Saturday College football and we will see the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs take on the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman Oklahoma. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on PPV. Current Vegas odds have the Sooners listed as 35 point favorites, while the total is set at 53.5.
Analysis: The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs went from 9-3 in 2012 to just 4-8 last year, in what was Skip Holtz first season as HC of the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs averaged 51 ppg back in 2012, but last year with just 3 starters back, they put up a mere 19.2 ppg. That a huge drop-off and much of the problem was inconsistency at the QB spot, where Higgins and Young combined to throw 10 TDs to 15 INTs. Higgins is back, but should take a backseat to Iowa Transfer Cody Sokol, who has the tools to jump start this offense. He does have leading WR Sterling Griffin back from last year, along with a couple of solid recruits and senior Hunter Lee. The running game has it top 4 rushers back from last year, including Kenneth Dixon who had 28 TD’s back in 2012, but missed last year due to injury. The Defense improved last year, allowing 12.2 ppg less than they did in 2012 and with 7 starters back this year they should be even better, especially with new DC Manny Diaz being hired. Manny was brought in from Texas when he led the Longhorns to the best defense in the Big 12 back in 2011.
The Oklahoma Sooners had a very nice 11-2 year a season ago, which ended with a 45-31 Sugar Bowl win over Alabama. The Sooners scored 32.8 ppg on offense last year, with Blake Bell and Trevor Knight sharing the QB duties throughout the year. Trevor, though, solidified the spot coming into this year by guiding the Sooners to wins over Oklahoma State and Alabama to end the year. RB Keith Ford was rated #7 coming out of HS and this year the Sooners signed the #3 RB out of HS in Joe Mixon and they also have a #15 and a #22 RB on their roster as well. The WR Corps does return its second leading receiver from last year in Sterling Shepard, who caught 51 balls for 603 yards and 7 TDs last year. He will join a plethora of highly touted WRs to give Trevor plenty of targets to throw to. The defense is loaded with 23 lettermen, including 9 starters back. The LB corps is the strength this team and is rated 9th best in the land. The leaders of this group are Frank Shannon, who led the team in tackles last year (92) and Erik Striker, who led them in sacks (6.5).
Pick: Looking at Louisiana Tech to keep this one close. The Bulldogs had a rough season last year, but they were one of the most inexperienced team in the nation and this year they have a much more experienced team. The Sooners are powerful, but still have just 5 starters back on offense and may take a little time to get going this year. Oklahoma will win the game but not by more than 28 points.
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