Despite three close losses, playing Mississippi State, Houston and Southern Mississippi has Louisiana Tech has better prepared for the University of Hawaii Saturday, Bulldogs’ coach Sonny Dykes said today.

"When you play the level of competition that we have played against, I think it prepares you, I really do," Dykes said at his weekly press conference in Ruston, La.

"First of all, it shows you what you are capable of, and second of all, I think it shows you how important it is to prepare and how important it is to go out there and play well. I think it really does prepare you for conference. If we were sitting here at 4-0 right now, I would feel real good about it, I would love it, but if we had four teams that were not as good as we are we wouldn’t be as prepared for Hawai’i as we are going to be. I think that gives us an advantage."

Dykes said, "The thing is, everybody in the WAC plays good nonconference teams. That is the thing you look down the schedule and everybody as played good competition. We are not the only ones that have had trouble closing it out. I know Utah State’s lost a heartbreaker to Auburn and lost a heartbreaker last week to Colorado State. So, we are not the only team that has lost some close games but we have to improve and make sure that we win those in the future."

The Bulldogs’ lone victory came against Central Arkansas.

UH is 2-2.