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Saturday, November 18, 2000
Louisiana After tonight's game with the University of Hawaii, Louisiana Tech can take down the sign that reads, "Have game, will travel."
Tech won’t miss
independence
The next time the Bulldogs
face Hawaii they will be
members of the Western
Athletic ConferenceBy Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinThe Bulldogs not only celebrate their 100th year of existence in 2001, they begin it in the Western Athletic Conference. No independents allowed.
"When you have to schedule 12 games without a conference affiliation, you're going to spend a lot of time on the road," said Louisiana Tech head coach Jack Bicknell.
"Not too many teams want to come to Rustin, La., so we have to go to their place and when they want us to. And obviously, that's difficult when it comes to scheduling. That's why getting into the WAC is so important for this program. We won't have to spend two months on the road because we'll have more home-and-away deals."
GAME DAY
What: Western Athletic Conference football.
/uhathletics.hawaii.edu/Sportslive/listen.html" TARGET="new">Click Here
Yes, you heard that right. Louisiana Tech has played 15 away games the past two seasons, a far cry from the 18 home meetings Hawaii has enjoyed over that same period of time. Since taking over as head coach in 1999, Bicknell has played at Florida State, Alabama, Auburn, Miami of Florida, Southern California, Penn State and Kansas State. Hawaii's two-year run under head coach June Jones has been cupcake city by comparison.
"When you don't have a conference affiliation, it's very difficult to prove how good your program is," Bicknell said. "We went 8-3 last year and no bowl wanted us because we were independent. But I say this, playing those schools competitively helped make us more legitimate and it helped convince the WAC we would be a viable program.
"It has been a tradition of our program to play on the road to help get us into the limelight or the national spotlight because that's what you gotta do."
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In fact, Louisiana Tech stunned Alabama last year, 29-28, and only lost to Auburn and No. 2-ranked Miami this year by 22 points.
Granted, adding Louisiana Tech into the WAC mix makes the conference more far-flung than ever, but it's possible the Bulldogs would be more of an attraction for, say, the Mobile Bowl by being in the ever-changing league.
"The only school that can compete without some conference ties is Notre Dame," Bicknell said. "We went independent in 1996. And I think we were 29-16 over the next four seasons, but it didn't matter. Nobody was that interested."
That could change over the next four years. Louisiana Tech has struggled to a 3-8 mark this season, leaving the Bulldogs one win shy of reaching 500 as they prepare for the Warriors at Aloha Stadium. Playing teams like Hawaii is a good measuring stick to see how competitive Louisiana Tech will be in coming campaigns.
"We think this is a great conference with some real good teams," Bicknell said. "We feel like we can compete with these programs. One reason we're looking forward to playing here is Hawaii won't be a part of our schedule the next two years.
"Each school (in the new 10-team conference) will not play one team so it will be an eight-game conference schedule. That's why we're so excited about being here because we won't get another opportunity for a while.
"This is a great football program and it's a big game for us because it's another WAC opponent. We get to test ourselves against the WAC one more time."
Louisiana Tech already played at the University of Tulsa earlier this year and lost, 22-10. The Golden Hurricane beat the Warriors by a similar score in late September.
For fans watching tonight's game, you will notice the teams use offenses born of the same father known as Mouse Davis. Bicknell's version has a few different twists and turns, but it's basically the same road Jones runs.
"We're very similar," Bicknell said.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
