ULM Warhawks:
Life for Louisiana-Monroe football has been a challenge. The program hasn’t made a bowl game since 2012, despite a 6-6 record in 2018. A new era of Warhawks football begins with Bryant Vincent, who was highly-regarded by his players when he was the OC and a candidate to be the head coach at UAB when Bill Clark stepped down due to medical reasons. He didn’t get the job, but had a remarkably successful season as the OC at New Mexico.
Now he gets his first crack at being the head coach sans the interim tag. He filled in for Clark in 2022 and led the Blazers to a 7-6 record and a Bahamas Bowl win. That would be considered a tremendously successful season for the Warhawks. But, it may take some time to get there.
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Offense
This is one of the worst rosters in the nation and Terry Bowden didn’t exactly leave Vincent with much to work with on either side of the ball. That said, New Mexico’s offense was 131st in the nation with 3.94 yards per play in 2022 and 35th with 6.21 YPP in 2023. So, Vincent is used to working with limited resources. This is basically a brand-new roster, as only one returning starter on offense stuck around.
But, that’s not a bad thing, given that ULM was 106th in YPP and had a 15/13 TD/INT ratio as a team with a leading rusher that only had 507 yards. Hunter Herring is the only returnee at QB with experience, but the Warhawks have all-name-team member General Booty from Oklahoma on the roster. I trust Vincent to find a QB and put together a respectable offense.
Defense
The offense was bad, but so was the defense. The Warhawks allowed over six yards per play and nearly 35 points per game. Opponents converted nearly 51% of their third-down attempts against ULM and provided little help to the inept offense in the field position game. Vincent will call his own plays as the HC/OC, but he tabbed Earnest Hill as the DC. Hill was with Vincent as UAB and was kept on by the Dilfer regime as a position coach.
There are more returning starters and more experience on this side of the ball, but the back seven lost four key contributors to the transfer portal. I’m not sure this defense improves much, but I think the offense will, making the Warhawks a good Over bet in games.
Outlook
Vincent has a pretty bare cupboard for Year 1, but his persistence at UAB shows that he is up for a challenge. What he did at New Mexico on offense was nothing short of miraculous and I think he can field an improved offense here, but the defense will likely be in shambles. The win total of 2.5 is accurate, even with the heavy Under juice, as I have 2.49 wins. I don’t see three upsets, but like I said, I think they’ll be a good in-season Over team.
Pick: Under 2.5 Wins
