Louisiana Tech Bulldogs 2026 Season Preview

Cumbie's Numbers Don't Add Up

Sonny Cumbie's 8-5 finish and 5-3 mark in league play look like a program on the rise, but the underlying math says otherwise. In conference games, Louisiana Tech actually won at a 62.5% clip despite a yardage margin that only supported a 45.7% rate, while an offense that needed just 13.2 yards per point and a turnover margin of plus-8 both point to a team that got the ball to bounce its way. None of that repeats reliably, so the No. 108 power rating is the more honest snapshot of where this roster sits entering year five under Cumbie.

Baker Inherits a Run-First Machine

The story for Louisiana Tech's offense is a stark split: a rushing attack that ranks 24th nationally in yards per game sitting next to a passing game that ranks 121st, and Blake Baker steps into that lopsided equation as the returning starter after throwing for 1,252 yards with 5 touchdowns against 3 interceptions. Cumbie's offense finished 109th in points per scoring opportunity despite the ground production, which means red-zone execution through the air, not the run game, is what separates 2026 from another middling offensive finish. The bigger asset might be the defense, which turned 19.5% havoc and a 23.3% run-stuff rate into a 36th-ranked scoring unit, giving Baker a margin for error the passing numbers alone would not suggest.

Blake Baker takes over a run-first offense that leaned on 195 rushing yards a game while its passing attack sat 121st nationally, and his 1,252 yards with a 5-to-3 touchdown-to-interception mark last season came in relief work behind a since-departed Evan Bullock. The bigger swing is what Baker does with the ball in his hands on obvious passing downs, since Louisiana Tech ranked 109th in points per scoring opportunity a year ago and needs more from the air to turn drives into points instead of stalling them. Trey Kukuk and three-star incoming Brady Vodicka give Sonny Cumbie depth, but this is Baker's offense to run in 2026.

Clay Thevenin, Omiri Wiggins and Andrew Burnette combined to power a rushing attack that ranked 24th nationally in yards per game, and all three are gone, along with Amani Givens and Fred Robertson. What Sonny Cumbie has left is a room with no proven college carries: Dylone Brooks, Riley Small and Sergio Snider return without a stat line between them, and the five incoming freshmen, led by Demarcus Belton and Kenny Thomas, arrive from high school with none either. Louisiana Tech leaned on the run to prop up a passing game that finished 121st in yards per game, so replacing that production on the ground with unproven bodies is the single biggest question for this offense in 2026.

No returning Louisiana Tech receiver topped 177 yards a season ago, and the passing game finished 121st nationally, so Sonny Cumbie went shopping. Marcus Calwise Jr. arrives from Eastern Kentucky with 32 catches and 5 touchdowns, instantly the most proven target in the room ahead of Jalen Mickens, who caught 20 passes but managed just one score. With Devin Gandy gone and Talyn Shettron, Johnny Casey Jr. and Carter Harris all unproven at this level, Calwise has to be the answer if the Bulldogs want their passing attack to catch up to a rushing game that ranked 24th.

Eli Finley's 38 grabs for 445 yards were the only tight end production of note in 2025, and everyone behind him on the depth chart, Brayden Bockler included, combined for a single catch. That imbalance makes Finley the load-bearing piece of a passing game that already ranked 121st in yards per game, and Louisiana Tech is banking on Katy Tompkins product William Mayes to give Sonny Cumbie a second option rather than leaning on unproven names like Skylar Kirk, Deven Muniz or Luke Seib. Until Mayes or one of those blank-slate arms shows up in the stat line, this remains a one-man position group asked to prop up a passing attack that has to get better.

Louisiana Tech's ground game churned out 195 yards per game (24th nationally) behind this group in 2025, but the passing attack limped to 121st and the offense converted scoring chances at just 3.32 points per opportunity, 109th in the country. Five departures thin the room, but most of it returns, led on paper by seniors and juniors like Ashanti Cole, Hayden Christman, Jamon Lee Jr. and Roy Brackins III, and Sonny Cumbie added tackles Tye Hylton and Tadan Bingham plus interior lineman Jacob McRae to raise the ceiling rather than patch a hole. If that continuity holds up the run block, the offense's path to fixing 2025's passing and red-zone efficiency problems runs through this line clearing room for someone other than a rebuilt front five.

