Meet the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs come to Carter-Finley Stadium Saturday at noon in a game the Wolfpack needs to right the ship. To continue the Maritime reference, NC State took a torpedo in the form of Tennessee last Saturday and is listing to port, but they have a chance to repair the damage and continue to fight for the ACC Championship. Louisiana Tech might just be the team to do that against.

The Skip Holtz era ended 2 years ago for the Bulldogs, and the results have not been good for Sonny Cumbie, the Current head coach. A pair of 3-9 seasons has them stuck in a less-than-impressive rut. They lost the last 6 games last season, but they did manage to beat Nicholls State last week in their opener, 25-17. This season doesn't seem to be much more promising for the Bulldogs.

Offensively, they weren't terrible statistics-wise, putting up 385 yards a game. They averaged 25 points a game. Their quarterback is Blake Baker who threw for 207 yards last week. His development will determine how successful this offense can be. From a running standpoint, they return Marquis Crosby who missed most of last season with an injury, but he rushed for 918 yards in 2022. You will likely hear his name a lot. Wide receiver is a question mark for the Bulldogs, but they do have some new faces this season. Abdul-Futai Ibrahim was first team all SWAC three years in a row at Alabama A&M so he should help the receiver corps. The Bulldogs rushed for 1758 yards last season while throwing for 3120 yards, although it was in a very average Conference USA, but they can score points at times. They had 39 touchdowns on the season, 20 of them on the ground, to go along with 16 passing TDs. The Bulldogs threw 11 interceptions on the year. It's also worth noting that they fumbled 21 times over the course of the season.

Defensively is where the Bulldogs struggled the most last year. They were 114th in the FBS in scoring defense allowing 33.5 points and 417 yards per game. The most staggering statistic is that they gave up 3040 yards on the ground. The Wolfpack should be able to put up big rushing yards on Saturday. The secondary was somewhat better, only allowing 185 yards per game. Interestingly, they only had 16 sacks on the season. There are new faces on defense, notably Jordon Morgan ( a UNLV transfer) and Blake Thompson ( an Iowa State transfer) , both of them safeties. I hope Grayson McCall can get into a rhythm and exploit their lack of pass rush. They did allow 40 or more points in 4 of their 9 losses. They also allowed 67 plays of 20 yards or more, so this is a defense that has a lot of challenges, and NC State needs to be able to get its offense in high gear.

Louisiana Tech is a football team with lots of problems and NC State should be able to come away with a comfortable win, but things don't always work out the way they should. Hopefully, the Wolfpack can get out to an early lead and cruise the rest of the way. There is a lot of trepidation right now, however, and rightfully so. The first two games have certainly not gone according to expectations for the Wolfpack, so this is a chance to get things headed in the right direction. The Wolfpack needs to play well this week because one Titanic is enough, and because next on the schedule is Clemson.