Not a lot of football fun for Louisiana Tech so far this fall.
Been a hard-to-watch 1-3 through a slim September, this game and that one slipping away, some of those slips self-inflicted, some of them because the other teams have scholarship players too.
But if the Bulldogs are looking for some hope, they can step back with me to 2011, when things started 1-4.
Season opener was lost 19-17 on a late field goal in a tropical storm at Southern Miss.
Tech beat Central Arkansas, 48-42, in overtime at Joe Aillet Stadium, then lost a four-touchdown lead and fumbled late to bow at home to Houston, 35-34.
Then a loss at Mississippi State, 26-20. In overtime. End zone interception.
Then a hat-handing at home against Hawaii, 44-26, to open the Western Athletic Conference season; the Bulldogs were so bad in that game, they didn’t even get to receive the kickoff in either half. I am not making that up. Bungled the coin toss. The officials should have righted the wrong and were the only outfit on the field worse than the ’Dogs that night, but still … That kind of night, and that kind of start.
1-4 overall, 0-1 in the WAC.
Now … you can stop what you’re doing and look it up if you want to, but I’m just saying that from there, Tech won seven straight, won the WAC outright, and finished the season with a 31-24 loss to TCU in San Diego in the Poinsettia Bowl, a game they probably should have won.
But the bowl loss did nothing to diminish what that team accomplished. It kind of helped set the table for 2012, when the Bulldogs led the nation in scoring average at 51.5 a game, the only team in the NCAA to average 50-plus.
True story.
If that’s not enough, me and the rest of the geezer crowd can take you back to our spry days of 40 years ago when the 1984 Bulldogs started 1-3, just like the current bunch. But when the dust had settled and the last flankers and nose tackles were tucked safely in bed in mid-December, the Bulldogs had won the Southland Conference and three games in the NCAA Division I-AA Playoffs before falling at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C., to muscle-bound Montana State, 19-6, in the national championship game to finish 10-5.
I was there, a rookie sportswriter.
So was Doyle Adams, a senior safety who finished his career as the program leader in interceptions.
And so was Karl Terrebonne, a senior receiver who went from walk-on to all-conference, a steady hand good for about three or four first downs a game, mostly over the middle.
“I think what allowed us to recover from the 1-3 start and go on to play in the national championship game was the ability to literally focus on getting better each day despite not experiencing success on the field early on,” said Adams, a banker-turned-long-time Bossier Parish pastor, whose smile is no less bright now than it was when he was an all-league defensive back. “I know it sounds like typical ‘coachspeak,’ but it was true. There was incredible senior leadership on the team, led by Karl Terrebonne, that helped foster a mental toughness to go out there and work hard daily.
“Another big thing: throughout the course of the season, we had a variety of different players step to the forefront and lead the team statistically on Saturday,” he said. “From QB’s David Brewer, Kyle Gandy and Jordan Stanley to running backs Garland Powell and David Green, each had their chance to lead the offensive unit. Defensively, players like Aldon Kelly, Jon Paul Laque and Doug ‘Tank’ Landry helped lead the charge.
“But the key thing was, it didn’t matter to the team who was in the spotlight, so long as the job was getting done.”
After the team’s third loss, a 14-8 setback at Ole Miss, the third straight after a season-opening win, Coach A.L. Williams, a Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Famer now retired in Ruston, invited the seniors to his and Mrs. Sarah’s house for dinner.
“We talked for almost three hours,” said Terrebonne, who, naturally, went on to become a coach, “and that Saturday, we beat North Texas, a ranked team.”
The following Monday, Terrebonne walked into Williams’ office and asked his coach what the seniors were eating Thursday night.
“He laughed and said, ‘Tell the guys to come over,’” Terrebonne said. “That Saturday, we beat McNeese in Lake Charles, and they were No. 3 in the nation, and from then on, we went to A.L.’s house every Thursday.
“I’m not sure if that did it,” he said, “but we won 10 damn games.”
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu
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