Defense Dominates on Day Three

RUSTON, La. - Louisiana Tech's defense continued to improve and dominated Wednesday as Tech practiced for approximately 90 minutes on the Tech practice fields.

Dave Clark and Justin Goodman impressed among a secondary that is vastly improved from last year's fall camp. Clark notched his third interception of fall camp, unofficially tied with Goodman for the lead. DeMarcion Evans also added another interception for the secondary.

"The play of our defensive backs as a whole has stood out," said head coach Sonny Dykes. "Those guys continue to get interceptions and continue to do some good things. Justin Goodman has been a stand out [player] so far at the corner position. He is competing really hard right now and done a lot of good things."

Clark and Goodman led a defense that was in high spirits and played with a strong intensity throughout the practice, taking advantage of an offense that was installing the final third of its play book.

"I thought today, defensively, was a really good practice," Dykes said. "Our effort was really good, our intensity was good and they played with a lot of emotion and bounced around pretty good. Offensively, we were sloppy. I didn't feel like we were in tune like we needed to be. We just didn't execute."

"Really, every day is an installation day early on," continued Dykes. "We break our offense up in thirds and try to install a third of it every day. Today was installation number three and sometimes it is a little overwhelming for guys. The problem wasn't really the young guys or that we were doing anything different, we just didn't have a level of concentration or intensity that we need from our offense."

With three practices in the book, Tech can finally wear shoulder pads starting tomorrow. Despite not wearing any padding except for helmets, the players are chomping at the bit for physical action.

"As always happens, we got a little chippy today at times as guys are ready to put the pads on," Dykes explained. "It is hard to evaluate both lines at this point; you get an idea and see them run around - but now we'll have a chance to see them with pads on and competing against each other. We will be able to tell more about our offensive and defensive lines."