Once heard a football coach tell his team he wanted each player to fight as if he were the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s Ark and it had just started raining.
Old Testament encouragement. Nothing quite like it.
This is the kind of fight and fever I expect to see from Louisiana Tech when the Bulldogs take on No. 19 (AP) Army in the 48th Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl Saturday, Dec. 28, at 8:15 p.m. in Independence Stadium and on ESPN.
If ever there were a team playing with house money, it’s this Tech team, and I could not be happier for them.
Thank goodness and Walter Camp, Tech fell bass ackward into the 2024 BowlFest Ark when Marshall, the Sun Belt Champ, decided Saturday it couldn’t compete in the game. After accepting the invite last Sunday. Sigh …
(We’ve said for years this sport needs a commissioner like rice needs gravy but … whole other story.)
THIS story is that while much of the media was wearing out the Thundering (Except For In The 2024 I-Bowl) Herd for backing out, I was packaging up chocolates and roses and Slim Jims and John Denver CDs to send to Huntington, West Virginia. Taped up boxes ’til my hands bled.
Thank you, Marshall! Your administrators fumbled. Been in a similar spot, and it’s no fun. (I’m thinking of a long-departed Tech AD who said “Thanks but no thanks” to the I-Bowl in 2012, leaving the NCAA’s highest scoring offense with no bowl to play in. Some of us still haven’t fully flushed that…)
But this time, Tech at 5-7 was the beneficiary of grownups doing silly grownup things. A Bulldog team that waded upstream through a weird year gets one more chance to be together and to play together.
This Tech team lost five games by one score, three of those in overtime. Beat the Conference USA runner-up on the road, lost to the CUSA champion on a Hail Mary. Commercials for nerve pills should have run on jumbotrons and TV sets during game breaks.
But now … one more Saturday night.
Tech Coach Sonny Cumbie will address the media today (Wednesday Dec. 18) a bit after noon and have some solid information on the roster, little things like who might be playing and who might be gone, this being the day of the portal and transfers and rules that bend like willow trees in a hurricane. The suspicion is that the roster’s a liquid situation going into Tuesday night’s first bowl practice.
(Important Roster Note: The good news is that we want all of you who can to come to the game; the bad news is, you might have to play flanker or nose tackle; I’m ‘out’ as it would take me until at least Groundhog Day just to get loose.)
The early line on this game was Army by 14.5, now up to 16.5. Sounds about right. But a couple things I know and don’t have to bet on:
Tech’s defense, even minus a couple of guys, should keep this team in the game as it’s done all season, and;
Cumbie, Athletics Director Ryan Ivy and President Dr. Jim Henderson will make sure the Bulldogs are competitive. I know how much it means to them. And they know that, even coming off an upset to Navy, the Black Knights, 11-2 and American Athletic Conference Champions, would be a handful for any team this season.
But here’s the great news for you and for me as college football fans: it has never mattered who the teams were; the I-Bowl Team has never, in my experience, had an off year.
This is an organization that helps the community all year. This is a bunch of people who make sure the players and their families, year after year, have a fun few days on the river. Since its start in 1976, this is the 11th most historic bowl game and will be played in a historic stadium that’s welcomed its share of Hall of Famers and is hosted by people who work all year to give you this experience to share.
Love, love, love the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl. A lot of us have been lucky enough to watch it grow up. Been fun. Too bad the grownups in charge of Marshall’s team made a decision that will keep those players from this once-in-a-lifetime bowl opportunity.
Marshall fumbled. Tech recovered. Let’s see what the ’Dogs can do with it.
(I-BOWL INFO: RadianceTechnologiesIndependenceBowl.com has it all, or follow the bowl on Facebook, X and Instagram at @IndyBowl. Tickets? Easy as falling off a porch: email info@independencebowl.org or call the bowl office, 318.221.0712.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu
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