RUSTON, La. - Louisiana Tech head football coach Skip Holtz and defensive coordinator Blake Baker spoke with the media Sunday following LA Tech's acceptance to play in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl opposite Arkansas State on Dec. 19 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

Head Coach Skip Holtz

"We are really excited about the opportunity to play in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. It is in-state and a destination that our fan base can get to. For our players, I know they are excited about having the opportunity to get back out on the field. We talked about some of our disappointments in the way that we turned the ball over in the final game of the year. I think everyone is excited to get back on the field. We play Arkansas State and I know there is some history here. This will be the 38th meeting between the two teams. This is one of those geographical games and with them being the Sun Belt Champion, we are really excited to step on to the field and play in our home state in the New Orleans Bowl. It is a week before the Christmas holidays, so we should have great attendance. We are really excited that it is bowl season and we are in the conversation. This senior class has the opportunity to be one of the only teams in school history to win two bowl games. There are a lot of things on the table for this team. We play a quality opponent in Arkansas State. We play in our home state. It is also a chance for many of these players to play their last game in a Louisiana Tech uniform. It is a really exciting time."

On if he had an idea of what bowl Tech would play in following the loss to Southern Miss:
"I knew it was a possibility when you looked at the teams in the west and who was going to qualify. I did not know where we were going. I knew there was a chance. I am excited we are going. [Arkansas State] is 14th in the country in scoring offense per game, averaging about 41. They are creating a lot of turnovers. They are first in the country in turnovers created, touchdowns scored on defense and interceptions. They have 26 interceptions and 34 turnovers. They are doing a lot of really good things on both sides of the ball. I think it is great to have Blake [Baker] on the staff as someone who has familiarity with their upperclassman. It is still going to come down to blocking, tackling and putting a game plan together to give our players the best opportunity to have success."

On similarities between LA Tech's defense last year and Arkansas State's defense:
"There are in the number of turnovers created, but I have not studied them enough schematically. We made that announcement today to the team. Then we were trying to get all of the film in the computer, so we could start our game plan. Over the next five days we will balance recruiting and bowl preparation. We have to spend some time here in the office watching the film and putting that together. This is also the last week we can go out recruiting until about the middle of January. We have to balance some things. Most of the staff is going out on the road tomorrow and we are just trying to figure out when we can get in here and game plan. We will start our bowl preparation practices with the players on Friday."

On extra practices:
"You have up to 15. We have had three. We have a chance to have a total of 11, if we utilize every opportunity. We played last week and you want to be careful that you do not want to wait two weeks before anyone picks up a football again. We practiced this weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The players will focus on academics this week and be in the weight room with Coach [Kurt] Hester, until we get a game plan together."

On momentum going into the bowl:
"I think it is hard to carry momentum of a season into a bowl game when you are talking about two or three weeks from the end of the season to a bowl game. They have a good team. I do not think they won just from momentum. They have a lot of confidence and they are playing with a lot of swagger. They are doing a good job on both sides of the ball. They are creating a lot of turnovers. They are scoring a lot of points. When you do that, you are going to win a lot of football games. I think for us, the challenge is going to be more about the product on the field. Hopefully we can hold on to the ball a little better than we did in the last game of the season, because seven turnovers in a game of that magnitude is frustrating for everyone from coaches, fan base and players. When you turn the ball over, it is hard to win. I know Southern Miss went to the championship game and had four turnovers in that game. We have talked a lot about the role turnovers play in winning and losing. We are going to have to do a better job protecting the ball."

On facing Sun Belt Champions in Arkansas State:
"I think when you go through it, if you had polled our fan base and staff, everyone would have a different opinion on where they would like to go. There were a lot of options out there and everyone had their say of where they wanted to go and who we wanted to play. For us as a program, we are going to our eighth bowl game in school history. We have an opportunity for the first time in school history to win two bowl games back-to-back with the win last year. We play in our home state in a weekend that does not interfere with Christmas. It gives people the opportunity to spend a weekend in New Orleans. It is an opportunity for the seniors to play their last game in a Louisiana Tech uniform and have people come and support this program. I think we are more excited about going to a bowl game, rather than sitting back and saying, `Wow, I am from Dallas, so I really want to go to Dallas.'

"We have a lot to play for. This senior class has a chance to go out as one of the winningest classes in since we have been in Division I. There are a lot of things left on the table for this team. We have a bowl game to go along with the fact that we are not beating our chest over our performance in the last game. We definitely felt like we could have played better, so we are really excited about having the opportunity to go get on the field again. It is a great spot in state. It is a great spot for our fan base. It is a great spot for the families of our players. It is a great weekend and time slot, at 8 pm on a Saturday night on the first day of bowl season. It is a prime venue to play the game. We are excited about having the opportunity to play again. They are Sun Belt Champions. There are only so many conference champions around the country and we will have the opportunity to play against one."

"You sit down at the beginning of the year and ask who in the room wants to go to a bowl game. Everyone in the room stood up. I said great, the administrators will make the decision of which one we go to and we just have to get ourselves there. This is a great reward for our football team through a hard-fought season. They accomplished a lot of things. I still look at what is on the table. We have a lot to play for. I do not know if it is just a consolation prize or just a reward for a hard-fought season. The 2015 team is not done yet and we have an opportunity to play again against a conference champion in a great venue in the dome in New Orleans. It is a great atmosphere in a great city. That is one of the best case scenarios that we can ask for coming out of this season."

