Q&A with Louisiana Tech radio color analyst Teddy Allen

Sep. 2—Few people know Louisiana Tech better than Teddy Allen, who enters his 11th season working as a color analyst for the school's football broadcast.

With La. Tech coming to open the season in Starkville against Mississippi State, here's a question-and-answer session with Allen to learn more about the visitors:

Q: What are the expectations for the La. Tech this year?

A: They've got a lot of guys who have played a lot. They got a lot of transfers who've played a lot who didn't play here. They probably got more depth than they've had since Skip Holtz has been here — this will be his ninth year. Their receivers are really big. Their offensive line was awful last year, but they kept getting hurt.

Quarterback (Austin Kendall) has got to be good if he was the fourth ranked quarterback sitting behind two Heisman winners (at Oklahoma). He finished strong last year (at West Virginia). He's a real mature guy — throws in real well and on Saturday we'll see if he can quarterback real well.... Every year, you go through spring and go through fall camp, but you don't know until the first game how everybody's going to react.

Q: What's it mean for La. Tech to go against an SEC opponent right away?

A: It's tough, and it's the fourth year in a row they've opened up on the road. They're used to playing SEC teams. But because there were no crowds last year — like they played at BYU and there was nobody literally in the stands. That's a big stadium, a beautiful place. Nobody there. It was like a scrimmage. There were a lot of games like that where there's just not a lot of noise.

It won't be like that Saturday in Starkville. So even though a lot of these guys played last year — maybe it's their second year, they're good and they got 10 games under their belt last year — but you don't know how that's gonna affect it. Most of these people, I think the only thing that will affect them is if they make mental mistakes or the offensive line is not going to play together like they have to or something like that. I don't think it's the colors and the noise and stuff that'll rattle them that much.

There's a lot of veteran guys on the team. I think it'll be great. I think it'll be the opposite and that they'll be kind of fired up to play in front of a whole bunch of people again.

Q: How does La. Tech match up with the Air Raid offense?

A: I think they'll stack up fine. These guys are going to see plays their scout team has not run that Mississippi State is practicing this week. Safeties (BeeJay Williamson), (Jaiden Cole) and (Khalil Ladler), they've all played a whole lot. I don't expect them to get fooled a bunch. The corners are new, but the backups aren't. A lot of this will just depend on what kind of pass rush this defense can create.

Q: How do La. Tech's linebackers match up with athletic MSU running backs?

A: I think these guys will be up to the challenge. That would be the group I have the most confidence in. I think this will be my 11th year to help with the broadcast and this is by far the best group that they've had at that spot.

Q: Who's a player to watch?

A: Smoke Harris. He's a 5-6 guy. You want to watch him at slot receiver. He's fun. He's hard to find. He runs a lot like Boston Scott of the Eagles. He looks like a five eight guy, (Harris) is a smaller guy than that who loves to play. Smoke was voted one of the captains.