Louisiana Tech holds final two-a-day

The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs passed another milestone in the rapidly advancing start of the college football season as they held their final two-a-day of fall camp Tuesday with a morning practice in shorts on the Tech Practice Fields and an evening practice in full pads at Joe Aillet Stadium.
Unlike early in fall camp, the team was rewarded by Mother Nature with temperatures in the mid- to upper-70s in both practices, a welcome change from the oppressive 100-plus degree temperatures that highlighted the first two weeks.
“Coming out this morning, it was 74 degrees in a two-a-day today,” Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz said in a news release. “Then we came out here tonight and I felt like we really had some juice for having 19 practices in a row without a day off and a two-a-day. I really like the attitude of the team right now and the way they are working. I like the leadership and the way a lot of those guys are leading.”
The moderate temperatures allowed a little extra enthusiasm in the players during both practices. That, or the idea of the first game being only 11 days away, continues to energize a team that feels there is unfinished work to do from last season.
“I thought we got a really good night’s work tonight,” Holtz said. “We got a lot of individual done and then a good bit of team, probably over an hour of team. I don’t know how many plays we ended up with, but we had some competitive drills at the end.”
With half the practice devoted to team Tuesday evening and a full pad practice that likely will focus on team coming today, the coaching staff is continuing to develop needed depth across the board before the season kicks off Sept. 5.
Practices Sunday through Tuesday continued the focus on first- and second-team reps after the personnel scrimmage Saturday helped the coaches begin to determine which players would be redshirt candidates and which would be in the mix.
But several question marks remain across the board, particularly on the offensive line. While the overall question of who will be involved seems to be answered for the most part, the question of where they will be still needs answering.
“I think we have a really good grasp on the guys we are going to work with,” Holtz said of the offensive line. “Now we are really just trying to polish some things up and trying to make (a) final decision on who is going to be at what position. We’ve got a lot of guys rolling around.
“Josh Robinson is playing guard and he is playing tackle. (Joseph) Brunson is playing center and guard. (David) Mahaffey is playing center and guard. We have a lot of guys who are moving around, and we are just trying to find that combination to get the best five on the field right now,” Holtz said.
Coming off Saturday’s personnel scrimmage, a few of the younger linemen stood out to the coaching staff.
“I felt like some of the young linemen really played well,” Holtz said. “I felt like Shane Carpenter really did a nice job, the two freshmen linemen — O’Shea Dugas and Deontae McCrady — really did a good job up front. When you sit down and look at them, I think they have a pretty good understanding right now of what is going on.
Offensive line is an important position to continue to refine, as they will be blocking for running back Kenneth Dixon and quarterback Jeff Driskel, a pair of players that have garnered national attention during their collegiate careers. Dixon is on the Doak Walker Award (best running back) and Maxwell Award (best offensive player) watch lists as well as a preseason All-Conference USA selection.
Louisiana Tech will open the newly expanded Joe Aillet Stadium Sept. 5 when the Bulldogs host Southern in a game that will be televised nationally by the American Sports Network.