Louisiana Tech Strategic Communications; feartured photo by Josh McDaniel
RUSTON — Louisiana Tech held its sixth practice of fall camp on Friday and its first on the new turf inside Origin Bank Field at Joe Aillet Stadium, a familiar place for offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, who is in his second stint with the Bulldogs.
“This is a really special place for my wife and I,” said Franklin. “I don’t think that we probably ever realized how special until we were gone. It’s one of the few places that you go to that sticks with you. The community is incredible, it’s a place that we kind of felt that was another home, so getting the opportunity to come back to this place means a lot to us. Especially the success we had last time, and then to see the excitement that the community has for this upcoming season and for the future. We are honored and I am just so grateful to coach Cumbie and to Ryan for giving me this opportunity to come back.”
Franklin has three quarterbacks in the mix for the starting job and likes what he’s seen through the first six days of fall camp watching his group battle.
“It’s fun, because all three are good. They’re all different. Evan obviously had the experience from last year and the other thing is that Evan’s high school coach was one of my longtime client in my business, so a lot of familiarity back from his high school career with his coach and the terminology, even though it is a little different, he’s got a lot of banked reps because of that. The other two guys have a unique skill set. Blake as people as seen, he has an incredible arm, great arm strength, and he has the ability to run the football, that I will utilize, all three of those guys will have to run, if they don’t run, they won’t play.”
“Trey is one of the most competitive kids that I have ever been around. He’s tough, he likes it, he likes contact, he’s a really good runner, and he’s improved. Coach Scholz did a phenomenal job from the time that he got here to change his body, he’s faster, he’s stronger, so all that stuff has come together. Right now you could go out there and pick a straw and have anyone of them be successful for us.”
The Bulldogs will have several weapons on the offensive side for Franklin to utilize, including tight end Eli Finley and running back Omiri Wiggins.
Finley expressed his excitement when it comes to Franklin’s offensive scheme.
“I’m just excited with the way we play. We play fast, we get on the ball, we make the defense make decisions, and we go out there and we execute the plan and we execute the play,” said Finley. “He’s bringing the joy back to football, we go out there and we are always laughing and smiling, it’s fun. We get to make plays as a team, as an offense, he’s bringing the joy back.”
Omiri Wiggins is also excited about Franklin’s offense and his ability to improvise and provide new schemes for the offense.
“He just comes up with things on the fly, that’s what makes him a good offensive coordinator. We really like that and we like doing new things. Whoever can play, he will put on the field.”