Donovan Rieman (29 tackles, 2.5 sacks) and Emmanuel Oguns (30 tackles, 5.5 TFL) anchor a line that produced real disruption in 2025, ranking 10th nationally in havoc rate and 12th in run-stuff rate despite a modest 20 sacks that left the pass rush 105th in the country. That gap between disruption and finishing plays is the story to fix, and Louisiana Tech went to the portal for help, landing edge rusher Joshua Brantley from Tulane to pair with Rieman and Oguns off the edge. With Jayden Madkins, Christian Davis and Zion Nason all gone from a group that combined for the bulk of last year's tackles for loss, the run defense should hold given 12th-ranked stuff numbers, but getting Brantley home consistently is what turns a disruptive line into one that actually cashes in sacks.

Louisiana Tech's disruptive front seven loses the two names that produced its most damage behind the line, Mekhi Mason and Sifa Leota, whose combined TFL totals dwarfed anyone else in the room. Jadon Mayfield, coming off 61 tackles and 9 TFL, now becomes the clear centerpiece, with Alonzo Jackson Jr. and Kolbe Fields expected to soak up snaps rather than a trio of unproven three-star freshmen in Ayden Combs, Jeremiah Smith and Grayson Hardy. The havoc-hunting identity that ranked 10th nationally in havoc rate was built on Mason and Leota's disruption, so Mayfield inheriting that role with a thinner supporting cast is the swing factor for whether this defense stays as disruptive in 2026.

Louisiana Tech's secondary allowed a passing game that ranked 106th nationally in 2025, and the group tasked with fixing it just lost its top five tacklers in the back end, led by Jacob Fields (90 tackles) and Jakari Foster (55). Amari Butler and Kam Franklin return with modest snap totals but nothing close to replacing that lost production, so the fixes came through the portal in Ty Jones from Norfolk State and corners Demario Bookhart and Ahkhari Johnson. None of the newcomers arrive with a real tackle count, which means Sonny Cumbie is betting his scheme, not proven players, can keep pace with a defense that already ranked among the nation's best in havoc rate.

Louisiana Tech moves on from Drew Henderson, whose 5 of 10 mark last year masked real leg strength on a 51-yard long, and hands the placekicking job to Kaegan Kent, who made both his tries with a 42-yard long. That is a small sample to lean on for a full Sun Belt slate, but the accuracy is the encouraging sign after last season's kicking unit missed enough field goals to matter in close games. Reuben Edwards and Zachary Hays give Sonny Cumbie options at punter with no returning numbers to judge, so the bigger swing in reliability this fall is whether Kent's clean start scales up in volume.

Backfield Rebuilt, Not Reloaded

Louisiana Tech lost its entire proven backfield production this offseason, with Clay Thevenin, Omiri Wiggins and Andrew Burnette all gone after combining for real touchdown volume, and the portal return of 11 arrivals against 24 departures did nothing to directly replace those carries. The bigger swing is on defense, where Mekhi Mason and Sifa Leota leave real sack production behind while Tulane transfer Joshua Brantley arrives at EDGE with no logged stats to lean on yet. Blake Baker returns at quarterback off a modest 1,252-yard, 5-touchdown season, and with so much ground production gone, how much the passing game leans on him and new targets Marcus Calwise Jr. and Carter Harris will shape whether this offense looks anything like 2025's.

Blake Baker's Passing Game

Louisiana Tech's season rides on Blake Baker, who returns after throwing for 1,252 yards but just 5 touchdowns against 3 interceptions, and now has to produce more explosive plays with Clay Thevenin's 634 rushing yards gone from the backfield. Eastern Kentucky transfer Marcus Calwise Jr., who caught 5 touchdowns on 32 grabs last year, gives Baker a downfield answer, and how quickly that connection clicks determines whether this offense scores enough to match a defense anchored by Jadon Mayfield's 61 tackles and 3.5 sacks.

Ruston Money

Louisiana Tech beat the number all over the place last season, but the split is stark: 5-1 against the spread at home, including 4-1 as a favorite, against a break-even 3-3 mark on the road. Bettors who backed the Bulldogs as road underdogs still cashed at a 2-1 clip, and even the one game against a ranked opponent covered. Sonny Cumbie's team built its market reputation in Ruston, and until the road number moves, that is where the value sits.