Skip Holtz Begins First Spring Practice at Louisiana Tech Friday

RUSTON, La. (March 14, 2013) - Louisiana Tech Football opens its 2013 spring practice season Friday afternoon at Joe Aillet Stadium.

Friday's session will mark the first time the Bulldogs will hit the field since the University hired Skip Holtz on Dec. 14.

In the meantime, all Holtz has had to do was hire a staff, hold on to and sign a recruiting class and evaluate what talent he had left on his team after the departure of 32 seniors from last year's team.

Louisiana Tech will host the NCAA-mandated maximum 15 practice sessions over the next four weeks culminating in the annual T-Day Spring Game on Saturday, April 13 at 1 p.m. at Joe Aillet Stadium.

Holtz and his staff have the challenge of replacing four starting offensive linemen, a starting quarterback and two starting wide receivers this spring. Despite the loss of so many seniors, several other returning players have considerable game experience including 2012 Freshman All-American running back Kenneth Dixon and receiver/return specialist D.J. Banks.

Tech will have five new faces on the field as 2013 signees Paul Turner, Mitchell Bell, DeAngelo Brooks, Mitch Villemez and Nick Thomason have enrolled in classes for the spring quarter at Louisiana Tech and will participate in spring drills. All other signees are expected to join the team by the start of fall camp.

Entering spring practice, only one position change has occurred as Vince Cano has moved back to offensive line. Cano was originally an offensive lineman but moved to defensive line last year due to depth issues. With an experienced and deep defensive line entering this spring (the program only had one loss on the defensive line due to graduation - Jon'al White), Cano was able to move back to his original position.

The program's first practice of the spring will be held at Joe Aillet Stadium with the rest of the spring practices being held either at Joe Aillet Stadium or the Tech Practice Fields.