RUSTON – Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie and select players spoke with the media on Tuesday in advance of the Bulldogs' homecoming matchup with Sam Houston on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+.

Sonny Cumbie

Opening Statement…
"Our football team had a good practice this morning, bouncing back from an embarrassing loss for everybody involved in our program at Liberty. Liberty is a really good football team. Defensively we did not play anywhere near what we are capable of and did not play well at all. We did not tackle, we were not in position. One of the things is good players have to play good in those situations and we did not do that. The thing about this group and this coaching staff is we have always taken responsibility, the players took it and the coaches took responsibility for that performance. We are excited to move past it and learn from it and continue to look forward to trying to find a way to win this last home game against Sam Houston. It is the last home game for 18 seniors on our football team. Eight of the 18 have been here for their entire career. Two of the 18 are guys that have been for two years and eight of the remaining 18 have been here for a year. We want to try to make it as good as we can for them for this last home game at Joe Aillet Stadium and for us it is to create momentum as we go into the winter to finish this season strong. We have been a resilient football team. We have just been a team that has came up short in a lot of games. Our job is to win and we understand that. There is nobody more frustrating than the coaches and the players. Everyone that is associated with our program has one goal and that is to win on and off the field. One of the ways we can do that I show our kids how we respond and show our kids how we show up and work. The thing that we talked about today is the passion that we do it with. Whatever you do you need to have a lot of passion to do it. I was pleased with our guys ability to bounce back and come out to Tuesday's practice with great intent and have a lot of pride about who they are and have a lot of pride about what they try to accomplish."

On Sam Houston…
"They are similar to us in terms of their story. They have lost four of the five games by one possession. They lost to Jacksonville State in overtime. They lost to FIU in double overtime. They had a fourth and 19 against FIU and the FIU quarterback ran or 20 yards and that game was over. We watched their film all week last week on Liberty and they got down to the three-yard line down 21-16. This is a team that is very very capable a team that has talent and has a lot of players that redshirted last year. They have a lot of experience as they were the national champions at FCS a few years back. Coach K.C. Keeler is a phenomenal coach. This team from an offensive standpoint presents a lot of problems. Their running back is a really good player in John Gentry. Their quarterback is really scrappy and competitive. When you watch him play and I had a chance to watch their midweek games. I really admired his grit and his toughness and competitiveness. He does not stop. Against New Mexico State they were down 27-0 at halftime and trailing. They get it to 27-13 and have a drive mid-third quarter to try to get it to 27-20. They throw a beautiful pass down that is dropped it gets reviewed and overturned. It would have been a touchdown to make it 27-20. This is a team that is a good football team. We have good teams in our league defensively. I really admire how they play in terms of their front and linebackers. They are very aggressive and active. They play extremely hard. It is going to be a huge challenge for us. Special teams they do a really nice job with their kickoff cover units. They create problems there in terms of their kickoff cover unit in terms of their effort there schematically. Punt defense for us and getting Smoke loose is going to be a challenge too because their punter really keeps you off-balanced with his ability to punt."

On Smoke Harris…
"He means a lot to our players. He is undoubtedly one of the great Louisiana Tech football players. Standing up here in this team room. I do not even want to look down and see where he sits because in about two to three weeks when all of those guys are gone. In coaching you care a lot about people. The players is who you care a lot about. How he has handled himself in this era of transfer portal. He has had his best season since he has been here. We have came up short in some games and have not been able to get over the hump. Which we are going to and heading that direction. His leadership this season, his work habit and loyalty to this program has shown every single day. It is a great example for players at all positions and his position for our coaches. There are a lot of guys on our team that are joys to coach. You ache for them because the results have not been what we all want. I think Smoke Harris is a dynamic and very tough, competitive, unique football player. We are going to miss him a lot of ways on Saturday on the field but also Monday through Friday in these facilities, team rooms and what he brought to our football team. We got a couple more weeks to continue to get that out and be a part of it and to really relish that."

