[Sly Fox]

Louisiana Tech University
Ruston, Louisiana


La Tech Football Official Site



Sonny Cumbie
2nd Season as La Tech Head Coach


2023 Schedule/Results

Aug 26 - FIU .................................................. W 22-17
Sep 02 - @ SMU ............................................. L 14-38
Sep 09 - Northwestern State ........................ W 51-21
Sep 16 - North Texas ..................................... L 37-40
Sep 23 - @ Nebraska ..................................... L 14-28
Sep 29 - @ UTEP ........................................... W 24-10
Oct 05 - WKU ................................................. L 28-35
Oct 10 - @ MTSU ........................................... L 23-31
Oct 24 - New Mexico State ............................ L 24-27
Nov 04 - @ Liberty
Nov 11 - Sam Houston
Nov 18 - @ Jacksonville State

[Purple Haize]

It’s gonna be another shootout.

[phoenix]

I hope not. This one needs to be a blowout - like the first half of the season. We need to hang some serious points on La. Tech. Defense needs to get with it.

[rtb72]

It’s gonna be another shootout.

We'll make sure of it.

[Dalegarz1]

Amped for this game! A “W” would result in us hosting the conference championship on December 1. Go Flames!

[paradox]

Noice

[jmclaughlin]

Is it Saturday yet??
Come on Flames Fans. Yes, this conference has turned out to be worse than imagined but...the possibility of an unbeaten season. Playing for a 'Chip as a first year member. Having mid-week, mid-season exposure. All pretty cool things that will unlock some big things for the future of this program.

I think of it like a MLB team drafting a prospect and making them prove it at each level. We are in high A ball currently but the GM's of all organizations have us on their radar. LU's football trajectory is incredible and we may be the Evan Carter of College Football programs. (Lifelong Rangers fan, so baseball is on top of the stack today)

Lets go Flames!

[Ill flame]

I think of it like a MLB team drafting a prospect and making them prove it at each level. We are in high A ball currently but the GM's of all organizations have us on their radar. LU's football trajectory is incredible and we may be the Evan Carter of College Football programs. (Lifelong Rangers fan, so baseball is on top of the stack today)

Lets go Flames!

Out of curiosity, if CUSA is high A ball what is double A, triple A and MLB? In your mind is it
MLB= SEC/B1G
AAA= ACC/ Big 12
AA: MWC/AAC/SBC
High A: CUSA/MAC
A: FCS

Regardless, sticking to the baseball analogy I feel like we are one of those players in the minors that puts up great stats but doesn't have certain attributes big league teams are looking for (size, speed, velocity) so they get overlooked in favor of players that aren't as good but have those attributes. Eventually those players that keep putting up big stats eventually rise to the top, it just takes longer and they have a shorter leash once they get there.

[jmclaughlin]

I think of it like a MLB team drafting a prospect and making them prove it at each level. We are in high A ball currently but the GM's of all organizations have us on their radar. LU's football trajectory is incredible and we may be the Evan Carter of College Football programs. (Lifelong Rangers fan, so baseball is on top of the stack today)

Lets go Flames!

Out of curiosity, if CUSA is high A ball what is double A, triple A and MLB? In your mind is it
MLB= SEC/B1G
AAA= ACC/ Big 12
AA: MWC/AAC/SBC
High A: CUSA/MAC
A: FCS

Regardless, sticking to the baseball analogy I feel like we are one of those players in the minors that puts up great stats but doesn't have certain attributes big league teams are looking for (size, speed, velocity) so they get overlooked in favor of players that aren't as good but have those attributes. Eventually those players that keep putting up big stats eventually rise to the top, it just takes longer and they have a shorter leash once they get there.

Well Done! Nailed it. High floor, low ceiling type of guys. That is a good assessment.
LU is limited by the fan base, IMHO. Just not that many alum yet that are vested in adopting the Flames as their #1 sports interest. That's why I am all in on all things Flames in my fandom. Except for today. The Rangers winning a world series completes a childhood dream.

[Ill flame]

They need to continue to grow on campus enrollment if they want to grow the fanbase. The roughly 16k currently enrolled isn't bad but it wasn't long ago they were closer to 10k. Here's some of the recent P5 call ups enrollment numbers.

