Search process for Tech’s next OC begins

Sonny Cumbie will return as head coach in 2025, but he will no longer oversee the offensive game plan or system or call plays, as Louisiana Tech will bring in a new offensive coordinator/play caller for next season.

This will be the third offensive play caller in Cumbie’s tenure at Tech, as he called plays during the 2022 and 2023 seasons before giving up play calling duties after four games this past season. He handed off the play sheet to Nathan Young, who called plays over the final eight weeks but saw minimal improvement.

Now, Cumbie, along with Athletic Director Ryan Ivey, will try to select a play caller with experience and creativity to help the Bulldogs escape their streak of four straight losing seasons.

Ivey knows this hire will be critical for Tech’s success in 2025. To make sure the process is sound, he’s working side by side with Cumbie on working through potential names, trying to replicate the process that landed Jeremiah Johnson as defensive coordinator last offseason.

“I think it’s about connection and network. It’s about who you know and who knows you. I think his network is going to help,” Ivey told the Leader on the search process. “I will be very honest; We tried to hire Jeremiah twice. I loved everything about Jeremiah Johnson, and I was excited when I got here knowing that he was here because I believed in who he was as a person and his approach to the defense and approach to relationship building. I think that complements Sonny.

“Sonny realized that as part of what he needed from a defensive coordinator. And I think he realizes that’s what he needs from an offensive coordinator. I think they will have similar hiring processes,” he continued. “Obviously, I will be involved in that aspect of it and having conversations and meeting with candidates and throwing out different ideas and suggestions. We’ve already had multiple conversations about that moving forward.”

Ivey would not commit to a set timeline of when he’d like to make the hire but knows the Bulldogs can’t afford to wait forever.

“I always subscribe to the John Wooden theory of, ‘Be quick but don’t hurry.’ I think that’s the situation for us. We gotta get this right,” Ivey said. “We need to make sure that we’re quick with the process, but we can’t hurry through it just to hire someone.”

No matter who is hired, Tech will welcome a shake up on offense after the last three years. In Cumbie’s three seasons, Tech’s offense has never averaged 30 points per game and has never ranked in the top five in CUSA in total offense or rushing offense.

Tech averaged 22.17 points per game this year, the program’s lowest scoring offense since 2013 (19.7 points per game) and had 37 three- and- outs to 32 touchdowns this fall.

Would Tech want someone with ties to the program or to Louisiana in its next OC? Ivey said it’s not a requirement but would be a plus on a candidate’s resume.

“ I don’t think so,’ Ivey said when asked if Tech’s new OC needed to have ties to the school or state. “I think that certainly would be a plus in a profile characteristic if we could have that. I think anytime you’re able to have regional experience, and to me I define that within a 250- to 300-mile radius of where we are, because here, like any region, is different and it could help as far knowing the environment we’re in if you’ve been in and around it at a certain time, but that doesn’t make it the primary characteristics. At the end of the day, we need someone in here that’s going to help us move forward with the things we’re trying to do from an offensive standpoint.

“While it is Sonny’s decision, no decision at this level is made in a vacuum and in a singular environment. There are other people involved in that process and that will be the case here as well,” he added.