September 19, 2024 • 17 mins
Mike Hammett, broadcaster for the ULM Warhawks, joins the show to discuss Bryant Vincent's first season with ULM, their 2-0 start, General Booty, and facing the No. 1 team in the country.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
We're back. It's the Craigway Show with Hall of Fame
broadcaster and voice of the Texas Longhearts Craig Way.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Glad to have you with us on a Thursday afternoon
headed into a football weekend. And of course, as we mentioned,
our coverage on Saturday here on Sports Radio Am thirteen,
the zone will begin at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon,
and it's gonna be warm. We know that it's definitely
(00:50):
gonna be a warm afternoon into the evening and probably
gonna peak at about ninety or something like that. It's
it's it's gonna be pretty It's gonna be pretty warm,
so you know, dress appropriately, hydrate all of those sorts
of things. One can only imagine what it'll be like
(01:12):
for the log warns and for the Warhawks as they
get ready, and speaking of them, we're pleased to be joined.
He was kind enough to join me a couple of
years ago when ULM came to town, and kind enough
to join me again, the play by play voice of
the Warhawks of the University of Louisiana Monroe. You LM's
own Mike Hamad is with us. He joins us on
the hot line Mike, I appreciate the time. How are
(01:32):
you this afternoon? Uh?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Doing well, Craig. Glad to be back with you and
glad to be coming back to Austin yet again.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Did you do anything unusual on the last trip or
did you avail yourself with the local cuisine or Sixth Street,
the night life action anything like that when he came
in two years ago.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Nothing too crazy, because we're down there quite regularly. When
we play Texas State, we stay in Austin. Actually, so
this is I think our fourth or fifth great season
coming to Austin, So so we're down there quite a
bit and get to go out to some of the
different things. I think we kind of took it easy
a couple of years ago before the opener, though, I.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Got you okay, all right. So the first thing, I
want to get your thoughts on your new head coach,
because I visited with coach Vincent a couple of hours ago,
and I was really impressed by the conversation that he
had about when I asked him about turning programs around.
Some coaches just have that knack where they can flip
(02:31):
and turn programs and I and I asked him about it,
and he named like this litany of high school programs
where he was a head coach or college programs where
he was an assistant, and then of course at the
time when he was interim at UAB and and everything
where the script got flipped. And I have to say
it's it's been pretty impressive to see what he's done
(02:52):
so far to and oh there for the program that
won only two ball games last year.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, absolutely, he's really hot, a fire and some passion
into this team. And as you know, I mean, it's
easy to call games and your teams play with some
emotion and some energy, and that's what they've done the
first two games of the season. And you know, UAB
two weeks ago was probably a little more emotionally charged.
I mean, even though these a lot of these players
weren't with him at UAB, they knew the story that
(03:20):
he got passed over for the full time head coaching
job after he took him to a bowl game as
an interim coach, and you know, they laid it out
there and took it to UAB two weeks ago. So
my question this week is can they keep that same
fire and all that going now that we're past the
UAB game and had a week off and go from there.
But he has really done a fantastic job of not
(03:40):
only reigniting this program and the players and the seventy
three new players he brought into this program, but the
fan base too, because we have a lot of folks
that they listen to him talk at different events or
they get to meet him one on one, and the
common reaction is the cliche I'm ready to run through
a wall for him. Just about everybody says that after
(04:02):
they talked to him for the first time. He just
has an infectious personality and really, I think the right
guy right now for ULM to try to get this
thing going in you know, the sun Belts improved so
much over the last several years, and really this program
needs a boot like him to try to be competitive
in the conference.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, one of the questions I asked him was how
do you do it? How does a guy try to
turn a program around? And his answer was to say,
you got to get everybody to believe in you by
believing in them. You have to show that on every
level of the guys you have in the program, You've
(04:40):
got guys who believe in you, And I would imagine also, Mike.
That even goes for some guys who might not have
performed that well on the prior coaching staff but feel
like to have a fresh start here.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, there's several guys. I mean a lot is to
be made of seventy three newcomers, but they're still you know,
the forty or so players that stuck around from the
previous coaching staff, and really they're guys that have excelled.
You know, they knew this new staff was going to
go out and out recruit them and try to knock
them out of the way, but they've stuck around and
really done much better. Elijah Fisher has always been a
(05:17):
solid offensive lineman. I feel like he's really elevated his
game at left guard for ULM. Carl Glass is a
guy that's an a Monroe native, went to D two
Harding to start off his college career, came back home
as a walk on, and then stuck through the coaching
change and was the media day representative this year at
the Sunbelt Media Day, and he has really been flying
(05:39):
around the field. He was a good player last year.
