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Sunday Morning Quarterback

Sunday Morning Quarterback

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

AN ABSURDLY PREMATURE ASSESSMENT OF: LOUISIANA TECH
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SMQ spins the wheel for a hastily-rendered, too-soon look at a random school's prospects for the fall, sans inevitable academic and criminal suspensions, sudden transfers, debilitating injuries and other miscellaneous misfortunes of the long summer

Today:
LOUISIANA TECH
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Looking great against San Jose State since 2001


PAST FIVE SEASONS: 28-30 (24-16 WAC) 2005: 7-4 (6-2 WAC)
STARTERS BACK, ROUGHLY: 9 (7 Offense, 2 Defense)
WHAT'S CHANGED: The Bulldogs were easily one of the most senior-laden teams in the country in '05, especially on the defense, where six of the front (and five of the back) seven graduated. As its Spring prospectus notes in a surprise fit of weakness accentuation, the eight career pass attempts by returning Bulldog quarterbacks is one of the lowest totals in the country....though Jack Bicknell for some reason says "Quarterback isn't a position I'm worried about."
WHAT'S THE SAME: The Bulldogs remain significantly better than the sad sack bottom half of the league, but don't be deceived by the 7-4 record - even Rutgers didn't beat up on such a sorry slate of ne'er-do-wells as the losers that fueled the Bulldogs' winning season: collectively, Tech's seven vanquished foes won 23 games - more than a third of them by Fresno State in the finale, the one respectable showing of the lot. The other winners - Florida, Kansas, Nevada, Boise State - beat the Bulldogs by an average of almost 24 points. Since it joined the WAC, La Tech is only 4-14 outside the conference; if it repeats the seven wins, though, with Nebraska, Texas A&M and Clemson among the first four of the Hawaii visit-inflated 13-game schedule, the bowls aren't going to spurn them again.
SHIFTING DOWN: The strength of the offense, for a team recently known for pinball passing stats, was again the running game last year, where the underclassman trio of Mark Dillard, Freddie Franklin and Patrick Jackson collectively made up for the premature loss of Ryan Moats. Leading rusher Dillard missed Spring practice in the process of being cleared on a rape charge, and will return as a safety in the fall, leaving Franklin - who probably would have hit 1,000 yards himself if he hadn't missed four games - as the main back.
PLUG AND PLAY: Among all the new starters on defense, four will be seniors and two will be juniors, so it's not exactly a young bunch coming in. The returnees, middle linebacker Brannon Jackson and safety Dez Abrams, were hardly stars but both had more than 40 tackles. If the group was only mediocre in '05 (66th overall), it might not be all that much worse.
OVERLY OPTIMISTIC POST-SPRING CHATTER: Look out - walk-ons! A pair of them - quarterback candidate Bradford Broderson and running back Adrian Jackson - each scored touchdowns in the disturbingly-named "Bone Bowl" on April 8.

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The Bone Bowl without the Bone Thugs? Preposterous!


Michael Mosley, Zac Champion and ... Danna took most of the snaps and put up over 400 yards - yay! for the resurgent passing game! Er, uh, and boo! to the lousy, inexperienced secondary.

REASON FOR HOPE: Offensive skill talent is experienced, with three starters back on the offensive line.
REASON TO BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID: Spanking new quarterback and defense=recipe for disaster.
IF THIS TEAM WERE ANY POP CULTURAL, HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, LITERARY OR OTHERWISE NOTABLE FIGURE, IT WOULD BE... Gareth Keenan: moderately successful in an utterly mediocre setting, Keenan as Assistant [to the] Regional Manager at Wernham Hogg (which he personally thinks is the best paper merchants in Thames Valley area), La Tech as a seven-win team tied for third in the Western Athletic Conference, who'd like to be seen as a bit more than they are.
HONESTLY, WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE SCHEDULE, SMQ'S THINKING: Well, of course, he looked at the schedule this time, to pick up on the brutal opening slate, and it's hard not to notice another six basically automatic wins against the same bottom-dwelling weak links that puffed up last year's mark. So he'll say seven again, and perhaps an attractive bid to the most obscure bowl game of all time.


