Three Keys to Victory: Southern Miss
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs head back to the Joe, looking for their third win of the season. Awaiting them are the once-and-future conference mate Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
Tech is coming off of an offensive explosion to start conference play, and looks to remain hot at home.
What can the Bulldogs do to earn their first winning streak of the Sonny Cumbie era?
1) Run the dang ball
Before last week’s game against New Mexico State, I wouldn’t have expected a ground attack like that in the year of our lord 2025. The Bulldogs dominated the line of scrimmage against an Aggie defense that was supposed to be pretty decent against the run. Tech had three ball carriers go for over 60 yards (with two averaging over 6 yards per carry!), but they also kept guys fresh, incorporated two QBs into the running game, and kept NMSU guessing with different looks and running out of different packages.
Turning our attention to this week’s opponent, Southern Miss currently ranks 98th in overall run defense (157.3 yards per game). If we look at the advanced stats, their “Defensive Success Rate” is 120th against the run – which means that they allow teams to pick up the yards they need to be in a successful down and distance. Their opponents get a lot of value out of running against them – they rank 116th in expected points added on running plays.
All that to say… Tech should be able to find some success in the ground game again this week.
2) Key the pass on defense
Tech’s defense has looked truly excellent this season – except for a brief hiatus in the second quarter last week against the Aggies.
The unfortunate thing is that NMSU found success through the air on those two quick drives, with Logan Fife finding open receivers deep down field. For the rest of the game, the Bulldogs didn’t allow anything… but those two drives could be a cause for concern going into this week’s matchup with Braylon Braxton and the Eagles.
The USM signal caller won SBC Offensive Player of the Year this preseason, and for good reason. Through 3 games, he’s completing 69% of his passes for 7 TDs and 2 INTs. He’s also a threat to run the ball, with 132 yards on the ground.
He is highly accurate in the short game, and the Buzzards love them some short game. So far, 66% of all pass plays are either behind the line of scrimmage or within 10 yards of it – and Braxton has completed 89% of his throws at that distance! This isn’t last week, when Fife hit receivers in the hands and they dropped the ball. Tech will have to be better against the short passing game to win this week.
3) Get the monkey off your back
Tech fans often talk about how the team seems to have “forgotten how to win.”
So far this season, we’re right about where we all expected to be. A couple of early wins over Southeastern and New Mexico State, with a loss to LSU.
And that’s fine – good, even… But it’s time to go do something you haven’t done since September 26, 2020… Win back-to-back games!
That’s right, Tech has not won in two straight weeks since beating Southern Miss to open the 2020 season (shoutout to Griffin Hebert’s back heel), then following that up with a win over Houston Baptist that made them change their name the next year!
This Tech team seems to have some swagger to them – let’s put that to the test and earn it against a rival that we’re all chomping at the bit to beat!
Evan is a contributor at go tech pls dont die, a weekly podcast, Twitter, and blog that covers Louisiana Tech sports in a not-so-serious way.
