Inside Texas community post: Louisiana-Monroe Film Study

Thanks to Inside Texas member TheRealJC25 for offering an in-depth film breakdown of the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, the week one opponent for the Texas Longhorns.

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We’re baaaaaaack!

Game 1 opponent, the ULM Warhawks, come into DKR this Saturday night as a perfect opponent to iron out the kinks before big bad Bama comes into town. I went back and watched ULM vs. Kentucky (the season opener last year) and ULM vs LSU, which was their next to last game of 2021. Problem with watching film on them from last year is two-fold: they replace both coordinators this year, and they lost their three best defensive players (two trying to make NFL rosters, and their best corner transferred to TCU) and lost former Longhorn Willie Tyler (their best OL) to Rutgers via the portal.

Terry Bowden loves a reclamation project and is a solid coach. ULM upset Liberty last year with touted QB Malik Willis when they were 30+ point dogs. They ended the season similar to us on a five-game losing streak, but all of those games barring the Appalachian State game were competitive. They won’t have the players to compete against us, but I guarantee they will play very hard, as that was what I was most impressed with when watching tape. They never gave up and played LSU through the whistle when they could’ve given up after getting down early.

ULM offense- Spread option, OC Matt Kubik

Key players

QB – Chandler Rogers – 6-foot-0, 194-pound transfer from Blinn. He was the back-up last year and played in spots behind former OC Rich Rodriguez’s son. He’s more athletic and will look to use his legs more than Rodriguez, as we see in the clip below. Average arm at best, will definitely be best used when moving the QB and keeping reads simple. Look for waggles, lots of zone-read play-action or RPO one-read type throws. Will definitely be used to help create a plus-one in the run game as their OL will be very weak, and their run game is below average.

WR – Boogie Knight – 5-foot-10, 180-pound poor man’s Jake Smith. Transfer from Akron who was their leading receiver last year. Very smart in finding where to sit against zone coverages and very sure-handed. Has enough wiggle to make people miss if he catches the ball in space.

Keys for our defense

1. Stop the outside run game – They will run between the tackles but honestly didn’t have much success with that against Kentucky. There will be a lot of window dressing so playing our assignments soundly will be key. This will be the weakest OL we face, I want to see the front seven play cohesively.
2. Tackle well – No **** right? But they are going to try to get their QB or Knight in space. I want to see smart aggression.
3. Keep QB in pocket – We all want pass rush, but our best bet is to not have the ends race past the QB leaving room to run. Contain the pocket and let Byron Murphy and company collapse the middle of their line.
4. Better play from our safeties – Early down success from Kentucky and LSU forced ULM into uncomfortable spots on 3rd and long, like this:

Defensive players I’m most excited to see this week

1. Trio of LBs – Jaylan Ford, DeMarvion Overshown, Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey. Let’s see if this offseason hype translates to the field.
2. Barryn Sorrell/Ovie Oghoufo – Let’s see what another offseason in the program has lead to for them. Improvement shown against ULM will be nice to see, but the real test will come next week.
3. Anthony Cook at safety – Played well at star last year, hopefully his senior leadership helps this defense.
4. Ethan Burke – Let’s see it young man!

ULM Defense- DC Vic Koenning 3-3-5 multiple

Key player – MLB Zack Woodard, 6-foot-1, 238 pounds. Best player on their defense according to Bowden. Had offseason surgery and was held out of spring ball.

Their DC, you may remember, was at WVU in 2020 and let go after some insensitive comments were supposedly made. Koenning is a very good DC but doesn’t have much to work with. I imagine he will try to confuse Quinn Ewers by making the box look light, then bring down safeties to help stop the run, and vice versa. My gut tells me they will be less aggressive and force UT to go down the field in smaller chunks as their secondary is very susceptible to this:

Our offensive keys

1. Get Bijan Robinson going – I agree with Ian Boyd that our identity will be pounding it and using play action from 21 personnel as it makes us very multiple, and will take pressure off Quinn if we can set him up to make some easy reads with the play-action game.
2. Let Xavier Worthy fly – Their secondary is very weak. Let’s get X started off right.
3. Incorporate the TEs in the pass game – ULM will try not to get beat over the top, which should open up plenty of space for Ja’Tavion Sanders and Jahleel Billingsley.

Players I’m most excited to see

1. Quinn – easy pick
2. OL – Want to see how the young bucks perform
3. JT Sanders– Our TE room was very weak in the passing game last year, feel like that is about to change.
4. Young WRs – Casey Cain and Brenen Thompson.

Prediction

Gut instinct at first says we don’t cover due to too many ways to not cover a 37.5-point spread, but after thinking about it, and with Bama next, I think Sark wants to really get as many quality reps for the team and keeps his foot on the pedal even when Hudson Card and the twos get more reps in the fourth quarter. I’m gonna sip on the kool-aid and give the defense a slight benefit of the doubt. And while they won’t be perfect, I expect more aggressiveness, more pressure, and better run defense against this overmatched opponent. Barring a close game, I won’t get too high or low with the results from this game.

Texas 52 ULM 10 – Texas has 275 yards passing, 230 rushing; defense has four sacks and two turnovers and overall plays better cohesive football.

Hook ’em!