On goals over the next two weeks…
"It is still the same goal as far as being the best version of ourselves. Being the best version of ourselves for four quarters. There was glimpses of that on offense. Hank (Bachmeier) graded out the highest that he had all season in terms of the things that we looked for in terms of our screen game, our run screen, game, our RPO game and accuracy. He had two throws that he missed but otherwise I thought he had his highest rated game and operated really well on offense. We are being the best version of ourselves. We have to run the football better on offense against a really good run defense. We have to stop the run better than what we have and get off the field on third downs. We took a step offensively in terms being around 45 percent on third downs against Liberty which was better than what we have been. Those are the things that you are going for is just being the best version of ourselves and finishing it out. No matter if you are winning or losing there is still different challenges. It is not a take your ball and go home approach. It is an approach to do your absolute best every single day because when they leave here whether they continue to play or become a husband or father whether they work there is going to be a lot of really good seasons and celebrations but there is going to be a lot of really hard challenges and you have to wake up each day and show up and take those challenges head on which we are not afraid to do."

On health of team…
"From a health standpoint, the running back room is about the same. Tyre (Shelton) will be able to go. Keith (Willis Jr.) will be a week stronger. That is going to be good to see. Defensively there is a chance that you may see J'Dan Burnett depending how his week of practice goes and how confident he feels. We are about as healthy as we can be. Unless if they are season-ending injuries we are going to have most of our guys available."

On Keith Willis Jr.…
"Keith runs very powerful. He is a very powerful kid. There is not a lot of hesitation with him. Those are the types of situations that we want to put him in in terms of being successful in a short yardage situation because that is his strength. He was able to execute that and it was a teach tape example from our offensive line and tight ends in terms of blocking the prowler off to the left and him staying in the A-Gap. He brings a lot of energy on kickoff. If you watch our team and our kickoffs, there are two guys on kickoff that really standout and its Ryan Rivera and Keith Willis Jr. when they are in the game. Number 21 is always the first one down there. He provides energy and a spark. He has to be more patient in some of our gap schemes and schemes to the outside to let the blocks develop a little better. It has definitely been huge for us to have him back in terms of being able to get a little more life and juice into our run game from that standpoint."

Smoke Harris

On what he wants the younger guys to know when he leaves…
"I just want them to know that it is bigger than football.  You have to go out there and play every down but at the end of the day it is bigger than football. You have to learn more stuff through football than people expect you to learn. Football is more like life lessons instead being like a game you are playing."

On Sam Houston's defense…
"They are a pretty good team. They are kind like us, they lost a couple of close games. As far as defense wise their front seven is active. The guys in the backend do a pretty good job of playing their scheme and running to the ball."

On what is going to be the difference in this game…
"The difference maker will be making plays when your number is called. Accurate balls, receiver running great routes, winning versus man coverage while knowing where they are going to be how they are going to play. We have to know the techniques and know what they are going to do before they even do it."

Tru Edwards

On getting out to a fast start this game…
"Getting off to a fast start is important, because throughout the season there has been a couple of games we have started slow. We came back in the second half and we kept fighting throughout the game. It will be real important to come this game real fast because Sam Houston is also a good team because it was a close game between them and liberty that they could have won."

On how they want to send the Seniors out on Senior Day…
"Obviously, we didn't get all the wins we wanted, but we are going to keep continuing fighting for the seniors and lay it on the line to everything we can to get these next two win. We want to make sure the experience is good for them with these last two wins for them."

On the mindset of this team with two games left…
"The mindset is to continue to fight and to get the last two dubs like I said. No matter how the season is you want your team to continue to fight. We need to do what we need to do and start off quick and everyone come together and play together as a team."

On what Smoke Harris means to that receiver room…
"Smoke means a lot, he played a long time here. He teaches a lot of the receivers different tools they can use in a game. To lose him it will definitely impact us a lot."
 
Demarcus Griffin-Taylor

On what is has been like taking over the kick return role…
"What it means to me is that all the hard work is paying off. First I want to give thanks to God, second I want to give thanks to the coaches for helping me put my team in position to win and help my team come through and try to win but that's the goal, and third I want to give thanks for the other ten people on that unit because without them I wouldn't have been able to make a big impact as I did this week."

On his background of returning kicks…
"In high school I did offense kick returns and defense kick returns. It wasn't anything brand new I just had to get a feel for and trusting in myself that it is the same thing as football."

On things they can clean up on coming into this week…
"I think just being on one page that is the biggest thing. The ability to bring other people along as you can see it was a lot of people being rotated throughout the last end of the season. A lot of people are getting hurt so I think that also plays a big impact too. Making sure everyone is ready and on the same page. Making sure that we are getting all eleven hats to the ball no matter who is out there no one is bigger than the other person."