On Jeff Driskel:
"He is going to have some familiarity in the dome. I do not know how many of our players have ever played in the dome. I think it is a great venue. It will be a great place for us to go and play. I think for Jeff, the excitement about having the opportunity to go win a bowl game as a senior, those things play a bigger role. He can help not only himself, but the guys he has built relationships with over the last year. He has a chance to go play with those guys one last time. I think he is excited about playing."

"He has been a gem. It has been a joy and pleasure for me. A lot of people get into coaching for a lot of different reasons. The relationships and having the opportunity to work with these young men is rewarding. My favorite time as a football coach is in the locker room after a win. They get to sing that fight song and you look around and see that every face down there has a story of how they got here and what they have had to overcome. When you see the joy of them celebrating a win together, I see the stories in every one of the faces. Jeff is definitely one of the more rewarding stories when you look at what he went through and the amount of success he has had here. He has created a lot of himself. He has the opportunity to continue playing in the future. I think we have both helped each other. Certainly, he has done great things for Louisiana Tech, coming in here and playing the way he did and being the leader he has been on this team. I think Louisiana Tech has helped Jeff Driskel quite a bit as well, getting the joy and excitement of playing the game back again. It has been a great relationship for both sides."

On recruiting impact:
"It is very big when you look at the number of recruits we have from the lower part of the state. From an exposure and branding stand point, it is great. We are playing on a Saturday night at 8 p.m. on the first night of bowl season. There is going to be a huge viewing crowd. I expect it to be a great football game. I expect it to be a great opportunity for us to go and play one more time with this football team."

On bowl practices:
"You have two things that you are trying to do right now. You are trying to take your football team and get them ready to play in a bowl game, but you are also trying to get your freshmen and redshirts an opportunity to get into the offense and develop. We are not only trying to develop the depth for the next two weeks, but we are also trying to get the seniors and the starters ready to get a chance to go play in this game."

Defensive Coordinator Blake Baker

"First off, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to play in a bowl game. Being in New Orleans, my old stomping grounds, is exciting in itself. Being able to play close to home for our fans to be able to make the short trip down there, we are obviously really excited for that as well."

"I was at [Arkansas State] two years ago. I got to pop on some film for about an hour today and schematically they have changed quite a bit. Personnel wise, it is really very similar to when I was there. Looking at their two-deep on both sides of the ball, I think 16 of the 22 guys were there whenever I was there in some capacity. I lot of them were actually starting."

"They have great speed, great explosiveness. Fredi Knighten -- their quarterback -- he is a dynamic playmaker with his feet and his arm, so we will have our hands full and I am excited."

On recruiting current Arkansas State players:
"A lot of guys on defense, I know their two defensive ends, can go. Chris Stone and Ja'Von Jones are explosive on the edge. At safety, Money Hunter, who I personally recruited, had a 100-yard pick six last week. It is funny because I still talk to a lot of the guys on the team -- J.D. McKissic, their slot receiver, Money Hunter being one of them, Chris Humes, who I had the opportunity to coach as their other safety. I have great relationships with those guys. There was obviously no bad blood. Terry Mohajir, their athletic director, has done a phenomenal job there. He is really doing a great job building that program up with a new press box and new indoor stadium. They are doing good things up there."

On stopping Arkansas State's offense:
"Just watching them for about an hour, I think the biggest challenge will be that they give you a lot of window dressing and motions. It has a little Auburn to it in the fact that their offense is a spread offense, but it is a run first offense. Michael Gordon is a tremendous back. They do a lot of motioning and a lot of movement after the snap that if one guy is not right it is going to create creases. As I said, those guys have the speed to take it to the house. From an hour of watching film, that is already giving me a headache, so it is going to be a challenge for us."

On Arkansas State's defense being similar to Tech's in 2014:
"Statistically, it is very similar. I have not watched them schematically. I have actually spoken to [defensive coordinator] Joe Cauthen on the phone a couple times this year and he is obviously doing a great job up there running that defense and they have a lot of speed on that side of the ball. Schematically, I could not tell you what they do."

On taking anything from Arkansas State and Tech's common opponent in ULL:
"You really don't. Teams change based on what they see with play calls, formations and the whole nine. I really do not take anything from a common opponent."

On the New Orleans Bowl helping recruiting in south Louisiana:
"I think it is an enormous opportunity for us. A lot of the kids from New Orleans, because they play on Friday nights, don't necessarily get to come up here on Saturdays. I think just being able to get in front of their eyes and being at 8 o'clock on opening day of bowl games is big time across the state. But anytime you can go down there and there is going to be a lot of buzz about the bowl all week leading up to it and putting on a good show, it is obviously going to affect recruiting."

On the team's reaction to the bowl announcement:
"They were excited. First and foremost, I did not matter if we went to Timbuktu. After last week, they want to get that taste out of their mouth. It did not matter who we played or where we played, we just want to put the ball down and play. Obviously, being in state and we have a contingency of kids from Louisiana that will be closer to home and being able to play in front of more family and friends then maybe up here in Ruston. The kids were excited."

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