Cincinatti: 50k
UCF: 66k
Utah: 34k
BYU: 34k
Louisville: 23k
Houston: 46k
TCU: 13k

Liberty will get more t shirt fans along the way but if they want to be P5 they'll probably need to double enrollment. They already get a lot of buy in from students compared to most colleges. With 30k students they could fill the eastern half of the stadium by themselves.

[ECC29]

LU has a great chance of getting in the top25 after this weekend. #7 Texas should beat #23 Kansas St. #9 OU should beat #22 Oklahoma State. #5 Washington against #20 USC. Hopefully, Arizona beats #19 UCLA. Iowa St beats #21 Kansas. All these are high possibilities. LU needs to take care of business today.

[Kricket]

They need to continue to grow on campus enrollment if they want to grow the fanbase. The roughly 16k currently enrolled isn't bad but it wasn't long ago they were closer to 10k. Here's some of the recent P5 call ups enrollment numbers.

Cincinatti: 50k
UCF: 66k
Utah: 34k
BYU: 34k
Louisville: 23k
Houston: 46k
TCU: 13k

Liberty will get more t shirt fans along the way but if they want to be P5 they'll probably need to double enrollment. They already get a lot of buy in from students compared to most colleges. With 30k students they could fill the eastern half of the stadium by themselves.

It’s a funny thought to increase a school size to have more potential football fans rather than thinking of it the other way around.

Also as someone with two Liberty degrees online, I’ve always thought the online fan base is a sleeping giant that will wake up more and more the higher the football team progresses. If Liberty was playing nationally relevant competition, onliners would be converted into fans. Indy gave that hope but Im not sure playing C-USA opponents will do that unless we make it to a CFP or two.

The reason I say that is that for onliners I think the games have to be more readily available on television to draw them in. Once they’re in I think they’ll be in. It never will be the same as having a student on campus but being that the online students are so many onliners it can make a huge impact down the road.

[Kricket]

Excited that it’s Flameday. The spread has been decreasing and saw it down to 14.5 down from 17. 17 seemed like a high number for this team that seems to have close games at home to teams we should best handily.

[ECC29]

They need to continue to grow on campus enrollment if they want to grow the fanbase. The roughly 16k currently enrolled isn't bad but it wasn't long ago they were closer to 10k. Here's some of the recent P5 call ups enrollment numbers.

Cincinatti: 50k
UCF: 66k
Utah: 34k
BYU: 34k
Louisville: 23k
Houston: 46k
TCU: 13k

Liberty will get more t shirt fans along the way but if they want to be P5 they'll probably need to double enrollment. They already get a lot of buy in from students compared to most colleges. With 30k students they could fill the eastern half of the stadium by themselves.

It’s a funny thought to increase a school size to have more potential football fans rather than thinking of it the other way around.

Also as someone with two Liberty degrees online, I’ve always thought the online fan base is a sleeping giant that will wake up more and more the higher the football team progresses. If Liberty was playing nationally relevant competition, onliners would be converted into fans. Indy gave that hope but Im not sure playing C-USA opponents will do that unless we make it to a CFP or two.

The reason I say that is that for onliners I think the games have to be more readily available on television to draw them in. Once they’re in I think they’ll be in. It never will be the same as having a student on campus but being that the online students are so many onliners it can make a huge impact down the road.

I agree with your statements. There are over 100,000 online students at any given time all over the world to include the U.S. If LU can draw those students to become fans, LU football can play anywhere in the country and they will have a fan base wherever they go.

[Ill flame]

They need to continue to grow on campus enrollment if they want to grow the fanbase. The roughly 16k currently enrolled isn't bad but it wasn't long ago they were closer to 10k. Here's some of the recent P5 call ups enrollment numbers.

Cincinatti: 50k
UCF: 66k
Utah: 34k
BYU: 34k
Louisville: 23k
Houston: 46k
TCU: 13k

Liberty will get more t shirt fans along the way but if they want to be P5 they'll probably need to double enrollment. They already get a lot of buy in from students compared to most colleges. With 30k students they could fill the eastern half of the stadium by themselves.

