2011 Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks Football Preview

Todd Berry is trying to make a good thing better. The difficulty of his situation is that at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, a good thing is actually mediocre. To be truly good, this underdog program needs to make substantial improvements.

For a program that has not enjoyed a winning season since 1993, it was baffling when Louisiana-Monroe fired coach Charlie Weatherbie following the 2009 season. Weatherbie led the program to a pair of 6-6 seasons, better than anyone else had been able to do in Monroe over the years. He also took down a Nick Saban-coached Alabama squad in 2007, giving the young men of Monroe their finest moment on the gridiron. However, after the break-even campaign of 2009, there was a sense in Monroe that the program should have been better. In a certain sense, that was true; ULM could not finish off a number of close games and frequently allowed opponents to steal victories in the fourth quarter. Fair in one sense but cruel in another, Weatherbie – who had also won a bowl game while at Navy in the 1990s – was axed. Into this void came Berry, who ironically had coached at Navy’s archival, Army, in seasons past.

Berry’s first year at ULM was a success. That 2010 journey was also a bitter disappointment, providing an ironic twist to life as the new coach of the Warhawks. Louisiana-Monroe won four Sun Belt Games and was competitive in two others last season. A one-point loss to Louisiana-Lafayette on the final weekend was the only thing that separated the Warhawks from their first-ever bowl bid. Needless to say, Berry and Company are ready to regroup and get Louisiana-Monroe to the promised land.

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Berry will certainly have a wealth of experience to rely on. The Warhawks return all 11 starters on offense. Another eight return on the defensive side of the football. It seems the time has finally come for a program that has consistently remained inconsistent, teasing its fans with the promise of excellence but never falling off the map the way other Monroe teams often did. Kolton Browning was named to a number of Freshman All-America lists last season during his first year under center. Browning is expected to improve in 2011, but at ULM, steady advancements have to be seen before they can be believed. Luther Ambrose, the speedy wide receiver who will be Browning’s number-one target, is back for his senior year. On defense, defensive lineman Ken Dorsey and defensive back Darius Prelow lead a 3-3-5 attack that needs to be able to sustain its level of performance each Saturday. This is a defense that wasn’t spectacular in 2010 – it got smoked for 42 points by Florida International and 38 by Middle Tennessee. However, it also limited Troy to 14 points in a max-out effort that raised a lot of hopes in and around Malone Stadium, the Warhawks’ home nest. ULM’s defense was great one week but poor the next; if the 3-3-5 can regularly limit teams to no more than 24 points instead of giving up 38 one week and 10 the week after that, the Warhawks’ offense should be good enough to swipe a few extra wins in the conference.

The non-conference schedule will be highly difficult to handle, however. Road games against Florida State, TCU, and Iowa in the first month of the season form as hard a stretch as any gauntlet in the country. If the Warhawks can survive those contests relatively free from injury, they could make some noise when conference play arrives.