Although college football kicks off in earnest this weekend (and you should read out season preview if you haven’t already), NFL fans have had this week circled on their calendars for a different reason. On Tuesday, NFL teams were required to do the final roster cutdown to a 53-man active roster. And this year, five former Bulldogs made the cut – Jeff Driskel, Amik Robertson, L’Jarius Sneed, Xavier Woods, and Milton Williams.
One name that’s not on this list that also made an NFL roster may sound familiar: Bub Means. Although Means went to Louisiana Tech, his college is listed as Pittsburgh, the school he transferred to after leaving Tech. This is the same reason Jeff Driskel’s listed college isn’t Florida.
Means, drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the fifth round this year, would have been the most recent Bulldog selected since defensive lineman Milton Williams was picked by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021. Williams was the last of five Tech defensive linemen drafted in the Skip Holtz era, joining the ranks of Justin Ellis, IK Enemkpali, Vernon Butler, and Jaylon Ferguson.
Despite the continuity in head coaching, there was a lot of turnover in the defensive coordinator position under Holtz. Kim Dameron, Manny Diaz, Blake Baker, Bob Diaco, and David Blackwell held that position in the Holtz era, but despite the regular coaching changes, the talent pipeline remained. But now, it seems, the well of defensive line talent has dried.
So that begs the question – where have all the big men gone?
Well, to start, some of that former Bulldog DL talent will be lining up against Tech tomorrow:
Add it all up and Nicholls boasts 51 games of Bulldog experience while Louisiana Tech has just 40 in their starting lineup. But Tech’s big men haven’t only ended up in Thibodaux.
Let’s start in 2021, the season following Milton Williams’ draft selection. That year, the Bulldogs had 19 defensive linemen on their roster:
That year marked Holtz’s last season, and significant turnover was expected with the new coaching staff and the emergence of the transfer portal. Fisher and Mason are included on that list, the two we know transferred to Nicholls. But the duo stayed in Ruston for 2022, as did most of that 2021 roster.
Three defensive linemen ran out of eligibility at the end of the 2021 season and one more retired from football. But the biggest loss from the group was the Bell brothers, who transferred to Texas State. Ben Bell, is still playing in San Marcos, and has been named to the Bednarik Award (Defensive Player of the Year) watchlist for 2024. Levi Bell, meanwhile, entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent last year where he spent the 2023 season on the Seahawks’ practice squad. He was invited to the Colts’ camp this year but was just released as part of roster cutdown week.
Following the 2022 season, Tech saw the most turnover in the defensive line room. This is when Joe Mason and Kershawn Fisher transferred to Nicholls. But these two weren’t the only big men to give up on the Scott Power experiment after a single season.
Rasheed Lyles transferred to Southern. Keveion’ta Spears went to Memphis. Jerrell Boykins Jr headed to Baylor. And Keivie Rose became an Arkansas Razorback (so another opponent on this year’s Tech’s schedule).
With that much talent departing, Cumbie and Power went out and brought in 11 new faces.
Unsurprisingly, the Bulldog defense didn’t improve much after failing to retain so much of the starting-quality talent. On the pass rush, the Bulldogs only got to the quarterback 16 times, the sixth-fewest sacks in college football. Defending the run, Tech ranked even worse, giving up 233 rushing yards per game, the second most in the country. That alone was enough to warrant the firing of Scott Power.
For the 2024 season, much of that 2023 defensive line group is back, making this one of the most experienced position groups on the team. Mycol Clark, leading the team with 47 games played, and Zion Nason (18 games), are two of the most experienced Bulldogs on the roster. Yet, both start the season on the bench, raising questions about whether newcomers have surpassed this homegrown talent or if the veterans stayed simply because they would have struggled to find opportunities elsewhere.
Regardless, this current defensive linemen draft pick drought matches the longest period without a defensive lineman selected since the gap between D’Anthony Smith went to the Jaguars in 2010 and 1993’s selection of Artie Smith by the 49ers.
Of the current starters, only Jesse Evans is entering his senior year. To have a shot at a draft pick, Evans would need to put together a season even the most optimistic of Tech fans would have a hard time believing. But with a new defensive coordinator, anything can seem possible.
The rest of the starting group has at least another year of eligibility after the 2024 season winds down. The question will be – how well will they improve under Jeremiah Johnson?
And even if they do improve, will they choose to stick it out in Ruston? Or transfer out and add another tally mark to a P5 school’s draft pick count.