La. Tech AD Talks Big Game Versus LSU

Louisiana Tech Athletic Director Tommy McClelland talks with 101.7 / 710 KEEL's Robert J Wright and Erin McCarty about Saturday's game against LSU in Baton Rouge.

McClelland tells KEEL listeners that Saturday's contest not only benefits the Ruston school financially, but taking on the nation's top schools also exposes the university's athletic success to a nationwide audience.

Entering the game, the Bulldogs are a 20 point underdog, but oddsmakers also know that Tech will be sending a strong defensive line against new Tigers' QB Joe Burrow. From collegefootballnews.com:

For all of the love LSU QB Joe Burrow is getting for helping the team come up with wins over Miami and Auburn, he hasn’t been all that great.
He’s only completing 46% of his passes, and while he’s not throwing picks, and the receivers are coming up with their share of big plays, he’s missing – LSU is second-to-last in college football in completion percentage.
Granted, Louisiana Tech has only played South Alabama and Southern, but the secondary has been good so far, helped by a killer pass rush with eight sacks coming from nine different players.
LSU might have a nasty O line, but it’s about to get attacked.

But, in the end, the sixth ranked Bengals are expected to win:

So far, the Bulldog O line hasn’t been anything special in pass protection, and now QB J’Mar Smith is about to be under siege. And forget about running against this defensive front – the Bulldogs won’t be able to do it.
The Tigers aren’t going to do anything funky. They’re going to pound away with the running game, rely on the defense to come up with stop after stop, and rely on Auburn hero Cole Tracy to hit enough field goals to get something out of early drives.
And then the offense will finally start to crank up touchdowns. LSU will wear down the Bulldogs in the second half.