Ragin' Dave's 2022 ULM Breakdown
ULM Warhawks Preview
ULM is coming off a 4-8 2021 campaign last year where they had wins over Jackson State, Troy, Liberty and USA. Terry Bowden son of former FSU coach Bobby Bowden is in his 2nd year in Monroe. Before that Current Cajun assistant Matt Viator was at ULM for quite some time. Bowden has a history of coming into programs on a downslide and reviving them, he did it at North Alabama as well as Akron before coming to ULM. 2021 was a strange year for ULM as they had some nice wins, but also some strange losses mixed in with some solid losses to decent teams, including a 21-16 loss to UL and a 27-14 loss at LSU. This year has been interesting to say the least. They started the season with a road game at Texas where they were beaten 52-10, then a home win vs Nicholls 35-7 and most recently a 63-7 loss at Alabama, so it has been hard to get a full grasp on this ULM team. Bowden has used the transfer portal as well as JUCO players to get this roster at least competitive over the last 2 years.
ULM has only beaten UL 2 since 2008 in a series that has been played every year since the SBC football conference started. The last win for ULM in the series was at Cajun Field back in 2017 in a 56-50 overtime game that UL came all the way back to get to overtime to eventually lose. UL website shows games back to 1976 vs ULM in which UL holds a 22-15 advantage over the Warhawks, but again we are 12-2 since 2008 vs them. Bowden is well traveled as a coach in college football including being an assistant Florida State under his dad, but being a HC at Salem, Samford, Auburn, UNA, Akron and now ULM, with short stints as an assistant at Akron and Clemson in between those HC jobs. His overall HC record is 180-124-2 between NAIA, D3, FCS and FBS.
QB—Last year the plan was for Rich Rodriguez son Rhett Rodriguez to be the QB, but injuries early in the season kept that from happening and Rhett has finished his eligibility and the job came down to a QB dual between last years starter Chandler Rogers and 2nd year transfer from NIU Jiya Wright. Wright (6’1 202) is a big strong physical player, that is more of a RB playing QB, Chandler Rogers (6’0 189) won the job and had a decent season last year completing 63% of his passes with 9 TD’s and 3 INT’s while also rushing for 367 yards and 1 TD. This year his numbers don’t jump off the page at you, but mostly because he has played against Texas and Alabama. In his 3 starts he has completed 69% of his passes with 2 TD’s and 2 INT’s. He has also rushed for 122 yards before sacks and 1 TD. He is a true dual threat athlete for them, which could cause some problems with the Cajuns defense, he is not afraid to tuck it under and run when he feels he can. With all three games being blowouts the backup that has played has not been Jiya Wright, but instead it has been Garrett Hable (5’8 196) Junior from Benton, La, even though Wright has been listed as the backup. I expect us to see Rogers for most of the game unless Wright would play some in the Wildcat position. Rogers is very capable QB who has continued to improve as time has gone on.
RB—ULM has had some issues over the past few years running the ball and this year has been no exception. The main guy is Malik Jackson (5’9 175), a converted WR. On the season he has only rushed for 110 yards with 2 TDs with a 3.2 average and outside of a guy that only has 4 rushes on the season he is the leading per play guy, now allot of that has to do with playing Texas and Alabama. Last year Jackson rushed for 451 yards, 3TD’s and a 5.6-yard average as the 2nd piece to the 2 headed monster of Jackson and Henry. Andrew Henry (5’10 193) returns but on the season only has 18 carries for 45 yards and a 2.5-yard average, last year Henry led the team in rushing with 485 yards and a 3.7-yard average. Isaiah Phillips (5’7 199) is the 3rd running back in the picture with 12 carries for 37 yards. Zach Martin (5’10 197) a third-year player that has been very injured is an interesting player, Martin has only 4 carries on the season, but has rushed for 39 yards and a TD. It appears that most of this has been in mop up duty. Running the ball has been a problem for ULM this season although they did have a decent game running the ball vs Nicholls where they rushed for 167 yards for a 4.3 yard per play average. The Warhawks do not throw much to the RB’s as the combined 4 players above have a total of 2 catches for -6 yards on the season.
WR/TE—When the season started the name that everyone talked about was Boogie Knight (5’10 193) returning transfer from Ohio State. Knight was spectacular last year for the Warhawks with 45 receptions for 455 yards and 3 TD’s. But this year has not been as good for him so far, he only has 5 catches for 41 yards and 0 TD’s. Opposite of Knight was another good one in Will Derrick (6’0 160) who was 2nd on the team in receptions last year with 25, this year he too is struggling with no catches on the year. But they have had some surprise play at the WR position for them. The big one has been Jevin Frett (6’1 205) Juco transfer who is leading the team in receptions and yards with 11 catches for 141 yards and a TD. After that they have spread the ball around to a bunch of guys. Alred Luke (5’8 175) with 4 catches for 85 yards and Fred Lloyd (6’4 210) with 2 catches for 70 yards. Most of the issues with ULM and their receivers have been because they have played good teams so far this season, I expect Knight and Derrick as well as others to get it going as the conference schedule moves along. At TE they have a pretty good one in Zach Rasmussen (6’4 227) who has been there a while and while he is not a huge guy, he is a very athletic guy, he has 6 catches for 48 yards and 1 TD on the season.
