While the Bulldogs had their hands full Saturday night in Austin, Tech’s second opponent was playing just down the road in Monroe, Louisiana. And that's where Grambling State fell to ULM, 31-9.
That Week 1 match-up between Tech's North Louisiana neighbors was dominated by rushing plays. Grambling handed the ball off 37 times and ULM dialed up a run 39 times. But not only were 55% of the total offensive plays runs, 61.45% of the total yardage came on the ground.
For context, the Bulldogs haven't played in a contest that dominated by the run game since Tech hosted Mississippi State:
But not only did both teams run the ball a lot, they ran the ball effectively. ULM tallied 315 yards on the ground, averaging 8.1 yards per carry. Meanwhile, Grambling also put up an formidable 243 rushing yards, at 6.6 yards per carry. So it’s pretty safe to say the rushing attack will play an important role on both sides of the ball this Saturday at Joe Aillet Stadium.
But to see what to expect from Grambling's rushing offense and defense, we need to understand how good ULM's rushing offense and defense are.
Last year on offense, ULM ranked 29th in the nation in Rushing Offense according to SP+, and averaged 4.9 yards per carry. The Warhawks lost their top rusher to graduation, but return much of the other production at RB. So it’s pretty safe to assume ULM is a good rushing team. But Grambling allowed ULM to take it to another level:
For comparison, Tech averaged 3.9 yards per carry last year, and only totaled 2.8 yards per carry last week against Texas. So with how dreadful the Grambling run defense looked, we’ll get a good test of just how bad Tech’s running game is. If they struggle running against Grambling, they’ll struggle against just about everyone.
On the other side of the ball, ULM ranked 74th in the country last year in Rushing Defense according to SP+, a decent bit higher than Tech’s 95th ranking, but still not great. Grambling was able to slash through that not-great defense for 6.6 yards per carry Saturday night:
For comparison, Oregon State's rushing defense ranked dead last in SP+ in 2018, with the Beavers giving up 6.8 yards per carry. So Grambling made a lackluster (but decent) ULM rush defense look only slightly better than the worst in college football.
And with the Bulldogs giving up 7.1 yards per rush to Texas’s Keaontay Ingram last week (who averaged 5.0 last year), it’s easy to see how the Grambling rushing attack could give Tech fits.
The Grambling-ULM match-up was only a single game sample, so we can’t assume the same Grambling team shows up to play in Ruston next week. But unless Tech can figure out the run on either side of the ball, this game might a little too close for comfort.
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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.
