No longer will the Louisiana Tech defense be able to rely on Jaylon Ferguson to make a play late in a game to give the Bulldogs a win. In fact, in addition to Ferguson moving on, Rick Petri’s defensive line will also lose Jordan Bradford, Immanuel Turner, Keonatye Garner, Matthew Ydarraga, and La’Dante Davenport.

The production lost in total is 185 tackles, 43 tackles for loss, and 23.5 sacks. It will certainly be a tall task to replace those six, especially Ferguson.

The obvious name to watch is Willie Baker. The rising junior collected four sacks in Tech’s Hawaii Bowl victory and looks poised to breakout in 2019.

Outside of Baker, there will be plenty of unfamiliar faces competing for playing time.

Milton Williams, Courtney Wallace, Ka’Derrion Mason, Tristan Allen, and Eric Kendzior all have at least played in a reserve role in recent years. Steven Shaw and D.J. Jackson were signed in the 2018 recruiting class and will be looking to shine in their first spring on campus.

The reps for the inexperienced players along the defensive line will be invaluable.

Rick Petri has a long history of developing quality defensive linemen having coached Warren Sapp, John Abraham, Kenard Lange, Kenny Holmes, and Vernon Butler. All five of those guys were first round NFL draft picks, and Jaylon Ferguson will be looking to add his name to that list in 2019. With that said, Petri will have to do one of the better jobs of his coaching career after losing so much talent.

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