It happened in Mobile, Alabama Saturday afternoon in the blink of a helmet to the midsection, the biggest moment in Louisiana Tech’s most recent victory during its improbable debut dance through the Sun Belt.
Faster than you could say “Duck!” or “Heads up!” or “Fire in the hole!,” there it suddenly was, the fate of a dicey, tug-of-rope game rolling there on the turf and looking very much like a football that had been dropped.
“Exciting to see that ball pop out,” Tech coach Sonny Cumbie said.
“I knew we were gonna get one,” said an enthusiastic and smiling Blake Baker about the takeaway, the junior quarterback being familiar with his team’s defense, the one that has registered a takeaway in 11 straight games and in 19 of their last 22.
“With this team,” Tech athletics director Ryan Ivey said, “you’re starting to expect them to make that kind of play.”
The guy with the best initial view of the fumble was a new Bulldog, a fourth-year college player named MJ Moultrie II. Before that pivotal moment with seconds left in the third quarter, the moment that would tip the scales and launch Tech to a 35-20 win over South Alabama in a crucial Sun Belt game, few Tech fans had heard of this youngster who’d prepped in Texas near Austin.
Moultrie. Maybe the name’s still not familiar.
But you can bet South Alabama running back Keenan Phillips knows him, can tell you what Moultrie’s helmet feels like if it hits you between your chest bones and belt buckle.
“We had just been talking about that play,” said Moultrie. “It was actually a good play they’d schemed up, one that we had to make an adjustment to. It was the first play they’d come back out with, so as soon as I saw the set, it was like I just knew what my key was and when to trigger.
“So I felt good,” the Hampton University transfer said, “about making the play.”
Which he did in this fashion: Phillips ran off tackle from his own 6 and there was Moultrie, with a running start, all triggered up and whatnot, to hit him at the 10. Ball loose. Many people. One ball. But it was not the first time Alonzo Jackson Jr. of Haynesville, a linebacker and Tech’s leading tackler, had seen a fumble or had seen people coveting it. Zo wanted it more, and smothered it.
On Halloween afternoon, a tell-tale moment for sure.
Tech scored two plays later, the defense pitched its 10th shutout in its most recent 12 quarters, and Tech, 6-2, came home from Hancock Whitney Stadium with a two-game lead in the West Division of the SBC at 4-0, 6-2 overall.
“A thing I like about (Tech defensive coordinator) Coach (Luke) Olson’s defense is that if something around the defense is messed up, he can just move one person — like in my position — and we can have a quick fix,” Moultrie said. “Just like that.”
Half-linebacker, half-defensive back, the 5-11, 195-pound Moultrie had five tackles Saturday, including the forced fumble, and Taeden Rogers, a second-year player and first-year Bulldog from California, shares the “Star” position and had seven tackles and a big sack.
Just like that.
In a season that’s been filled with critical moments, Moultrie’s fumble-causing, bone-crushing, game-tilting hit was the latest in a long line. Add those moments together, and you get an even bigger spotlight on Tech’s upcoming game against another southern Alabama Sun Belt foe, Troy (4-4, 2-2), Saturday at 3 p.m. in Veterans Memorial Stadium at Larry Blakeney Field on campus.
In the SBC division race, a win for Tech would give the Bulldogs the breathing room of a bovine on a Montana ranch; Tech has the league’s only unblemished record. The trouble is, the Trojans are at home and have had since Thursday’s road win at preseason favorite James Madison to get ready. Plus, Troy has scholarships, coaches, uniforms, practice gear … the whole deal. A win puts them right back in the race.
It shapes up to be another test for a Tech team that, at the kiddie table for a few seasons, seems to have earned a bit of favor with the football gods.
“We’ve got some battle scars, some callouses,” Cumbie said. “We’ve got some experiences to fall back on, like a 28-7 deficit (in the second half to Liberty last November) that we came back from. Do what you’re coached to do, be resilient … you’re never out of a game.”
That Liberty win has proven to be the first of eight straight the Dogs have won against G6 teams, including five this year; Tech’s two losses came on the road at LSU and Baylor, back to back.
Speaking of back-to-back, the most recent time Tech won back-to-back football games in Alabama was in 1997 against Alabama, 26-20, and UAB, 32-29. Tim Rattay, the wide receivers and passing game coordinator for South Alabama last week, was the Tech quarterback.
Rattay wore jersey No. 13.
Same as Moultrie.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu
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