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Previous absurdly premature assessments:
April 3: Central Michigan...April 4: Brigham Young...April 6: Kentucky...April 7: Bowling Green...April 8: Southern Cal...April 11: Rutgers...April 12: Marshall...April 13: Florida State...April 15: San Diego State...April 17: Alabama...April 19: Oregon State...April 20: Buffalo...April 22: NC State...April 23: Arizona...April 24: Memphis

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e-mail Sunday Morning Quarterback at sundaymorningqb@yahoo.com

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PREVIOUSLY FROM SMQ:

2006 Preview
Anatomy of an Underdog
BlogPoll: 1-10/11-25/Roundtable
The ACC
The Big Ten
The Big XII
The Sun Belt

Running Departments
The Rap Sheet
July 29/Aug. 1/Aug. 9/Aug. 16/Aug.19/Aug. 25/Sept. 28/Oct. 4/Oct. 5/Oct. 18/Oct. 26/Nov. 2/Nov. 7/Nov. 8/Nov. 28/Dec. 2/Dec. 8/ Dec. 11/Dec. 18/Dec. 21/Feb. 6/Feb. 10/April 7/April 14/April 21/April 29/May 6/May 12/May 19/May 26/June 2/June 10/June 16/June 24/June 30/July 8/Aug. 4

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SMQ-APPROVED
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PAGES

News from the Big Guys
ESPN/ College Football News Wire
Sports Illustrated
FOX
CBS Sportsline
USA Today
Opinion: Columnists and bloggers
Around the Oval (Ohio State)
Badger Sports (Wisconsin)
The Blue-Gray Sky (Notre Dame)
Block U (Utah)
BoiFromTroy (Southern Cal)
Bruins Nation (UCLA)
Burnt Orange Nation (Texas)
The Corporate Headquarters of the San Antonio Gunslingers
Dave Sez (Virginia)
Dawg Sports (Georgia)
ESPN: Ivan Maisel/Pat Forde
Every Day Should Be Saturday (Florida)
FOX: Pete Fiutak
Golden Tornado (Georgia Tech)
Heisman Pundit
I'm a Realist (Georgia)
Journalism is for Rock Stars (Alabama)
Mark May Be Wrong
MDG CFB (Fresno State)
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MGOBlog (Michigan)
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Paul Westerdawg (Georgia)
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SI: Stewart Mandel/John Walters
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The 614 (Ohio State)
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The Sporting Gnomes (Clemson)
Tiger Pundit (Clemson)
We Must Ignite This Couch (West Virginia)
The Wizard of Odds

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The Blog Poll

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WANNA DO SOME RESEARCH? NERD! HERE'S SOME QUICK REFERENCES:

College Football Data Warehouse
College Football Research Center
College Football News
cfbstats.com
Football Commentary
THE STANDINGS
THE POLLS

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Passing
Receiving
All-Purpose
Scoring
Tackles
Sacks
Interceptions
Tackles For Loss
Field Goals
Punting
Kickoff Returns
Punt Returns
TEAM STATISTICS
Rushing Offense
Passing Offense
Total Offense
Scoring Offense
Rushing Defense
Passing Defense
Total Defense
Scoring Defense
Turnover Margin

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Past Seasons
2005
Thursday Morning Quarterback
Sept. 29/Oct. 6/Oct. 20/Oct. 27/Nov. 3/Nov. 10/Nov. 17/Nov. 24/Dec. 1
Sunday Morning Quarterback
Oct. 2/Oct. 23/Oct. 30/Nov. 6/Nov. 13/Nov. 27
Stat Relevance Watch
Part One/Part Two/Part Three
SMQ Bowl Blitz
New Orleans/GMAC/Las Vegas/Poinsettia/Motor City

SMQ's [Hurricane-Abbreviated] 2005 Preview
Top 25 Countdown/Methodology
All-America Team
ACC
BIG EAST
BIG TEN
BIG XII