Louisiana Tech could be without two key offensive players when it takes on Boise State Friday.

Both running back Daniel Porter and receiver Phillip Livas left last week’s 35-34 loss to Idaho with injuries. Coach Derek Dooley said during the WAC teleconference Monday that both were questionable for the contest.

“Between the two of them we had 150 yards of total offense running the football [against Idaho] and then you lose that in the second half,” Dooley said. “You can’t sit there and mope and whine about what you don’t have. You have to figure out a way to move the football without them and have some guys step up and pick up the slack.”

During Louisiana Tech’s final drive against Idaho, the Bulldogs were playing with five freshmen or sophomores in skill positions. Similarly, the defense was without linebackers Adrien Cole (concussion) and Brian White (back), safety Chad Boyd (ankle), and cornerback Terry Carter (groin).

Having so many key players beat up and so many young players in on the deciding drives made it hard for Louisiana Tech to hold on to a two-score lead in the final six minutes of the game.

“It makes it difficult and those guys made a lot of big plays for us earlier,” Dooley said. “But when it got tight, every ounce of execution matters and we had a delay of game penalty, we had to burn a timeout and then we had a couple missed assignments on some checks. All those things were part of growing pains. So, you have to just live with it and hope over time you build recruiting classes that build depth and we’re just at that stage right now.”