Louisiana Tech vs Georgia Southern 12/23/20 - NCAA Football Picks & Predictions

The Louisana Tech Bulldogs meet up with the Georiga Southern Eagles in the New Orleans Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. 

Louisiana Tech finished their regular-season 3rd in C-USA with a 5-4 record and finished their season off with a disappointing 52-10 loss on the road to TCU. The Bulldogs went an entire month of November without playing a game due to COVID outbreaks. Georgia Southern finished 3rd in the SunBelt East with a 7-5 record and was one of the most predictable teams in the country.

Georgia Southern wasn’t a team that threw the ball efficiently this season, passing for just 102.3 yards per game which is last in the SunBelt and the fourth least in the nation this season. Starting quarterback, senior Shai Werts, has completed 60.3% of his passes for 936 yards and seven touchdowns to six interceptions. Werts lead the team in rushing with 649 yards and found the endzone 8 times.

Georgia Southern did have the best rushing attack in the Sun Belt averaging 262.5 rush yards per game and averaged 5.4 yards per carry. Behind Werts is a deep running back room with five players totaling over 225 yards this season, leading that group is senior JD King who had 625 yards and five touchdowns.

Louisiana-Tech wasn’t an offensive powerhouse by any stretch this season averaging 325.1 yards per game, 11th in the C-USA but managed 29.3 points per game which was third in scoring offense in the conference. Senior quarterback Luke Anthony is at the helm of the Bulldogs offense, in his third year as the starter for LA Tech he completed 62.4% of his passes for 1,479 yards and 16 touchdowns to 5 interceptions.

The Bulldogs struggled to run the ball all season long, averaging just 2.8 yards per carry as a team and totaling 10 rushing touchdowns. They averaged just 97.7 rushing yards per game, the worst mark in the C-USA. The majority of work-load fell on senior Israel Tuckers’ shoulders, he had 525 yards and 4 touchdowns averaging 4.1 yards per carry. 

Louisiana Tech finished 11th in total and scoring defense in the C-USA, allowing 425 yards and 34.3 points per game. Their last time out, the Bulldogs allowed 494 yards and 52 points to TCU, their worst performance of the season and will need to improve on that if they hope to notch a bowl win. Georgia Southern was a solid defense this season in the Sun BElt allowing 333.5 yards per game and 22.3 points, ranking in the top-4 in both categories.