JOURNAL SPORTS
RUSTON – Year 4 of Louisiana Tech football under coach Sonny Cumbie era kicked off Thursday morning as the Bulldogs held their first 2025 fall camp practice on the grass fields inside the Jim Mize Track and Field Complex.
Cumbie said this team is prepared from a strength standpoint and from a chemistry standpoint heading into fall camp. He gave credit to head strength coach Dave Scholz for doing a phenomenal job in the spring and summer and expressed pride at the Bulldogs’ performance in their first preseason workout.
“What I saw today was a prepared football team,” said Cumbie after practice. “Even though you have some anxious moments before a game or practice, maybe you have some excitement, maybe you have some jitters that maybe won’t be there tomorrow, or maybe they will be, I think our football team was very well prepared and that’s a credit to our coaches.
“I’m excited for this football team, I’m excited about this season because of the players — the talent level of our players and the chemistry and camaraderie that we have in this team.”
New offensive coordinator Tony Franklin has brought his trademark wide-open passing game back to Tech. He held the same position over a decade ago on Sonny Dykes’ staff and in his final season, the Bulldogs led the country in scoring average and total offense average.
Franklin’s influence has infused the Tech offense with confidence.
“We have been out there all summer practicing with the new offense and getting more comfortable with it as we go,” said center Landon Nelson. “As far as the identity goes, coach Franklin has done a great job of establishing the fact of what we are going to do and how we are going to do it. We are going to be real detailed and we always have a long ways to go, but we are going to go a long way.”
There’s a new coordinator on defense as well. The defense was the Bulldogs’ hole card last season, ranking 12th nationally in total defense, and former Jacksonville State DC Luke Olson has stepped in to steer things beginning this season.
Senior linebacker Kolbe Fields, the Preseason Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year, said Olson’s “take it mindset” has been adopted by the ‘Dawgs D.
“You approach it with everything,” said Fields. “You go to the meeting and you try to take something away from the meeting, you go on the field and you try to take the football, you walk in the classroom, you try to take the classroom.
“It’s just a mentality — whatever we go into we are trying to win and take it. We do not want anything given to us, if we gave to go out and get it, we will do what we have to do.”
The Bulldogs will continue workouts through the weekend as preparations begin for the Aug. 30 season debut at home against Southeastern Louisiana, and a visit the following week to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge to face LSU.