I think he's gone from a good player for that
defense to being the star of that defense at times
for Ulm, certainly the guy that's the unquestioned leader on
that side of the ball, and Travor Randalls the same
type of way. But he's done that. He's gotten these players.
I think, both the newcomers and the returning guys, that
(06:00):
they believe in him. That's the biggest thing is they
believe in him and his leadership abilities and his staff.
There's a unity that I don't know was present previously
and certainly a good base to build off of, and
especially when you start two to zero.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Visiting with ULM play by play voice Mike Hammitt here
on sports radio AM thirteen hundred design, well, one area
certainly where you can turn a program around as if
you can run the football, and the Waraws have done
that the first couple of weeks. And I asked coach
Vincent about a mad Hardy who's a freshman, and James Jones,
who's a transfer, and I said, did you did you
expect that from them? And then there's Tavin Curry who's
(06:36):
also a junior transfer as well and transferred in from
UAB And I asked him, I said, did you expect
that kind of immediate return on investment? He said, well,
we kind of knew we had some good stuff there,
but you know, obviously the proofs in the pudding. How
about your thoughts on what you've seen out of the
running game, which right now ranks thirty first.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
In the nation.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, it's been a very invigorated attack under him. The coach,
Vincent likes to run twelve personnel quite a bit offensively.
That was the first thing they had to do to
make sure they could run the football this year. They
ended spring ball with two healthy tight ends and so
they had to get in that late portal and pull
some guys in because that's been the big key, is
adding physicality at that tight end slash h back spot
(07:18):
with guys like Julian Nixon coming in late, Nate Sullivan
coming in late, Wesley Campbell, the guy that I think
is gonna see more time as it goes on. They
are the kind of the key guys in that running
game with their lead blocks. But a mod hardy has
come in and played with his hair on fire, a
freshman that wasn't even on the depth chart going into
the opener and started the opener against Jackson State. But
(07:40):
that's why you know, guys like you and I go
to practice. I was running for it, ready for a
Mott Hardy to be out there in that opener, and
he really ran well. You know, he came in ready
to learn this system and be a part of it,
and it helps the physicality up front on the line.
But then you know the running backs are good too,
because a mod Hardy has created his own place at times.
James Jones has been solid, so as Tavin Curry, and
(08:04):
there's depth behind them. Hunter Smith has not run the
ball yet, and he was the leading rusher on last
year's team, going through over five hundred yards and he
hasn't seen the field yet. Bennett Galloway is another guy
that's played a bit in the past. And they really
like Ozario Smith, who saw a couple carries late against UAB.
So they love their depth in the running back room.
And there's no question about it with coach Vincent, he
(08:25):
wants to build this thing around the running game and
they're off to a solid start there.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Mike, if you asked, you know a lot of college
football fans in these parts, and certainly you know that
it would go for Texas fans as well. If they
knew any any names, any players on the Warhawks roster.
If they only knew one name, it would be General
Booty because of his background and having played at Allen
and all that sort of stuff. How about your impressions
(08:51):
of how he has had to transfer in and was
at Oklahoma and played at four different high schools, but
a guy that comes from quite the quarterback and football
player bloodline to be able to inherit the job as
the starting quarterback here.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, he's done a nice job of coming in because
it was, you know, the late transfer window. Again, he
went through spring ball at OU before deciding to transfer
out and come over to Monroe and play, and he's
really done a great job of just building that chemistry
and establishing his leadership abilities and getting the guys to
buy in with him. We haven't really seen him throw
(09:28):
it around the throw the ball around the yard a
ton yet, but he hasn't needed to the first two
games of the season really kind of a vanilla game
plan against Jackson State, and then they were able to
run the ball so successfully against UAB as well. So
that's something I'm interested to see. I don't know that
we'll see it Saturday or not at Texas because with
conference play starting next week. I'm interested to see what
(09:50):
the game plan is exactly in Austin because I don't know.
