This afternoon, the Bulldogs take on Georgia Southern in the New Orleans Bowl. Tech is looking to extend its nation-leading bowl streak to seven, while GSU tries to become the first Sun Belt team to beat the Dogs. How can things go right for the boys in Loyal Blue?
1) Tackle Football
For defenses going against option teams, there's really one key to victory. That key is simple: each player has to know their assignment on the play, and when their guy ends up with the ball in his hands... they have got to tackle him. Defending against option teams is 50% mental discipline and 50% wrapping up and bringing your man to the ground. Arm tackles ain't gonna cut it! The Eagles are going to rack up some yards on the ground, don't get me wrong (check out Nathan's Stat Attack article for more on this), but what we've got to prevent are the long runs; the chunk plays that come from undisciplined defense. You may recall a few of those plays from last week's Nightmare At Amon G... Yeah, that can't happen today. If we want to win, we've got to be solid on defense.
2) Aaron "Jekyll and Hyde" Allen
After last week's gruesome injury to Luke Anthony, the quarterback duties in the near future fall to Aaron Allen. Before I go any further, let's state for the record that this isn't how we wanted to see the perpetual quarterback battle resolved. With that out of the way, I am interested to see how Aaron Allen will respond now that he's THE guy for the first time in his career. In 2019, he was the guy for a couple weeks... but he wasn't THE guy. And so far this year, he's been the guy for a couple of drives here and there, but he hasn't been THE guy. To make a long story short here, Allen has played okay at times in 2020, and downright awful at other times. His ESPN QBR ranges from a dismal 0.3 against TCU up to 69.9 against UAB... So which Aaron Allen will we see against Georgia Southern? That will make a huge difference in the outcome of this game. The Eagles have a solid defense, but they've also allowed a really bad ULM team to throw for 334 yards on them (The Warhawk QB's highest QBR came in that game against Georgia Southern). Aaron Allen has shown flashes of greatness this season, but now that it's truly his job, will he show up?
3) Leaders gotta lead
Time travel with me back to the 2020 UAB game. It's the third quarter, and Tech's defense is in the middle of completely forgetting how to stop the run. Spencer Brown, Jermaine Brown, and whoever the hell else they put back in the backfield is just completely dominating us. The D Line can't get any push, the linebackers are out of position, and once the RBs are in the third level, they're gone....
Then, Milton Williams, BIG MILT, makes a stop on a 2nd and long and just starts talking. He's pointing his finger, he's smacking himself on the helmet, he's getting just completely JACKED up about a relatively routine tackle. To the naked eye, it looks like he's lost it a little bit... forgotten that his job as Tech's premier D lineman is to make tackles just like that one... But on a deeper level, you realize that Big Milt is making a statement not to you at home, but to Tyler Grubbs, to Eric Kendzior, to Gerald WIlbon... He's saying "We're not going to lose this game. I'm not letting it happen." I'm looking for leaders like Milton, Kody Russey, CJ Powell, and Izzy Tucker, to step up and lead the Dogs to victory.
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Evan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter.
