Group of Five Power Rankings, Week 10: Appalachian State dominates

8. Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (7-1/C-USA)

• LAST WEEK’S RANK: 8th
• WEEK 9 RESULT: won 42-21 at UTEP
• WEEK 10 MATCHUP: idle in Week 10

Louisiana Tech, unlike UAB, had the good sense to lose their only game of the year out of conference. Collapsing on the road by 31 points against what was then a top-10 Texas team in the season opener is not going to reflect poorly on the Bulldogs, even as the Longhorns collapsed out of the AP Top 25 and are currently out of the Big 12 picture as well.

Since that game, Skip Holtz’s squad has won seven games in a row. The most recent win involved doubling up the score on UTEP in a 42-21 victory in El Paso. Louisiana Tech racked up 165 more yards of offense than the Miners, as senior quarterback J’Mar Smith completed 29 of his 35 attempts for 338 passing yards and three touchdown strikes. The Tech defense also forced three turnovers to keep giving their offense chances to get back into the endzone.

Now the Bulldogs take their second bye of the year in Week 10, with North Texas visiting Ruston before Louisiana Tech heads on another road swing to Marshall and UAB. That two-game stretch in mid-November will really determine whether Louisiana Tech is a contender or a pretender in the C-USA battle this season — and, by extension, whether they have any shot in the Group of Five race.