LA Tech wraps up spring ball with spirited scrimmage

RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz and the Bulldogs closed out the 15th and final practice of the spring on Monday afternoon under sunny skies at Joe Aillet Stadium with an energetic scrimmage.

The Bulldogs held the final scrimmage on Monday after being forced to cancel the 2019 Spring Game, which was originally slated for Saturday, April 13, due to inclement weather in the Ruston area over the weekend.

Due to the weather, LA Tech altered its plan and practiced on Friday instead before officially wrapping up the spring with Monday’s scrimmage.

Several spectators in attendance were able to witness flashes of the 2019 Bulldog Football team in what was a sneak peak of the upcoming season. Among the highlights was a 50-yard reverse and a touchdown catch by Smoke Harris, touchdown runs by Justin Henderson and Elijah Hines and a pair of long field goals by Bailey Hale.

LA Tech will now turn its attention to finishing out the spring quarter academically and focus on the upcoming summer workouts before reporting back to campus for fall camp.

The 2019 football season opens on Saturday, Aug. 31 with LA Tech set to take on the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz spoke with the media Monday following the team’s final scrimmage of the spring.

HEAD COACH SKIP HOLTZ

Opening thoughts:

“It is unfortunate we couldn’t get this in on Saturday, but I looked out that day about 1 o’clock and it looked like it was about midnight outside with the black clouds, tornado sirens going off and thunder and lightning in the area. To trade that day for a day like today where we can come out here on a beautiful day and it’s 75 degrees and sunny. We got about 115 plays in today, which was great. We got in some good team work and then we got about 70 plays of live work. We got some great work in.”

“I think it has been a productive spring. As I told [the team], I think we got more out of this spring than we have any other spring since I’ve been here, and that is for a couple reasons. There’s new terminology, a lot of new faces coaching and playing, but we really have grinded hard within the 20-hour weeks that the NCAA allows us and we have used every minute of it to try and get done what we had to get done.”

“I really appreciate the way this team has worked. I’ve talked all spring about how I love their attitude, I love their passion and intensity, their togetherness – the way they stay together as a team. I think those are all the variables that are going to give us a chance.”

“We are a long way away from being where we want to be. This spring, there have been flashes on offense and flashes on defense, but we are not near as consistent as you ever want to be because somebody has to lose. You don’t really know if your offense had a good day or your defense had a bad one. I thought there were some great individual efforts out here and I think there are some guys who have helped themselves in the last 15 days.”

The Bulldogs will host six home games at Joe Aillet Stadium during the 2019 season, including four Conference USA opponents with FIU (Sept. 21), Southern Miss (Oct. 19), North Texas (Nov. 9) and UTSA (Nov. 30) scheduled to visit Ruston this year. Louisiana Tech’s two non-conference home games will pit the Bulldogs against Grambling State in the home opener on Sept. 7 followed by UMass on Oct. 12.

Fans can purchase season tickets online at LATechSports.com/tickets or by calling the LA Tech Ticket Office at 318-257-3631. The renewal deadline for season tickets is set for June 1, 2019.

For complete coverage of Bulldog Football, please follow Louisiana Tech on social media at @LATechFB (Twitter), /LATechFootball (Facebook) and @LATechFB (Instagram) or visit the official home of Louisiana Tech Athletics at LATechSports.com.