BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Tech's defense battled for four quarters inside a sold-out Tiger Stadium, but the Bulldogs could not overcome No. 3 LSU in a 23–7 setback Saturday night in front of 101,667 fans.
 
LA Tech (1–1) held LSU (2-0) to just two touchdowns on the night and forced a trio of field goals, but the Tigers leaned on a balanced offensive attack and a defense that limited the Bulldogs to 154 total yards.
 
LA Tech's defense kept the game within reach, racking up eight tackles-for-loss.  Mekhi Mason led the way with 11 tackles, including a sack, while Christian Davis, Jadon Mayfield, and Jojo Odom also registered sacks to help the Bulldogs bring down LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier three times.  Michael Richard also created the lone turnover on the night, grabbing an interception on the Tigers opening drive to quickly silence the crowd.
 
Offensively, the 'Dogs got into LSU territory three times but were forced to punt all three.  It was not until late in the fourth quarter when Blake Baker who came in at quarterback connected with Devin Gandy on a 33-yard touchdown strike to put LA Tech on the scoreboard, capping a 13-play, 74-yard drive.
 
Gandy led Tech with 33 receiving yards, while Eli Finley added four catches for 18 yards. Baker and Trey Kukuk combined for 96 passing yards against a fast LSU secondary.  On the ground, Clay Thevenin paced Tech with 22 rushing yards, while Kukuk added 16.
 
Special teams kept the Bulldogs in it as well, with John Hoyet Chance averaging 38.4 yards on nine punts, pinning the Tigers inside their own 10 four times.
 
LSU struck first with a late first-quarter touchdown pass and added a field goal before halftime.  The Tigers extended their lead to 17–0 in the third and tacked on two more field goals in the final frame, including one that was forced by the Bulldog defense stuffed the Tigers on three straight plays from inside the 3-yard line, to stay out of reach.
 
QUOTABLES
Head coach Sonny Cumbie
 
Opening Statement
"I love how hard our kids played. I thought our kids played really to the standard of what we've become to know of how they play in terms of they played fast, and they played really physical. I think they flew around tonight. I was proud of that effort. I think that our execution offensively was not where it needs to be for us to be able to win a conference championship and I know that we'll get that fixed. I think the disappointing thing from an execution standpoint was we didn't play as well on special teams, not as well as we played the prior week. We really made some critical errors and talking to our kids this week: against a team, any game, you have to maximize your opportunities. When you don't maximize on those opportunities, even late in the third quarter when we had the opportunity to get the ball back on punt, you're not going to get those back. I think a team with this type of talent is going to really maximize their opportunities. They're going to make it hard for you, but I think defensively, I was really proud of how our kids played. They had to earn everything up and down the field. To be honest when you have the ball on the two-yard line and you're an SEC offense and you kick a field goal at the end of the game, I think it's kind of the tip of the cap from the standpoint of what they think of our defense. I don't know if that's true or not. My thought process on it, I think that our guys played really well on defense and created a takeaway on the first drive of the game. I think they were able from one week to the next to handle a lot of things from a game plan standpoint that Coach Olsen threw at them. I was encouraged from that standpoint in their performance but just disappointed that we didn't play better on offense and didn't play better on special teams to give ourselves a chance to win."
 
On offense capitalizing from takeaways…
"Yeah, from a team standpoint, in terms of when you get a takeaway to be able to capitalize and get points off of it. And be able to rise up early on all three phases of the game and play complimentary football. We haven't done that really well the first two games and it's something we are searching for. And I think some of it is from an execution standpoint on offense and getting into a rhythm. For three series this year we felt good about the rhythm, and I thought we had a good series there with Blake (Baker). You know we'll have to evaluate it from the quarterback standpoint. There are also the other players around too in terms of how we're running the football and how we're reading the cuts. You know the production we're getting at running backs and receivers also."
 
On his assessment of Trey…
"To be fair to Trey (Kuluk), he had food poising. He got it yesterday and has been throwing up all night. Going against a really good defense I didn't think it was great performance. At times, I thought the rush got to him and being able to see the field. We'll have to watch it on the way home.
 
NOTABLES

• With the loss, LA Tech now trails in the all-time series versus LSU, 1-20.  The 16-point loss was the second closest margin of victory for the Tigers in the series in the last 15 meetings.
• With the announced attendance of 101,667, it was the fourth largest crowd that LA Tech has played in front of.
• With a late touchdown, the Bulldogs extended their streak of scoring to 213 games (have not been shut out since 2008).
• The Bulldog defense totaled 8.0 tackles for loss, the most they have ever had against the Tigers (on record).  They had a combined 7.0 in the last two meetings.
• The Bulldog defense tallied five pass breakups.  They also had six against Southeastern in the season opener (first time with 5+ PBUs in back-to-back games since 2023).
• Mekhi Mason registered a game-high 11 tackles, giving him back-to-back games with double-digit tackles.  He also had a game-high 1.5 tackles for loss, giving him 6.0 for the season through two games.
• Michael Richard recorded his first career interception as a Bulldog.
• Eli Finley led the Bulldogs in total receptions for a second straight game, reeling in four grabs.
• Devin Gandy registered his first career touchdown as a Bulldog.

UP NEXT
LA Tech returns to Joe Aillet Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 13 to open Conference USA play versus New Mexico State.  Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
 
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