A few weeks ago I wrote that the West runs through Mobile. In my last column I said Troy was next, and that a win there would all but finish off the preseason favorite.
Consider it finished.
Louisiana Tech 41, Troy 17, last Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium, on Troy's homecoming, no less. The team this league picked to win the West is now 4-5 and 2-3 in conference play. Tech is 7-2 and 5-0, its first 5-0 league start since 2019. That's six straight wins, also the longest streak since 2019.
ULL is 3-2. Everybody else in the West is 2-3. Beat Southern Miss in Ruston on Saturday and Tech clinches a spot in the Sun Belt Championship Game. Three games left, and the Bulldogs need one.
The Sun Belt is the last FBS conference still using divisions, so enjoy it while it lasts. This year the West has a two-game gap at the top, and Tech is on the right side of it.
Last time out I said three more wins and nobody could take the keys back. Turns out it only takes one.
Troy, handled
It didn't start pretty. Tech trailed 7-3 after the first quarter. Then the Bulldogs put up 17 in the second and went into the half up 20-10.
Keep in mind who this was against. Troy has played in three of the last four Sun Belt title games. It was picked to win the West, and it was at home. Tech left town with a 24-point win.
After that the defense took over, and I mean took. Five takeaways: four fumbles and an interception. Troy ran it 32 times for 47 yards. Forty-seven. The Trojans went 3 of 15 on third down. Sonny Cumbie summed it up afterward: "Defensively, the story of the game was the takeaways."
Alonzo Jackson Jr. had the kind of afternoon NFL scouts write down. Eleven tackles, two and a half tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and a 66-yard fumble return for a touchdown with 1:05 left to put it away. He's up to nine sacks on the season. Janard Lockhardt had an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery, and his pick set up Andrew Burnette's 11-yard touchdown run that made it 34-17. Kolbe Fields chipped in 10 tackles, a sack and another forced fumble.
The only points Troy scored after halftime came early in the third quarter, when Delvin Whitaker fell on a Baker fumble in Tech's end zone. That one's on the offense. By my count, Tech's defense hasn't given up a second-half point in four straight games: ULM, Old Dominion, South Alabama and Troy.
On offense, Marcus Calwise Jr. keeps finding new ways to introduce himself. The week before, he caught his first two touchdowns as a Bulldog. This week it was nine catches for 137 yards and a score, all career highs, and his second 100-yard game of the year.
Kukuk's turn
The one thing that kept last Saturday from being perfect was Blake Baker going down in the second half. He was 16 of 19 for 177 yards and a touchdown before he got hurt and was ruled out for the rest of the game. The Ruston Leader reported Monday that he was getting around in a boot.
Baker is questionable for Saturday. Trey Kukuk will be ready, and I expect him to start.
Losing Baker for any stretch hurts. He's thrown for 1,504 yards, 14 touchdowns and one interception this season, and nobody in this league has been steadier.
But Kukuk isn't some emergency option. He came in at Troy and went 8 of 10 for 68 yards, ran six times for 26 more, and threw a 2-yard touchdown to Eli Finley. This is the same guy who threw a 27-yard touchdown to Jalen Mickens on a double pass in Mobile, then lined up in the backfield and flattened an outside linebacker as a lead blocker. Cumbie called him "just a freaking football player" that night. So no, I'm not panicking.
A familiar visitor
In my last column I used Southern Miss as Exhibit B against the people who said Tech wasn't good enough for this league. The Golden Eagles went 1-11 in 2024 without a conference win, and nobody asked whether they belonged.
Now they're the only thing standing between Tech and the West.
They come to Ruston at 3-6 and 2-3, under first-year coach Blake Anderson, with roughly 75 newcomers on the roster. They're not a pushover. Before last week they'd won two straight, over ULL and ULM, which, for the record, is how ULL ended up with two league losses.
Then James Madison beat them 54-23 last Thursday. Southern Miss led 14-13 with 29 seconds left in the half, gave up a field goal at the horn after an unnecessary roughness penalty, and got outscored 38-9 after halftime. Anderson didn't sugarcoat it: "Looked immature, honestly. Looked inexperienced."
Redshirt sophomore John White made his first start in that game, threw for 266 yards, and will stay the starter. Southern Miss still hasn't scored on an opening drive all season, and White admitted as much: "We've struggled all year with that first drive of the game." To make a bowl, the Golden Eagles have to win out, starting in Ruston, then South Alabama at home and a trip to Old Dominion. Anderson is calling it playoff football, and they'll play like it.
Southern Miss leads the series 36-18, going back to 1935, but most of that is ancient history. Tech has won three of the last four, including 30-20 last September at Joe Aillet, back when this was still a non-conference game. That one should sound familiar. Southern Miss outgained Tech 514 to 340 and lost by 10. Tech scored all 30 of its points in the first half, and Fields took an interception 48 yards for a touchdown. Same movie as Mobile. Yards are nice. Points are better.
After that game Cumbie said, "I'm excited to win two games in a row for the first time in a long time." Fourteen months later, his team has won six in a row and he's trying not to say too much about it.
Wear red
Kickoff is 4 p.m. Saturday at Joe Aillet on ESPN+. It's a Red Out, so wear red. If you don't own any, there are Red Out shirts and rally towels at the stadium while they last.
Win, and Tech plays in the Sun Belt Championship Game on Friday, Dec. 4, on ESPN. The game goes to whichever division champion has the better conference record. In the East, James Madison is 5-2 with one league game left, so 6-2 is its ceiling. Georgia Southern is 4-1 and could get to 7-1. If Tech wins out and finishes 8-0, the title game comes to Ruston. The regular season ends Nov. 28 in Statesboro against Georgia Southern, so that one could be a preview.
Cumbie will tell you it's one game at a time. He should. Being careful is his job, and I said last time that it isn’t mine.
In July 2025, people around this league said Louisiana Tech needed to get on par with the rest of the Sun Belt. On Saturday, in front of a stadium full of red, Tech can clinch the West with two games to spare.
On par. Sure.
