With a new coach and a new offensive scheme, every game in this young season has taught us a great deal about what this 2022 Louisiana Tech football team is. Missouri allowed us to see that we have trouble defending speed. Stephen F Austin showed that we could keep a talented quarterback like Trae Self in check. And Clemson taught us that our team could hang with a national championship contender (at least for a half).

Even if we just look at the running game, we’ve learned a lot in the three games under our belt.

In the games against the Tigers (both the Missouri and Clemson varieties), Tech struggled significantly to move the ball on the ground, putting up a pathetic 0.7 yards per rush:

If we expand to include FCS games, Tech’s running game is responsible for a much more palatable 3.7 yards per rush. But like we mentioned before the matchup with the Lumberjacks, most teams Tech will face this year are not as dreadful in the run-stopping department as SFA.

This week, the Bulldogs face off against South Alabama, the program probably best known this year as the team that almost upset UCLA a week ago.

The near-upset was in a large part due to the Jaguar defense mostly holding the Bruin run game in check. The same UCLA team that ran for 269 yards against Bowling Green and 220 yards while hosting Alabama State could only muster 144 against the Jaguars.

And the run-stopping prowess has been a season-long success for South Alabama. Against Nicholls State, Central Michigan, and UCLA, the run defense has stood strong:

For a team like Tech that has struggled to move the ball on the ground this year against solid run defenses, that is not the news you want to hear. Even though South Alabama is no Missouri or Clemson, the Jaguars’ run-stopping defense has looked just as good.

But perhaps more importantly, the above chart points out just how atrocious Tech has been on the other side of the running game. The Bulldog defense has allowed all three teams it has faced to run all over them, and that includes SFA.

If we look at Rushing Success Rate (an advanced stat that looks at how often run plays are successful), things look even bleaker:

South Alabama’s offensive running game is good, but not great. But unless the Tech defense starts to step up in defending the run, RB La'Damian Webb and the rest of this Jaguar backfield may end up looking as good as Marquis Crosby did against SFA.

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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.