After the season Louisiana Tech has had, it’s no surprise they struggled to move the ball against Arkansas. The Tech offense performed better after the Razorbacks took their foot off the gas in the second half. But especially early in the game, it was clear that the Tech offense was overmatched. In the first half, the Bulldogs were only able to put together 38 yards of total offense.
Of course, that was on the road against an SEC opponent. This was not going to be a showcase of everything the Sonny Cumbie and Nathan Young offense had to offer.
But it’s also nothing new. The Bulldogs have averaged 4.7 yards per play in 2024. That’s worst than every team they’ve faced this season.
But it’s not worse than Tech’s final opponent on this year’s schedule - Kennesaw State.
The Owls are currently ranked dead last in yards per play and are averaging a meager 4.1 yards per play. While that’s not as bad as Iowa's historically bad 3.9 yards per play last season, Kennesaw has mightily struggled to get any kind of offense going all season.
To make matters worse, the Owls haven’t been able to rely on their defense to bail them out either.
Tech’s win total on the year is doubled Kennesaw’s because of the turnaround season from the Bulldog defense. But the Owls don’t have such a luxury. While the Kennesaw defense hasn’t been as bad as their offense, they are still allowing 6 yards per play, the 35th worst in college football.
Net yards is one of the clearest metrics that shows Kennesaw State’s issues. This is simply the number of yards a team’s offense gains minus the yards a team’s defense gives up.
And although the Owls have two wins on the year, they have yet to finish a game with a positive number of net yards:
And that puts Kennesaw State in the Bottom Five of college football:
Louisiana Tech will have its own reckoning when the season is over on Saturday. Four straight losing seasons leave a fanbase desperate to return to the good times. For Kennesaw, though, what should be a time to celebrate their first season as an FBS team is instead marked by bad play against bad teams and the firing of the coach who built the program.
But before the transfer portal drastically changes the composition of both of these teams, it’ll be nice to see this stout 2024 Bulldog defense face a bottom-tier CUSA offense one last time.
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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.
