Louisiana Tech and Southern will face off for the second time since 2015 on Saturday night inside Joe Aillet Stadium. BleedTechBlue.com caught up with Mike Gegenheimer of The Advocate to preview the Jaguars.
Southern had plenty of questions marks heading into its season opener against Southern, what did Coach Odums learn about his football team in the loss to TCU?
It’s tough to evaluate Southern when they play a Top 20 team and the talent levels are so uneven. But Odums was particularly happy to see the play out of the offensive line and running backs, despite what the stat line might suggest. Southern believes a lot of those 1-3 yard gains will be 8-10 yards come SWAC play. I expect to see a heavier rotation of the backs this week with possibly more Darbbeon Profit and Carlos Stephens.
John Lampley made his first collegiate start against TCU and performed pretty well, what are his strengths as a quarterback?
We saw the offense has some playmaking ability behind John Lampley. It was encouraging to see a sophomore show moments (and I emphasize moments) of composure in the face of a brutal and unrelenting defense. Toward the end of the first half he was able to put together some nice drives and even score a touchdown on a 55-yard bomb to Cameron Mackey. It may seem insignificant in a 55-7 blowout, but it’s the first points any SWAC team has ever scored on TCU (Grambling 2012, Jackson St 2017). What was even better to see was the play before when he made his reads, tucked the ball and ran for a 16-yard gain as his line opened up a nice hole. It was exactly what you wanted to see from a young QB who had a tendency to look panicked early on. If he can get his throws down, he’ll really start to roll this year.
Defensively, Tech HC Skip Holtz was particularly impressed with Southern’s ability to prevent big plays in the passing game, what makes the secondary so impressive?
Experience. Plain and simple. This group has a lot of snaps under its belt the past few years. They won’t be the group of chickens running around with their heads cut off like Tech saw a few years back. CB Demerio Houston is proving to be a strong leader and a consistent player. I’m really excited to get to see him go back to Ruston where he had a disastrous college debut four years ago.
If Southern is going to keep this game close on Saturday, what do the Jaguars need to do on both sides of the ball?
The offense has to get first downs and limit turnovers. Even if they don’t score, keeping the defense off the field and rested will be huge against a much faster Tech team. Even though the time of possession wasn’t a huge disparity against TCU, the tempo and speed wore down the front and they couldn’t stop them.
What’s going to be interesting to watch is to see how the defense rebounds from so many missed opportunities last week. A lot of missed tackles and close calls. Walk-on free safety Chase Foster (who, shameless plug, you can read about in Thursday’s Advocate) was inches from making a spectacular interception on the second drive that really could’ve given that group a morale boost. Might be different if those plays fall their way.
What is your prediction for Saturday night and why?
Unfortunately for any Jaguar fans out there, I have to let you all down again. I don’t think Southern will be able to keep up with Tech, though it won’t be as bad as last week. The speed and depth is just too much to handle.
I’ll go 42-14
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