It's a well known trope that Skip Holtz likes to be conservative. Often that criticism is directed towards the play-calling (remember all those delayed hand-offs against Grambling?), but Skip has also been critiqued for his willingness to settle for field goals once the offense gets in range. Last season, Tech only reached the end zone on 46.58% of trips inside the opponents' 40 yard line and 60.42% of trips inside the 20.
But this year (so far) looks different. Tech has scored a touchdown on 71.43% of the drives that enter the red zone, and an even 50% of the time the ball crosses the 40. That's an impressive improvement, but not quite as impressive as what the defense has been able to do.
Tech's opponents have only scored touchdowns on 38% of drives that reach the Tech 40. And the Bulldog defense have stopped half of all red zone drives from crossing the goal line.
But while the Tech defense has been exceptional with their backs to the wall, the FIU D has not. In the three games this year, FIU has allowed a total of eight drives to enter the red zone. One ended in a field goal, but the other seven reached the end zone. So the Golden Panthers have allowed a red zone efficiency of 100%:
Granted, that chart includes both touchdowns and field goals. But even if we only look at touchdowns, Tech still outperforms FIU, both offensively and defensively:
Tech still puts up better numbers on both sides of the ball even if we back up to the 40 yard line:
Here's the part where I mention that FIU's starting quarterback James Morgan has missed the last game and a half due to injury. And we'd expect to see an offense become less efficient after losing their QB.
At the time of writing, Morgan is expected to be back before Friday's matchup in Ruston, but surprisingly the drop-off between Morgan and his backup is not that drastic:
Granted, backup QB Kaylan Wiggins played his complete game against FCS New Hampshire while Morgan faced Tulane, but it appears that FIU's problem may be a lot deeper than just who takes the snaps.
And regardless, the quarterback has little impact on how the defense plays. So even if FIU is able to solve their redzone woes with their senior signal caller back, it won't matter if the Panther defense remains a revolving door to teams that cross the 20.
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Nathan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter.
