Down 29-7 in the fourth quarter at Baylor, Trey Kukuk threw a 19-yard touchdown to Eli Finley with 8:18 left. Kolbe Fields then knocked the ball loose, Tech recovered at the Baylor 47, a pass-interference call put the Bulldogs first-and-goal at the 2, and Jalen Mickens punched it in with 5:14 to go. Both two-point tries failed, so it was 29-19 instead of something scarier. Baylor recovered the onside kick, Nate Bennett hit Jayden McGowan for 36 yards, and Tech lost 36-19. Tech kept reaching the red zone in Waco and kept leaving it without touchdowns.
Louisiana Tech is 1-2 and idle this week. There is no Bulldogs game to watch and no outside result worth rearranging a Saturday for, nothing on the national board moves Tech's Sun Belt math before conference play starts. What is left is knowing exactly what needs fixing before Army comes to Ruston on Oct. 3, a game the simulations give Tech a 40% chance to win.
Six trips, three touchdowns
Tech reached the red zone six times at Baylor and scored three touchdowns on runs by Andrew Burnette from two yards, Finley's 19-yard catch, Mickens from two. The other three trips ended in a missed field goal, an interception and a fumble. Kaegan Kent missed from 37 and 34 and still has no field goal this season. Add the two failed two-point tries and you get a night that ended with 19 points. "Being in the red zone six times, and you only score three times," Sonny Cumbie said afterward. "We've got to kick field goals better and protect the ball better."
The worst of it came late in the second quarter. Za'Qwaun Nunn forced a Bennett fumble, Jadon Mayfield recovered at the Baylor 35, and Kukuk threw an interception in the end zone with about 30 seconds left in the half. Baylor led 20-7 at the break. Cumbie said the offense has to answer with points when the defense hands it a short field, and pointed back to LSU, where Tech forced four first-half turnovers and still trailed 10-7 at halftime.
The quarterback question doesn't close this week
Blake Baker fractured his hand after the LSU loss, sat out at Baylor, and the Ruston Daily Leader lists his status for Army as questionable. Kukuk played every snap in Waco and the split was familiar. He was 25 of 44 for 223 yards, about 5.1 yards per attempt, one touchdown and one interception, but 11 carries for 75 yards, a season high. He was the most dangerous runner on the field and the least efficient passer.
That matters because of what Nathan Young was hired to change. Young was promoted to coordinator and play caller after Tony Franklin retired, having coached the offensive line from 2022-25, and the offense he inherited threw for 163.8 yards a game in 2025 with 29 rushing touchdowns against eight through the air. The hope was a run-first identity with a real passing dimension attached. Three games in, Tech is still running to move and struggling to throw, and the open week gives Young two weeks of practice to either sharpen Kukuk's throwing game or get Baker's hand ready. Root for both. If Baker returns, the offense has options; if he doesn't, Kukuk has to be more than a runner against an Army team that will shorten the game.
What's still working
The front seven didn't fade in the second Power Four road game. Fields had nine tackles, three for loss, a 12-yard sack and the forced fumble that set up Mickens' touchdown. Mayfield added eight tackles, three for loss, and a sack. Nunn's strip-sack was the takeaway Tech wasted before halftime. Three sacks, two forced fumbles, that group travels.
The secondary is the problem. Bennett, Baylor's backup, completed 21 of 24 for 253 yards and three touchdowns, including throws of 51, 43 and 36 yards, and ran 25 yards for a score on the opening drive. Tech had no interceptions.
The larger point
Tech arrived in the Sun Belt leading every team in the league in ESPN's returning-production metric, the main evidence that last year's improvement would carry into a new league. Nothing in the conference race has been decided, Tech hasn't played a league game yet, and the Louisiana visit on Oct. 10 is the first one that counts. The simulations still give the Bulldogs about a 19% shot at reaching the Sun Belt championship game.
Fixing the kicking and the red zone before Louisiana comes to Ruston is a better use of the open date than rest.
Full week-by-week projections are in the interactive guide, and the simulation details are explained in the methodology.