2022 G5 Preview: Louisiana-Monroe Is Still Here

They sure are in the Sun Belt, and that's about all I can say about it.

This is part of the Sun Belt Preview, the third conference in the Outside Zone’s Group of Five season preview package. Check out the preview landing page for all previous stories. All previews and the entire Outside Zone archive are available for only $5 a month or $50 a year.

Disclaimer: Louisiana-Monroe hasn’t released a 2022 roster yet, even though it is April. I’m not hunting down COVID eligibility players this far into spring. I have my limits. So, this preview is going to be a bit less comprehensive than the others, because I don’t have full returning production information and will be focusing instead on a few key players I can confirm are returning. Apologies, but also, this isn’t my fault, it’s April and it shouldn’t be that hard for a sports information director to update a roster.

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The greatest compliment of Terry Bowden’s first season at the helm of Louisiana-Monroe football I can offer is that it was not an unmitigated disaster. The Warhawks didn’t play some sort of shadow football, their entire roster didn’t transfer and they didn’t even lose every game they played. ULM went just 4-8, but it took a distinct step forward from an 0-10 campaign in 2020, fielding a legitimately decent rushing attack and uncovering a few viable pass rushers as the season developed. Bowden was, dare I say, competent.

Still, my overarching question around his tenure remains: to what end? The Warhawks stabilized at least a bit, found a few nice pieces, and weren’t the worst team in the Sun Belt, though they avoided that moniker almost entirely because Arkansas State – which beat ULM – cratered and because of home wins against a Troy team that fired its coach after the season and a South Alabama team in year one of its new coaching tenure.

But Bowden is 66 years old. He landed the Sun Belt’s worst class in 2022 – even lower than Texas State, which took two high school players, and Troy, which fired its coach – and has secured one transfer, Kansas State wide receiver Tyrone Howell, while losing 17 players of his own to the portal since September.

ULM could (and probably will) make a case that Bowden was hired as a transitional coach, meant to clean up and modernize the program, build out a foundation, and then pass it off to a young, exciting assistant.

That coach doesn’t exist, though, and Bowden doesn’t exactly seem like he knows a ton of young people.

The most interesting assistant on the staff, Rich Rodriguez, took the Jacksonville State head coaching job after one year in town. His replacement at offensive coordinator is Matt Kubik, who could have just been named the head coach several years ago when he was (rightfully) considered an up-and-comer in this exact position.

He wasn’t, he departed for Southern Miss in 2020 and left for a high school head coaching job after one season. Now he’s lost much of his shine and would have much further to go in building the program than he would have had he been promoted after producing 30+ points per game seasons in 2017 and 2019 – which then-head coach Matt Viator turned into 4-8 and 5-7 finishes.

Defensive coordinator Vic Koenning is 62 and was fired from West Virginia after allegations of player mistreatment.

Quick note here on those allegations. West Virginia announced in 2020 that it had completed an investigation into student-athlete complaints of run-ins with Koenning, but that it would not release any specifics about the nature of those complaints or the findings of the investigation to avoid sharing personally identifiable information about players interviewed for the investigation.

Yet, one brave Wikipedia account – which started making edits the same month Koenning was placed on leave and has almost only ever edited the Vic Koenning Wikipedia page, and whose IP address tracks back to Huntsville, Ala – has set the record straight.

It made more than a dozen edits to the Koenning Wikipedia page between November 2021 and April 2022, noting that Koenning “resigned that position due to backlash from allegations of player mistreatment which were proven to be unfounded by an independent investigation” in an older version, later updating that to remove “by an independent investigation” when another user asked for a citation, which now stands in the current page.

Given that the findings of the investigation were not and will not be made public, and given that this user appears to only edit the Vic Koenning Wikipedia page, I think there are some reasonable assumptions to be made about the identity of this user.

Anyway, he also went 5-29 in three seasons as Wyoming’s head coach in the early 2000s. He’s probably not the future head coach at ULM.

The only member of the staff who does cut the profile of an exciting potential replacement is running backs coach Tony Hull, who was David Beaty’s ace Louisiana recruiter at Kansas, drawing several blue chippers out of the state to Kansas (although I think almost every single one of them decommited a few months later). Just as a fun little aside, Hull is who I was asking Beaty about in this screenshot.

Hull is only turning 40 this year, but he has a decade of experience as a high school coach in Louisiana, four years as a P5 position coach at Kansas – where he developed Pooka Williams Jr. – and another as a co-coordinator at Hawaii in 2020 before heading to ULM. If there is a contingency plan here, it should probably start and end with Hull, but that certainly isn’t the path ULM is walking publicly. Maybe it is privately. I have, uh, doubts about that.

Those are much larger, structural concerns though. There is a team here to discuss at least briefly, and there are some players worth watching on that team.

Leading the way is quarterback Chandler Rogers, now the unquestioned starter after the departure of Rhett Rodriguez, who played a decent chunk of the first and last three games of the season but ceded his job to Rogers after poor play in those first three (only to kind of take it back at the end of the year, I guess?).

Rogers played a lot like a young quarterback. He completed 62 percent of his passes for 1,302 yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions, leaned a little too much on short-yardage throws and struggled with pressure. Interestingly, he was good against designed blitzes – which he saw plenty of – because of his ability as a scrambler. He rushed 95 times for 489 yards (no sacks included), gaining 147 of those yards on 20 scrambles. Kubik ran quarterback Caleb Evans a ton in 2019 and could have similar success here with Rogers.

The rushing attack writ large should be pretty good. Top halfback Andrew Henry is returning after rushing 131 times for 485 yards, as is No. 2 ball carrier Malik Jackson (80 carries, 451 yards). The offensive line is going to be an issue because of its general talent level, but ULM was largely able to make it work last year despite that, and should be able to do so again.

I’m less sure of the passing attack, but very good slot wideout Boogie Knight is returning, as is Will Derrick, though no one else really popped. Howell could be a big boost with his 6-3 frame, which ULM was lacking on the outside in 2021, but an improvement to average would be a big step in the right direction for this passing attack, especially with how much it struggled with keeping quarterbacks upright.

The defense offers far less to be excited about.

Cornerback Josh Newton was awesome in coverage in 2021 and he’s been tweeting like someone returning despite being listed as a portal entry at 247Sports, so we’ll assume he’s back – but Mark Williams, who started opposite him and was also solid, is off to the draft. Nick Roberts played plenty and should be able to replace him pretty well. Safety Kevin Jones seems to be returning as well, fashioning what should be the strength of the defense in the secondary.

Last year’s strength, the pass-rushing unit, is decimated. Defensive end Myles Cole (who was fine) is transferring to Texas Tech and counterpart Ty Shelby is in the draft. Very good tackle Tyrese Black is back to lead an otherwise new-look line as battery mate Caleb Thomas graduates too.

The only linebacker good enough in 2021 to mention is Quae Drake, who returns but could really use some help from literally anyone else in the middle of the defense. Any improvements ULM makes in coverage will likely be all but balanced out by a return to earth in pass-rushing, and the run defense looks like it’s going to be firmly in hell for at least another year.

With Arkansas State, Nichols State, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Texas State and Troy all on the schedule, ULM could feasibly jump into bowl eligibility, but with Alabama, Army, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Louisiana and Texas filling out the other six spots, the Warhawks aren’t going any higher than that. That feels like the outlook for Bowden’s entire tenure.

Maybe it’s fine to just be this. But as a long-term plan? In a rapidly improving league? It’s a hard sell.