They want a whole bunch of stuff out there for
Troy to see coming up next week. But he has
been very impressive, a big get for ULM and the
portal where they really needed some quarterback depth after going
through springball and coach realized they didn't have what they
really need to make it go. And for his you
(10:10):
know family history in Louisiana too. I mean, we got
two quarterbacks that are Louisiana Royalty going head to head
coming up on Saturday night, you know, between Art and
General Booty. So it's gonna be fun. I'm excited to
see what he has. And it's even better that he
has yet another year of eligibility if he can stick
around at ULM just to see if he can help
(10:31):
establish this program and get it moving in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Not only that, and Steve Sarkishan got A really had
a big smile on his face when we take the
Coaching Show last night. Sark was talking about how he
he coached his uncle at USC. He goes so that
just that just means I'm old. Is he what he
was saying he's not that old. But but but there
is a connectionit thing there because of like you said,
(10:55):
the bloodline, the family connection.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, to have you know, God, David and I can't
go through all of them, have them all right in
front of me. I'm going to miss somebody. But you know,
that whole bloodline, I mean, it's incredible. I mean goes
all the way back to his grandfather. I mean, they
have played college football forever. It's a great, great family
here in Louisiana. Of course, he's a Shreveport native, but
(11:19):
has been all over the place. You know, four different
high schools, played at Tyler Juco and then went to
OU and now back in the home state, as he
lists his hometown of Shreveport. So you know, there's a
lot of pride that goes into that. And I think,
you know, I think he has a lot of pride
to play in for a team for a state at
which his family is so known with in the state
of Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Mike another one of those things that helps programs turn around.
Like we said, run the football and then being able
to stop the run. And in the through two ball games,
the Warhawk defense is first against the run and twenty
first in the nation against the run and second in
scoring defense in the conference in eighteens in the nation
overall in scoring defense. What's been the key to Ernest
(12:02):
Hill's defense and being able to turn things and be
able to shut down the running game of the opposition.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Well, for one, certainly with the way Billy Poland has
played coming in here Coffin, Texas native and he's excited,
of course to come play a DKR on Saturday night,
but he's been at a couple Jucos Tyler and then
Capia Lincoln out in Mississippi, and he has just been
a nightmare for opposing offensive lines. They use him as
(12:30):
an edge rusher that he'll line up all over the
place and he does a great job of getting in
the backfield. But so do the defensive tackle Dylan Howell,
Jalen Layer. They do a great job of getting penetration.
And it helps you to have a guy like White
at Williams at the back end of the defense that
he plays Downhill quite a bit, coming crashing toward the
line of scrimmage. And so I think all those things
(12:50):
that equates to having some decent guys in the back end,
some experience and David Godsey and Carlin Viggers and then
Carl fun Troy transfers in from UAB. That it allows
and to kind of move wide at Williams around. It
allows them to bring Billy pulling off the edge in
some different ways, and also didn't hurt too with UAB
week two. I mean, they run a lot of the
(13:11):
same stuff that Coach Vincent used to run. And there's
some guys that came off of Coach Gilph's staff that
are over here at ULM now, so there's a little
extra insight into that UAB offense too. So they have
certainly been a reinvigorated group at the best defense through
two games easily since I've been here at ULM. And
if they can continue to play well the rest of
(13:33):
the way, the Warhawks are going to have a chance
to win some games in Sun Belt play and really
try to make a push towards making up Bowl eligibility
appearance and maybe making some noise in the Sun Belt West.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well, that's where I was gonna go with here. With
one final thing to ask you, I asked Coach Vincent.
I said, short of what all coaches won, you want
to win obviously, but in addition to that, what are
the things that you're looking for from this game on Saturday?
And his response was to say, I want to see
(14:04):
the steady improvement on both sides of the ball. He shit,
because this program is good enough and can be good
enough to compete in the Sun Belt to win a
conference title, to get in a bowl game, and they've
never won a ball game, to be able to win
a ball game. He talked about those things as being
the building blocks of what he wants to do here.
Do you see it similarly?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Absolutely? This is a team that I think the big
key Saturday is to come in and continue to execute
and play well and continue, like you say, to see
that improvement. Like coach said that they had steady improvement
week one, Week two. Now you've gone through an early
bye week. How do you sustain that coming into Saturday's game?
This group is certainly exciting, a lot more athleticism, a
(14:48):
lot better size on this team than has been in
previous years, and looking around the Sun Belt this year,
this conference has been so much better. It's you know,
you could argue that it's maybe the top group of
five cops fence to this point with the improvements they've
made through realignment and everything that I think they can
go out and compete with just about anybody in this league.
