Cumbie to hand play calling over to Nathan Young

Sonny Cumbie will no longer call the offensive plays for Louisiana Tech after the third-year head coach announced on his weekly radio show Thursday he would pass play calling duties to co-offensive coordinator/O-line coach Nathan Young moving forward.

The Bulldogs (1-3, 0-1 CUSA) are 117th in scoring (18.75), 114th in total offense (322.8 ypg), and 128th in rushing offense (79.5 ypg) this season - yet to score 30 points in a game.

Cumbie said Thursday, "After the game on Saturday and within our program, we talk about ‘Own it.’ We started that back in January. And the purpose of that is we want to cultivate ownership within our program from the inside out. And I think our players have bought into that. It’s not just something we talk about. I think there’s growth in that area of our players owning this program and owning their performance and owning their practice habits and owning how they show up on campus. And we still have a lot of work to do in a lot of areas as you always will. But it doesn’t just go for our players. This was the conversation I had with our team, and this is the conversation I had with our staff.”

“It’s not just applying to them. I think for us as coaches, we have to own what we’re doing. Quite frankly on offense, we haven’t played very well. I’ve been the offensive play caller for the last two and half years and the first four games of this season. I have to own the fact that, you know what, we haven’t played very well on offense. We have not been very productive, and we have not scored very many points."

Tech recently moved on from redshirt junior Jack Turner at quarterback to move forward with redshirt freshman Evan Bullock behind center. Now, the Bulldogs will come out of their bye week on Oct. 10 against Middle Tennessee with a new play caller running the show.

Young has been on staff with Cumbie since the start of his tenure in 2022, working primarily on the offensive line. He came to Ruston after working as O-line coach at Stephen F. Austin.

Cumbie said he has confidence in Young's ability to turn the offense around.

"I said right now, and I told our players this, ‘I love being the starter as the play caller. I want to be the starter. But right now, I have not been producing. And I have not been doing very good at that role. And so, this week, I’m going to take a step back. Moving forward, I’m going to let Nathan Young be our offensive coordinator and take over the offense, take over the play calling duties," Cumbie said. "I’m still going to coach the quarterbacks. It’ll allow me to be in a role to be a better head coach. I can better serve our players and I can better serve this team if I do that.”

Cumbie believes the role change will allow him to serve the Bulldogs better.

“When I get to Thursday, Friday, Saturday, man, there’s just so many decisions in my brain so full of different scenarios and wanting everything to go right. And really, I think at times it causes you not to be as aggressive and causes you not to be as creative just because you have so many other things going on as the head coach," Cumbie said. "I can better serve this program, this university, and also our football team and our kids and our people within our program by doing this. I also think it’s the absolute right decision.”

LA Tech hosts MTSU on Oct. 10 at Joe Aillet Stadium.