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LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 29, 2016

Skip Holtz

Ruston, Louisiana

Rice - 16, Louisiana Tech - 61

Q. Congratulations on a dominating victory over the Rice Owls, 61-16, and I\'ll tell you, the Bulldogs moved to Bowl eligibility, 6-3 on the year, 4-1 in the division in, Coach, what was supposed to be a rebuilding year for you.
SKIP HOLTZ: Yeah, I mean, everybody talked about how in the world are you going to replace a Jeff Driscoll, a Kenneth Dixon; seven players off that team from last year made an NFL roster or practice squad, five on an active roster and two in the practice squad.

I think it\'s a real testament to these coaches, the way that they have recruited, the way they are working it to these players to their development to Kurt Hester. We came here four years ago, we talked about building a program, and it wasn\'t going to be predicated on just a couple players or having success in one year, but we wanted to be able to do it year-in and year-out. And right now, we\'ve got an opportunity to play a lot of young players tonight.

I thought the third quarter, we took a lot of the starters out and the offense did a good job of maintaining the tempo and still running the thing and moving it. Again, all the way really through about middle of the fourth quarter, I thought they did a good job of running it, and same thing defensively. I thought there were a lot of good things tonight, and I\'m just really proud of this team and really proud of the way they competed.

You said so much in just Bowl eligibility, you know what I mean. That\'s huge right now, being the first team in the history of the school to do three Bowls in a row, pretty special feat by these young men. I\'m really proud of what they have been able to do.

Q. Going back to that year, I was one of the ones asking those questions: What is the offense going to be like under skip holes, what is it going to be like. And here you come out tonight, put up 61 points and the last time I did the sideline, only put up 17 down at El Paso. So I was told if it was 17 points or less, I was finished on the sidelines, so I certainly appreciate it --
SKIP HOLTZ: Glad it wasn\'t 17.

Q. -- certainly a well-oiled machine, everything going your way.
SKIP HOLTZ: Yeah, you know really, doing some good things. I think Todd Fitch has done a really good job. We talked about the comfort level with him and I and how much we\'ve been together and for the history that we have been together in this game; but I think he comes in, we understand each other; we talk to each other. He\'s a phenomenal set of eyes in the box. He\'s got a great mind.

I think the staff has done a great job. Tim Rattay, Joe Sloan have been here through the whole thing. Robert McFarland with the offensive line and Mickey Joseph has done a really nice job with the running backs.

I think those guys on offense have done a nice job. We talked about, we wanted to have balance, and this is a different offense than Ryan 5spearheaded four years ago. There\'s different weapons around him and certainly he\'s got a much better understanding of what we\'re trying to get done. It\'s fun to watch it when it\'s hitting on all cylinders like it was tonight.

Q. One of the toughest things as a coach is to be down by a lot at half-time or be up by a lot at half-time. Your guys came out tonight with the same intensity with a big lead at the half as they did in the pregame.
SKIP HOLTZ: They really did. It\'s a testament. We sent Ryan down; we sent Carlos down; we sent Trent down; we sent a lot of guys down. I told the players, I don\'t expect a drop-off, you know what I mean. We\'re going to call our offense. We\'re going to run it wide open; hide that ball early in the third quarter. They tried to blitz us and go man, and you know what, they were able to execute.

J\'Mar did a good job except for that one fumble. Thought he did a really good job of running the offense, and some guys really stepped up and did a good thing. You know what, it\'s a testament; those guys have been practicing and working. And our one battle cry that we have said from the beginning, we\'ve just got to keep betting better.

We\'re getting better on defense, we\'re getting better on special teams, and we\'re getting better on offense from where we were at the beginning of the year. And even as great as this win is, and Bowl eligibility, and getting us to 6-3 with five in a row, we still -- we\'ve got three more games left. Two more before the open date and we\'ve just got to keep focusing on improvement and what we\'ve got to do to get better.

Thanks to everybody that came out and supported this team tonight. It\'s always undefeated at the Joe, we have four games here and we\'ve got one more left. Can\'t say thank you enough to the band, our students and everybody that came out here ask supported us tonight.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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