Texas status are is shown out so far this year,
(15:10):
and they are probably the favorites in the West at
this point, I would say, but I think this ULM team,
after watching other teams in the league, I think there's
going to be a fun final ten or final nine
weeks of the season after this Saturday, and see what
happens with Texas, of course, but to get into Sunbelt
to play, this group's going to compete. It's going to
be a really really interesting slate because coach has got
(15:31):
these guys believing, and if they can stay injury free,
I think they're going to give themselves a shot in
a lot of ball games this year.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Mike Save travels down here for the I guess fifth
or sixth consecutive season. I've noticed your Texas State game
is at home, so this will be the only one
here from football anyway that you come down. But Save
travels down here. Look forward to seeing you up in
the press box on Saturday, and I appreciate you taking
the time to join us this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Sounds great, looking forward to it. Craig, thank you. Mike.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
All right, that's Mike Hamrat, play by play voice the
Warhawks of U l M. And again, that was the
conversation we had with Bryant Vincent, and again it was
certainly our intention to bring that conversation here. We're still
trying to see if we can salvage that thing through
the technical issue that happened, and if we do, then
(16:20):
we'll try to Eric tomorrow. But if not, I've kind
of encapsulated a lot of what he said and what
he wants and similar things to what Mike was talking
about as well, the steady improvement of the program and
moving forward and getting ready for Sun Belt Conference play.
I did find it interesting because I don't think that
(16:41):
I can remember hearing someone talk about a team that
is a heavy, heavy underdog as they are planning to
perhaps be a little more plain vanilla against the heavily
favorite of PUBE because they have an eye on conference
play and trying to compete in the Sunbelt. And it
makes sense.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Really, seventy five new players in this program, that's that's incredible.
I mean, and there's how many on a college football
roster scholarship?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Five?
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Yeah, so only twenty thirty players are returning. Insane stat
but look at the job that coach Vincent and his
staff have done. And even in there in the way
they've talked in press conferences this week. I know some
Texas fans, you know, don't really like what the DC
has been saying, the coach have been saying, but you
can tell they're trying to build this program into a
(17:32):
specific form of culture. It's just like what Sark did
four years ago, Right, you kind of have to. You're
laying the foundation of what you want to be in
year two, in year three, and they're doing a great
job of that so far.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
All Right, up next, we will hear more from Sark
from his final Zoom media availability of the week. We'll
hear that next one. We continue on sports Radio AM
thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.
We're back. It's the Craigway Show with Hall of Fame
broadcaster and voice of the Texas Longhearts Craig Way.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Glad to have you with us on a Thursday afternoon
headed into a football weekend. And of course, as we mentioned,
our coverage on Saturday here on Sports Radio Am thirteen,
the zone will begin at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon,
and it's gonna be warm. We know that it's definitely
(00:50):
gonna be a warm afternoon into the evening and probably
gonna peak at about ninety or something like that. It's
it's it's gonna be pretty It's gonna be pretty warm,
so you know, dress appropriately, hydrate all of those sorts
of things. One can only imagine what it'll be like
(01:12):
for the log warns and for the Warhawks as they
get ready, and speaking of them, we're pleased to be joined.
He was kind enough to join me a couple of
years ago when ULM came to town, and kind enough
to join me again, the play by play voice of
the Warhawks of the University of Louisiana Monroe. You LM's
own Mike Hamad is with us. He joins us on
the hot line Mike, I appreciate the time. How are
(01:32):
you this afternoon? Uh?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Doing well, Craig. Glad to be back with you and
glad to be coming back to Austin yet again.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Did you do anything unusual on the last trip or
did you avail yourself with the local cuisine or Sixth Street,
the night life action anything like that when he came
in two years ago.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Nothing too crazy, because we're down there quite regularly. When
we play Texas State, we stay in Austin. Actually, so
this is I think our fourth or fifth great season
coming to Austin, So so we're down there quite a
bit and get to go out to some of the
different things. I think we kind of took it easy
a couple of years ago before the opener, though, I.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Got you okay, all right. So the first thing, I
want to get your thoughts on your new head coach,
because I visited with coach Vincent a couple of hours ago,
and I was really impressed by the conversation that he
had about when I asked him about turning programs around.
