RUSTON, La. (Nov. 12, 2019) – Louisiana Tech head coach
Skip Holtz spoke with the media Tuesday in preparation for Tech's road showdown with the leaders of C-USA's East Division, the Marshall Thundering Herd.
Head Coach Skip Holtz
Opening Statement:
"It's been a short week getting ready for Marshall this Friday. As we do every week, we look backwards, which seems like forever ago to the North Texas game. I'm really proud of the team and the effort they put forth. I thought the energy, focus and the passion they played with was great to see. One of the keys to last week's game was winning the intangibles. I thought our players did a really nice job of that on both sides of the ball. I thought it was an incredible performance by our defense. They continue to improve week by week as everyone continues to get more comfortable in the system. They've really done a nice job. I thought special teams did a nice job. I would've loved to see that punt return count. What an unbelievable play and individual effort by
Smoke Harris on that play. Unfortunately, there was a flag on the ground that negated it. Overall, a lot of positive things. We're continually trying to improve as we go through this season. That has been the battle cry all year – improvement. The team has bought into it. They know we're not where we need to be and we still have a lot of football left ahead of us and a great challenge ahead this Friday."
On the Marshall game:
"I think Doc (Holliday) does a great job with his football teams. They are always physical and tough. They are built to run the ball with their offensive formations. They have big, strong, physical running backs. They play with three tight ends. They do some really good things in the running game and play very physical football. Same thing defensively when you look at them. They are a very aggressive group defensively. I think Brad (Lambert) does a nice job with that group. He's a great defensive football coach. We know it's going to be one heck of a challenge."
"We've got a million different hurdles this week. We've got a short week. We've had six days to prepare for this game, and Marshall had an open date and will have 13 days to prepare for this game. We have final exams this week. We'll be travelling on Thursday on the last day of class. We're playing on the road at their place where they have a great win-loss record as a program playing at home. The weather will probably be a little uncharacteristic from Louisiana weather. We've got some things we have to overcome. As a football team, this is what we've got in front of us. It's going to be a great challenge for our team, but one that we're looking forward to and are going to embrace. We're excited to go up there to play this game."
On the recent success of the offense:
"Well, we've scored a lot of points, but we're ranked pretty high up there in defensive touchdowns. We've scored some touchdowns on special teams and defense, but I think having the depth of the offensive line has been huge in that regard. Guys just continue to stand up and play well for us. The depth at running back has evolved over the season. We sat here two months ago, and the only two names that came up were
Jaqwis Dancy and
Israel Tucker. One has missed most the season, and the other has missed about six weeks. You look at the emergence of
Justin Henderson and the job that he's done running the football. There's some guys who just keep stepping up, and it's been really nice to see.
Malik Stanley has been a great addition. There's not any one thing that you can center that around. Some guys are really stepping up and playing well."
To access video of today's LA Tech press conference, go to:
https://conferenceusa.box.com/v/2019-20Video
Password: 2019-20Video
Click on Conference USA File Share > Video > Football > then the week of highlights you are seeking > then the school you are seeking.
Audio from today's press conference can be accessed on SoundCloud by clicking on the links below.
HC Skip Holtz audio: soundcloud.com/latechathletics/new-recording-14
