Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz was overjoyed during the trophy ceremony following his team's 48-45 victory over Navy in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl that emotion carried over into the postgame press conference.

He ranked it the most emotional win of his career.

"It's big because we lost the last two games, and these guys are so special to me," Holtz said after the ceremony. "As much as they say thank you, I say thank you to them. I have learned more from them than they have taken from me, I assure you. I love these guys. I'm proud of them. I wanted to send them out a winner. I wanted to send them out with a victory."

He didn't stop there. Tech has been to seven bowl games since going FBS in 1988 (1-A in those days) and this outgoing senior class was a part of three of them.

He talked about how two senior offensive linemen didn't start much this season as two underclassmen took their jobs.

"A guy like Kirby Wixson was a Remington watchlist guy a year ago, was a center and got hurt. David Mahaffey was our starting center every game last year. Both of those guys played backup roles as seniors. Neither one of them started. I think Mahaffey ended up starting today because of O'Shea Dugas."

When he took the job, he said he wanted to build a program and he has.

"You have got to have the nucleus of people that are good ‑‑ these guys that are sitting here. Those offensive linemen we talked about, Xavier Woods. We've got some incredible role players that are guys that are doing great in the classroom. They do everything right. They're professionals. They do everything the right way. They're not cutting corners. They don't take short‑cuts.

And I think that's how we got here. You're not going to get on top taking shortcuts. You have got to do it the old‑fashioned way and you have got to earn it."