaTech manhandled UH in that game, although their best pass rusher did go 3rd round in the draft .  As I recall, he was in the UH backfield quite a bit.  Coupled with basically the same UH team (at least offensive skill players) beating Arizona a couple days ago makes me feel like we should be a little concerned.  I know the transivite property doesn't apply, but at the time of the bowl game, I thought LaTech was head and shoulders better than Tulsa and probably better than Maryland.  Of course, we're a lot better than the team that lost to Maryland and damn near crapped the bed vs Tulsa. But still, assuming a blowout seems like a bad idea.  I hope I'm proven wrong.

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    17 minutes ago, shakahorn said:

    Funny, I had a post earlier about this that never made it.  I dunno man, that bowl game has me worried.  My impression was that LaTech manhandled UH in that game, although their best pass rusher did go 3rd round in the draft .  As I recall, he was in the UH backfield quite a bit.  Coupled with basically the same UH team (at least offensive skill players) beating Arizona a couple days ago makes me feel like we should be a little concerned.  I know the transivite property doesn't apply, but at the time of the bowl game, I thought LaTech was head and shoulders better than Tulsa and probably better than Maryland.  Of course, we're a lot better than the team that lost to Maryland and damn near crapped the bed vs Tulsa. But still, assuming a blowout seems like a bad idea.  I hope I'm proven wrong.

    Sir, i think your daily concentration of koolaid is low.  Let me pour you another dose.

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    18 minutes ago, shakahorn said:

    Funny, I had a post earlier about this that never made it.  I dunno man, that bowl game has me worried.  My impression was that LaTech manhandled UH in that game, although their best pass rusher did go 3rd round in the draft .  As I recall, he was in the UH backfield quite a bit.  Coupled with basically the same UH team (at least offensive skill players) beating Arizona a couple days ago makes me feel like we should be a little concerned.  I know the transivite property doesn't apply, but at the time of the bowl game, I thought LaTech was head and shoulders better than Tulsa and probably better than Maryland.  Of course, we're a lot better than the team that lost to Maryland and damn near crapped the bed vs Tulsa. But still, assuming a blowout seems like a bad idea.  I hope I'm proven wrong.

    Hawaii was badly over matched in the speed department.  With the large local Polynesian population they are sitting on a gold mine of interior linemen, ILBs, FBs and blocking TEs.  For positions that require speed they usually recruit 4th tier players from Cali.  Notice how many of their receivers have good hands and quickness but they're not that fast and tend to go 5'8"-5'10" and 170 or so.

    Against Arizona the defense had trouble with outside zone and an athletic QB.  La Tech did the same thing, just using speed to beat the defense to the edge or to split defenders.  The Bulldog defense used their speed advantage to penetrate gaps and bring an outside pass rush against powerful but slow UH OTs.  La Tech won't have a speed advantage at many positions against Texas.

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    2 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

    Kind of sucks that Kenyatta Watson is already a junior.

    source.gif

    I for one am really excited about our new Mic linebacker position

    tenor.gif

    Edited by texifornia
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    1 minute ago, Red Five said:


    Eagles had surgery a week or so ago.

    They said it was minor and he would be ready to play by week one. I guess giving him another week to recover makes sense.

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