Oct. 24, 2008
RUSTON--Louisiana Tech (3-3, 1-2 WAC) and Army (2-5) will face off for the first time ever on the gridiron Saturday as they battle at Michie Stadium in West Point, N.Y. at 12 p.m.
Louisiana Tech will be looking to stay hot on offense after piling up 556 yards of total offense last week, 364 coming on the ground, in a 46-14 win over Idaho. Ross Jenkins pitched in connecting on 13 of his 20 passes for 192 yards in his first career start at quarterback.
"I thought it was the most complete ballgame that we've played since I've been here," said Tech head coach Derek Dooley. "We were successful in all three phases of the game for all four quarters, kudos to the team for continuing to work hard and not get frustrated after a couple of losses."
Tech will now travel to West Point to take on Army and are in search of their first road victory of the season.
"This game is important because we haven't put together a good game on the road yet," Dooley said. "We showed some signs at Hawai'i, but just didn't execute some things that we needed to win the game."
Army is looking to bounce back from a heartbreaking overtime loss at Buffalo last week in which the Bulls scored the game's final 17 points to take the victory and snap the Black Knights' two game winning streak.
"Don't be fooled by their record," Dooley said. "They are sound, disciplined, well coached and give great effort. It'll be a great challenge for our team."
Offensively, Tech hopes to continue to have success on the ground averaging 194 yards per game rushing. Last week the Bulldogs racked up 364 yards rushing including Tech's first 100 yard performance of the season as running back Daniel Porter rushed for 145 yards and two touchdowns.
Army runs a potent option offense in which they average 253 rushing yards per game, but only 47.3 yards per game through the air.
Louisiana Tech will look to counter the Black Knight's powerful rushing attack with a stingy rush defense that only surrenders an average of 100.7 rushing yards per game and only allowed 15 yards rushing to Idaho last week.
"Army runs the option so the challenge defensively is to defend something we haven't seen yet," Dooley said. "We have to have a very disciplined, assignment based defense because if you have one breakdown they will take advantage of it."
Game Info
What: Louisiana Tech vs. Army
When: 12 p.m. Saturday
Where: Michie Stadium
Streaming: espn360.com
GameTracker: www.latechsports.com
Radio Stations: KXKZ 107.5 FM, Sirius Channel 126 (LA Tech feed), XM Channel 108 (Army feed))
Internet: www.z1075fm.com
Talent: Dave Nitz, Malcolm Butler, Benny Thornell