Some coaches just have that knack where they can flip
(02:31):
and turn programs and I and I asked him about it,
and he named like this litany of high school programs
where he was a head coach or college programs where
he was an assistant, and then of course at the
time when he was interim at UAB and and everything
where the script got flipped. And I have to say
it's it's been pretty impressive to see what he's done
(02:52):
so far to and oh there for the program that
won only two ball games last year.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, absolutely, he's really hot, a fire and some passion
into this team. And as you know, I mean, it's
easy to call games and your teams play with some
emotion and some energy, and that's what they've done the
first two games of the season. And you know, UAB
two weeks ago was probably a little more emotionally charged.
I mean, even though these a lot of these players
weren't with him at UAB, they knew the story that
(03:20):
he got passed over for the full time head coaching
job after he took him to a bowl game as
an interim coach, and you know, they laid it out
there and took it to UAB two weeks ago. So
my question this week is can they keep that same
fire and all that going now that we're past the
UAB game and had a week off and go from there.
But he has really done a fantastic job of not
(03:40):
only reigniting this program and the players and the seventy
three new players he brought into this program, but the
fan base too, because we have a lot of folks
that they listen to him talk at different events or
they get to meet him one on one, and the
common reaction is the cliche I'm ready to run through
a wall for him. Just about everybody says that after
(04:02):
they talked to him for the first time. He just
has an infectious personality and really, I think the right
guy right now for ULM to try to get this
thing going in you know, the sun Belts improved so
much over the last several years, and really this program
needs a boot like him to try to be competitive
in the conference.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, one of the questions I asked him was how
do you do it? How does a guy try to
turn a program around? And his answer was to say,
you got to get everybody to believe in you by
believing in them. You have to show that on every
level of the guys you have in the program, You've
(04:40):
got guys who believe in you, And I would imagine also, Mike.
That even goes for some guys who might not have
performed that well on the prior coaching staff but feel
like to have a fresh start here.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, there's several guys. I mean a lot is to
be made of seventy three newcomers, but they're still you know,
the forty or so players that stuck around from the
previous coaching staff, and really they're guys that have excelled.
You know, they knew this new staff was going to
go out and out recruit them and try to knock
them out of the way, but they've stuck around and
really done much better. Elijah Fisher has always been a
(05:17):
solid offensive lineman. I feel like he's really elevated his
game at left guard for ULM. Carl Glass is a
guy that's an a Monroe native, went to D two
Harding to start off his college career, came back home
as a walk on, and then stuck through the coaching
change and was the media day representative this year at
the Sunbelt Media Day, and he has really been flying
(05:39):
around the field. He was a good player last year.
I think he's gone from a good player for that
defense to being the star of that defense at times
for Ulm, certainly the guy that's the unquestioned leader on
that side of the ball, and Travor Randalls the same
type of way. But he's done that. He's gotten these players.
I think, both the newcomers and the returning guys, that
(06:00):
they believe in him. That's the biggest thing is they
believe in him and his leadership abilities and his staff.
There's a unity that I don't know was present previously
and certainly a good base to build off of, and
especially when you start two to zero.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Visiting with ULM play by play voice Mike Hammitt here
on sports radio AM thirteen hundred design, well, one area
certainly where you can turn a program around as if
you can run the football, and the Waraws have done
that the first couple of weeks. And I asked coach
Vincent about a mad Hardy who's a freshman, and James Jones,
who's a transfer, and I said, did you did you
expect that from them? And then there's Tavin Curry who's
(06:36):
also a junior transfer as well and transferred in from
UAB And I asked him, I said, did you expect
that kind of immediate return on investment? He said, well,
we kind of knew we had some good stuff there,
but you know, obviously the proofs in the pudding. How
about your thoughts on what you've seen out of the
running game, which right now ranks thirty first.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
In the nation.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, it's been a very invigorated attack under him. The coach,
Vincent likes to run twelve personnel quite a bit offensively.
That was the first thing they had to do to
make sure they could run the football this year. They
ended spring ball with two healthy tight ends and so
they had to get in that late portal and pull
some guys in because that's been the big key, is
adding physicality at that tight end slash h back spot
(07:18):
with guys like Julian Nixon coming in late, Nate Sullivan
coming in late, Wesley Campbell, the guy that I think
is gonna see more time as it goes on. They
are the kind of the key guys in that running
game with their lead blocks. But a mod hardy has
come in and played with his hair on fire, a
freshman that wasn't even on the depth chart going into
the opener and started the opener against Jackson State. But
(07:40):
that's why you know, guys like you and I go
to practice. I was running for it, ready for a
Mott Hardy to be out there in that opener, and
he really ran well. You know, he came in ready
to learn this system and be a part of it,
and it helps the physicality up front on the line.