It’s a funny thought to increase a school size to have more potential football fans rather than thinking of it the other way around.

Also as someone with two Liberty degrees online, I’ve always thought the online fan base is a sleeping giant that will wake up more and more the higher the football team progresses. If Liberty was playing nationally relevant competition, onliners would be converted into fans. Indy gave that hope but Im not sure playing C-USA opponents will do that unless we make it to a CFP or two.

The reason I say that is that for onliners I think the games have to be more readily available on television to draw them in. Once they’re in I think they’ll be in. It never will be the same as having a student on campus but being that the online students are so many onliners it can make a huge impact down the road.

There are a ton of big commuter schools with virtually no fanbase while the schools with the most fans tend to have the biggest enrollments. Meaning you don't need a big fanbase to grow the school but you generally need a big school to have a big fanbase with some notable exceptions that dont really apply to our situation imo.

The online enrollment can't hurt but the people that attend LUO are overwhelmingly demographics that don't really care deeply about college sports and if they do, they already have a deeply entrenched fandom for a P5 school. That doesn't mean people can't start rooting for us as a secondary team when their P5 team isn't playing at the same time but those people usually aren't turning on the TV to watch us every week, donating to flames club and showing up for away games when LU is nearby.

Meanwhile the people that are in the student section every week as residential students are much more likely to tune in every week and show up to away games if they live nearby as alumni. It's those hardcore fans that will drive the excitement around the program that brings in the more casual LUO based fans and we need more of them... a lot more.

[thepostman]

I've spent the last 15 years in the military and have known many who are enrolled in LU online and can count on one hand how many cared about LU athletics. That doesn't mean it doesn't help at all but if it helped that much then the demand for away game tickets would be much higher. The residential students will feel much more invested in the school than the online ones.

[Kricket]

Jacksonville State just took the lead on South Carolina.

[Ill flame]

I've spent the last 15 years in the military and have known many who are enrolled in LU online and can count on one hand how many cared about LU athletics. That doesn't mean it doesn't help at all but if it helped that much then the demand for away game tickets would be much higher. The residential students will feel much more invested in the school than the online ones.

I don't have quite as many years in the military but I've had the same experience which is why I'm not counting on converting those people. I have seen the perception of the school slowly change from people thinking it's strictly an online school but there is still a long way to go.

[Kricket]

You guys are definitely right that is way better to have residential students rather than online in terms of fan conversions. The piece that I think you guys are missing is that the higher profile that Liberty gets and the easier that it gets to watch on TV, the higher percentage of online students will become fans.

I started undergrad about 15 years ago at LU Online. I was able to figure out how to watch practically every game online. 10 years before that I’d have zero percent chance of being a fan due to the technology and broadcast not being there.

I was still weird as I put in effort to try to figure out how to watch all the games for a Big South school. This year is the first year that most of the games have been on national TV so it’s gotten a lot easier. I would guess the more national relevance the team is the higher conversion rate there will be.

My kids are getting old enough to be fans now so it can snowball. I know, your personal experiences don’t match, but I think there is logic to what I’m saying.

[thepostman]

Yes the more succuss we have, the easier it'll be to convert online students to casual fans but diehards? It's going go be the exception, not the rule.

The biggest issue LU has is drawing locals consistently. If they can crack that nut that would go a long ways.

Regardless. It's homecoming, how are the festivities this year?

[Sly Fox]

La Tech scores on opening drive, 3-0 Bulldogs.

First play from scrimmage for Flames, KSalt hits CJ and then Cooley runs for 12 yards on his first carry.

[Sly Fox]

TD pass to Bentley and the Flames are quickly on top, 7-3 with 10:07 to go in 1st

[Sly Fox]

2nd possession, Flames drive into LT territory only to have KSalt fumble as he tried to pull out football from handoff to QC.

[Sly Fox]

Bedgood pushed the lead to 21-3 on the jet sweep with 6:41 to go

The Bulldogs defense has no answers at this stage.

[Ill flame]

Great start to the game. We just need the defense to keep them out of the end zone and we should be able to coast in the second half at this rate.