OL—The O-Line returns 3 starters from last year led by Victor Cutler (6’3 292) at LT, Cutler had 8 starts last year and should be in consideration for all Conference on the OLine. They also return Peyton Dunn (6’7 312) at LG who had 10 starts last year and Keydrell Lewis (6’1 311) at RT who also had 10 starts last year. The other players that we could see are Stacey Wilkins (6’6 326) very highly recruited transfer from Oklahoma that played in 4 games as a freshman there and Zarian McGill (6’1 311) Elijah Fisher (6’3 292) converted DE and Telleck Lockette (6’3 312) Freshman. Cutler has moved from Guard to Center a little this season as they are trying to figure out the best grouping on the OL. Outside of Dunn and Cutler, they have been trying different parts. Cutler seems to have played more Center then Guard this season.
DLine—ULM will play 3 down linemen on Defense and will also have an extra linebacker/DE that can play both positions. They use multiple sets on defense with an extra DB or extra DL/LB depending on the set. Their down lineman will be Seth Mason (6’2 270) DE, Caleb Thomas (6’ 306) NT and Quincy Ledet (6’2 297) DT. Thomas is a transfer from UCONN who played for ULM for a few seasons now and a pretty good one. Ledet played in 8 games for ULM as a true Freshman and Mason had 4 starts for them last year. Mason, Ledet and Thomas have not put-up huge stats this year although Ledet and Thomas were very solid players for them in 2021. But a guy who has been a real surprise for them has been Kenard Snyder (6’0 255), who is leading the DL in tackles this year with 8 total, with 5 solo as a bench player for them. This is not a position of great strength for the Warhawks.
LB—While DL is not an area of great strength the next group is. Returning for ULM at LB are some really good players including the leader on Defense, Zach Woodard (6’1 237) Senior that was 2nd on the team in tackles last year with 89 and 3.5 sacks. This year he has gotten off to a little bit of a slow start with only 8 on the season and 1 TFL, but he is a guy I expect to be in the running for All Conference LB. And they are good there outside of him, Leading the team in tackles this year is Tristan Driggers (6’0 202) Juco transfer who has 12 tackles on the season including 1 TFL but more incredible he has 3 INT’s from the LB position this year and finally another returner from last year in Quae Drake (6’1 234) who also has gotten off to a slow start this year but finished last year with 56 tackles and 2 sacks. They are fast and athletic at the LB position, but it is not just these three. We will see a group of backups that are pretty good as well. Michael Batton (6’2 200) Juco transfer is 2nd on the team in tackles this year, Jackson Bailey (6’3 229) transfer from Arizona, Tralen Thomas (6’0 245) and Carl Glass (5’11 202) have also made significant contributions this season. They need this because they lost quite a bit overall on defense from last year, but most specifically their best player at LB in Traveion Webster.
D-Backs—As I mentioned they lost quite a bit from last year and most of it was in the secondary, this year they replace pretty much everyone from last years team. At CB you will see Lu Tillery (5’11 171) and Deuce Mayberry (6’1 170) transfer from Kansas who played in 21 games for the Jayhawks and 4 starts for them. But they have played several guys beside them, including Juco transfer Car’lin Vigers (6’2 197) is another name to keep an eye on. Tillery has been a good one for them this season with 10 tackles and Mayberry has a pick this year as well. Again, it is hard to get a good read on these guys because they have faced Alabama and Texas where they gave up some yards and points but that was expected. The problem is even against Nicholls they gave up 231 yards passing, now much of that could have been because the Colonels were playing from behind and could not run the ball well. The starters at safety will be Keydrain Calligan (5’11 190), Tavier Williams (6’2 188) both were backups last year and Jabari Johnson (6’ 200) and/or Jordyn Riley (5’10 195) at the Star position, this is the position they have the most experience at. Johnson has started several games for ULM and Riley is a transfer from Akron where he was a starter as well.
Special Teams—A returning starter and a good one at Kicker for ULM. Calum Sutherland came on last year to really be a difference maker for ULM including the win vs Jackson State. Sutherland is only 1-1 this year with a long of 25, but he can make them from much further than that. Last year he was 12 of 16 with a long of 53. Clearly, he has a strong leg and that is shown by the fact that about ½ of his kickoffs are for TB’s. Punter is a similar story, with Devyn McCormick returning this year, he has 21 punts on the season with a 43-yard average and a long of 57. He has dropped 5 of those inside the 20. He has gotten a ton of work this season because of the game’s vs P5 teams.
Return Specialist—Boogie Knight is the punt returner and although he has only 1 punt return on the season, he is a good one. He started for them as PR last year as well, he is very capable of breaking one. This year they have tried several guys at KR, last year it was mostly Boogie Knight. This year they have had 4 different guys return including Backup RB Bennett Galloway, WR Alred Luke and Boogie Knight.
Expect lots of moving parts for the Warhawks, specifically at OL and on Defense on the DL and DB. This is a team that like Rice last week, wants to see what they can do vs similar competition. Hopefully the result is different for us. I think this team has some real strengths, but some glaring weaknesses. The biggest is in the DB’s and part of the OL. But the strengths at WR and LB are where they will really shine. They also have an experienced coaching staff in Bowden as well as his assistants. Vic Koenning is the DC, and he has been around for a long time. Koenning has been coaching since the mid 80’s including DC stops at Illinois, UNC, Troy and WV. Matt Kubik is the OC, and he has been at SFA most recently but played QB at La Tech. Ron West has 4 decades of coaching under his belt as LB coach, Tony Hull at RB coach who was a former Cajun OL back in 2004.
My prediction, I think the Cajuns get back on the winning track
Cajuns 28
Warhawks 21
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