But then you know the running backs are good too,
because a mod Hardy has created his own place at times.
James Jones has been solid, so as Tavin Curry, and
(08:04):
there's depth behind them. Hunter Smith has not run the
ball yet, and he was the leading rusher on last
year's team, going through over five hundred yards and he
hasn't seen the field yet. Bennett Galloway is another guy
that's played a bit in the past. And they really
like Ozario Smith, who saw a couple carries late against UAB.
So they love their depth in the running back room.
And there's no question about it with coach Vincent, he
(08:25):
wants to build this thing around the running game and
they're off to a solid start there.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Mike, if you asked, you know a lot of college
football fans in these parts, and certainly you know that
it would go for Texas fans as well. If they
knew any any names, any players on the Warhawks roster.
If they only knew one name, it would be General
Booty because of his background and having played at Allen
and all that sort of stuff. How about your impressions
(08:51):
of how he has had to transfer in and was
at Oklahoma and played at four different high schools, but
a guy that comes from quite the quarterback and football
player bloodline to be able to inherit the job as
the starting quarterback here.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, he's done a nice job of coming in because
it was, you know, the late transfer window. Again, he
went through spring ball at OU before deciding to transfer
out and come over to Monroe and play, and he's
really done a great job of just building that chemistry
and establishing his leadership abilities and getting the guys to
buy in with him. We haven't really seen him throw
(09:28):
it around the throw the ball around the yard a
ton yet, but he hasn't needed to the first two
games of the season really kind of a vanilla game
plan against Jackson State, and then they were able to
run the ball so successfully against UAB as well. So
that's something I'm interested to see. I don't know that
we'll see it Saturday or not at Texas because with
conference play starting next week. I'm interested to see what
(09:50):
the game plan is exactly in Austin because I don't know.
They want a whole bunch of stuff out there for
Troy to see coming up next week. But he has
been very impressive, a big get for ULM and the
portal where they really needed some quarterback depth after going
through springball and coach realized they didn't have what they
really need to make it go. And for his you
(10:10):
know family history in Louisiana too. I mean, we got
two quarterbacks that are Louisiana Royalty going head to head
coming up on Saturday night, you know, between Art and
General Booty. So it's gonna be fun. I'm excited to
see what he has. And it's even better that he
has yet another year of eligibility if he can stick
around at ULM just to see if he can help
(10:31):
establish this program and get it moving in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Not only that, and Steve Sarkishan got A really had
a big smile on his face when we take the
Coaching Show last night. Sark was talking about how he
he coached his uncle at USC. He goes so that
just that just means I'm old. Is he what he
was saying he's not that old. But but but there
is a connectionit thing there because of like you said,
(10:55):
the bloodline, the family connection.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, to have you know, God, David and I can't
go through all of them, have them all right in
front of me. I'm going to miss somebody. But you know,
that whole bloodline, I mean, it's incredible. I mean goes
all the way back to his grandfather. I mean, they
have played college football forever. It's a great, great family
here in Louisiana. Of course, he's a Shreveport native, but
(11:19):
has been all over the place. You know, four different
high schools, played at Tyler Juco and then went to
OU and now back in the home state, as he
lists his hometown of Shreveport. So you know, there's a
lot of pride that goes into that. And I think,
you know, I think he has a lot of pride
to play in for a team for a state at
which his family is so known with in the state
of Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Mike another one of those things that helps programs turn around.
Like we said, run the football and then being able
to stop the run. And in the through two ball games,
the Warhawk defense is first against the run and twenty
first in the nation against the run and second in
scoring defense in the conference in eighteens in the nation
overall in scoring defense. What's been the key to Ernest
(12:02):
Hill's defense and being able to turn things and be
able to shut down the running game of the opposition.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Well, for one, certainly with the way Billy Poland has
played coming in here Coffin, Texas native and he's excited,
of course to come play a DKR on Saturday night,
but he's been at a couple Jucos Tyler and then
Capia Lincoln out in Mississippi, and he has just been
a nightmare for opposing offensive lines. They use him as
(12:30):
an edge rusher that he'll line up all over the
place and he does a great job of getting in
the backfield. But so do the defensive tackle Dylan Howell,
Jalen Layer. They do a great job of getting penetration.
