Louisiana Tech dropped a hard-fought game at Nebraska on Saturday.

Sonny Cumbie’s club will jump back into conference play Friday night with a road trip to El Paso to take on UTEP.

Kickoff is scheduled for 8 PM on CBS Sports Network.

Three Things We Learned

1 — Jack Turner performs admirably

Jack Turner made his first career start at quarterback against the Cornhuskers and finished 27/42 for 292 yards, 1 TD & 1 INT.

The redshirt sophomore certainly wasn’t phased by the moment and had the look of a future starting quarterback throughout the afternoon.

We aren’t quite ready to say that Turner has supplanted Hank Bachmeier as the starter, but his performance will give Cumbie and co. confidence when he’s out on the field.

2 — Cyrus Allen & Smoke Harris are TOUGH to stop

17 catches for 188 yards and 1 TD. That’s the combined stat line for the duo in Lincoln on Saturday.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the performance was the noticeable intention of getting those two the football.

Allen & Harris will be tough for Conference USA teams to defend over the next seven games, but Tech has to make sure that those two are getting their touches each week.

3 — Defense battles

I get it, giving up 300+ yards on the ground doesn’t look great on the surface.

But there is just something about Scott Power’s unit that has me optimistic.

First off, the unit bounced back from a tough performance against UNT the previous week.

Secondly, we saw some scheme adjustments with the ‘Dogs playing a true 4-3 throughout most of the contest.

Thirdly, Tech had nine TFL and three sacks in the game. They gave the team a chance to win.

Let’s keep it going.

Two Questions Going Forward

1 — What does the running back situation look like now that we are getting back into conference play?

Marquis Crosby, Charvis Thornton, Tyre Shelton, and Keith Willis all missed the game at Nebraska.

That is Tech’s top four RBs entering the season all out in the 5th game of the season. It’s really crazy when you think about it.

Now that the Bulldogs are jumping back into conference play the remainder of the way, we have to figure that some guys are nearing a return.

Sonny Cumbie mentioned last week that Crosby has started practicing last week. Thornton & Shelton both made the trip to Nebraska but ultimately didn’t play.

Getting healthy at RB is a HUGE key going forward.

2 — Can we get that offensive line every week?

I mentioned in the preseason that I thought that offensive line was the strength of the team.

Four starters were back that all had a tremendous amount of experience.

The unit had a major hiccup at SMU when they allowed six sacks, but the last three weeks have really started to perform at a high level.

In the loss at Nebraska on Saturday, Nathan Young’s unit did not allow a single sack. In fact, Tech has only allowed 2 sacks in its last 3 games.

Love to see it, but let’s see it every week.

One Prediction for Next Week

Tech gets its first road….nah, I’m not going to say it. But I have a good feeling about this week at UTEP.

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