And it helps you to have a guy like White
at Williams at the back end of the defense that
he plays Downhill quite a bit, coming crashing toward the
line of scrimmage. And so I think all those things
(12:50):
that equates to having some decent guys in the back end,
some experience and David Godsey and Carlin Viggers and then
Carl fun Troy transfers in from UAB. That it allows
and to kind of move wide at Williams around. It
allows them to bring Billy pulling off the edge in
some different ways, and also didn't hurt too with UAB
week two. I mean, they run a lot of the
(13:11):
same stuff that Coach Vincent used to run. And there's
some guys that came off of Coach Gilph's staff that
are over here at ULM now, so there's a little
extra insight into that UAB offense too. So they have
certainly been a reinvigorated group at the best defense through
two games easily since I've been here at ULM. And
if they can continue to play well the rest of
(13:33):
the way, the Warhawks are going to have a chance
to win some games in Sun Belt play and really
try to make a push towards making up Bowl eligibility
appearance and maybe making some noise in the Sun Belt West.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well, that's where I was gonna go with here. With
one final thing to ask you, I asked Coach Vincent.
I said, short of what all coaches won, you want
to win obviously, but in addition to that, what are
the things that you're looking for from this game on Saturday?
And his response was to say, I want to see
(14:04):
the steady improvement on both sides of the ball. He shit,
because this program is good enough and can be good
enough to compete in the Sun Belt to win a
conference title, to get in a bowl game, and they've
never won a ball game, to be able to win
a ball game. He talked about those things as being
the building blocks of what he wants to do here.
Do you see it similarly?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Absolutely? This is a team that I think the big
key Saturday is to come in and continue to execute
and play well and continue, like you say, to see
that improvement. Like coach said that they had steady improvement
week one, Week two. Now you've gone through an early
bye week. How do you sustain that coming into Saturday's game?
This group is certainly exciting, a lot more athleticism, a
(14:48):
lot better size on this team than has been in
previous years, and looking around the Sun Belt this year,
this conference has been so much better. It's you know,
you could argue that it's maybe the top group of
five cops fence to this point with the improvements they've
made through realignment and everything that I think they can
go out and compete with just about anybody in this league.
Texas status are is shown out so far this year,
(15:10):
and they are probably the favorites in the West at
this point, I would say, but I think this ULM team,
after watching other teams in the league, I think there's
going to be a fun final ten or final nine
weeks of the season after this Saturday, and see what
happens with Texas, of course, but to get into Sunbelt
to play, this group's going to compete. It's going to
be a really really interesting slate because coach has got
(15:31):
these guys believing, and if they can stay injury free,
I think they're going to give themselves a shot in
a lot of ball games this year.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Mike Save travels down here for the I guess fifth
or sixth consecutive season. I've noticed your Texas State game
is at home, so this will be the only one
here from football anyway that you come down. But Save
travels down here. Look forward to seeing you up in
the press box on Saturday, and I appreciate you taking
the time to join us this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Sounds great, looking forward to it. Craig, thank you. Mike.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
All right, that's Mike Hamrat, play by play voice the
Warhawks of U l M. And again, that was the
conversation we had with Bryant Vincent, and again it was
certainly our intention to bring that conversation here. We're still
trying to see if we can salvage that thing through
the technical issue that happened, and if we do, then
(16:20):
we'll try to Eric tomorrow. But if not, I've kind
of encapsulated a lot of what he said and what
he wants and similar things to what Mike was talking
about as well, the steady improvement of the program and
moving forward and getting ready for Sun Belt Conference play.
I did find it interesting because I don't think that
(16:41):
I can remember hearing someone talk about a team that
is a heavy, heavy underdog as they are planning to
perhaps be a little more plain vanilla against the heavily
favorite of PUBE because they have an eye on conference
play and trying to compete in the Sunbelt. And it
makes sense.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Really, seventy five new players in this program, that's that's incredible.
I mean, and there's how many on a college football
roster scholarship?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Five?
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Yeah, so only twenty thirty players are returning. Insane stat
but look at the job that coach Vincent and his
staff have done. And even in there in the way
they've talked in press conferences this week. I know some
Texas fans, you know, don't really like what the DC
has been saying, the coach have been saying, but you
can tell they're trying to build this program into a
(17:32):
specific form of culture. It's just like what Sark did
four years ago, Right, you kind of have to. You're
laying the foundation of what you want to be in
year two, in year three, and they're doing a great
job of that so far.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
All Right, up next, we will hear more from Sark
from his final Zoom media availability of the week. We'll
hear that next one. We continue on sports Radio AM
thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.
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