The former UAB and UNM assistant is 2-0 after assuming one of the worst jobs in the country.

The Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks are 44.5-point underdogs to the No. 1 Texas Longhorns for Saturday’s game at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium as head coach Steve Sarkisian’s program closes out the non-conference portion of its schedule against the nation’s No. 112 team in this week’s SP+ rankings from ESPN.

That ranking represents some improvement for a program that went 2-10 last season under Terry Bowden, who was fired in favor of former UAB and UNM assistant Bryant Vincent. With wins over Jackson State and UAB, Vincent has the Warhawks off to a positive start this season as he takes on one of the most difficult jobs in college football.

How difficult is it to win in Monroe?

The football program started in the junior college ranks in 1931 as Northeast Louisiana State College eventually moved to the NAIA, then I-AA, where Stan Humphries led the then-Indians to a claimed national title in 1987, the program’s unquestioned pinnacle of success.

Since making the questionable move up to the FBS level in 1994, ULM only has one season with more than six wins with a lone bowl appearance in 2012, a loss in the Independence Bowl, regularly sitting mired in mediocrity.

The amount of talent available in Louisiana arguably keeps it from ranking as the worst job in the FBS, but it’s certainly on the short list.

If Week Two’s 32-6 win over UAB was any indication, however, Vincent is already starting to move UL-Monroe in a positive direction, at least compared to Trent Dilfer’s program, breaking open a 10-6 game in the second quarter by scoring 22 straight points, including an interception return touchdown early in the fourth quarter that sealed the win.

Offense

Vincent’s background as an offensive coach made his efforts to improve an attack that ranked No. 127th in SP+ and score 17.3 points per game a high priority.

The most glaring need was at quarterback, where Vincent added Tyler JC and Oklahoma transfer General Booty, whose notable name can obscure his actual football lineage — his grandfather, Johnny, played quarterback at Arkansas and Mississippi State, and his uncle, John David, played for Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian at USC.

The searing indictment of Booty’s name in Norman was the 2022 game in the Cotton Bowl in which then-offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby opted to use non-functional “quarterback” Davis Beville as the starter in the 49-0 loss to the Longhorns, leaving fans to wonder if the backup was generally booty.

So far in Monroe, Booty hasn’t had the opportunity to dispel that strain of belief — the Warhawks have a 75-25 run split with just 31 pass attempts through two games. Booty has completed 64.5 percent with two touchdowns and no interceptions, but Vincent’s single-minded focus on running the football reveals the extremely conservative nature of his approach to running zone plays from the Pistol formation.

Perhaps that’s in part because the offensive line has given up three sacks on 18 dropbacks with each coming against UAB when Booty was blitzed. In fact, ULM has attempted only one pass of 20-plus yards this year and two passes of 10-19 yards with 23 attempts thrown behind the line of scrimmage or less than 10 yards. All five starters along the offensive line are transfers, including additions at center and right tackle made by Vincent.

And perhaps it’s in part because the Warhawks weren’t able to find much transfer talent at wide receiver, starting Dodge City CC transfer Javon Campbell, Fresno State transfer Artis Cole, and LIU transfer Davon Wells, although Campbell did have four catches for 83 yards and a touchdown in the win over Jackson State.

Where the Warhawks offense has shown some promise is on the ground, rushing for 413 yards on 4.6 yards per carry and four touchdowns through two games with the help of one of the team’s most promising young players — freshman running back Ahmad Hardy, a Mississippi product who was a late addition to the class after rushing for 2,200 yards as a senior.

Hardy went over 100 yards in his debut against Jackson State, scoring a touchdown, and then ran for another in the win over UAB on his way to 58 rushing yards. The underlying stats are more impressive with Hardy credited by Pro Football Focus for breaking 12 tackles on his 33 carries and picking up 137 of his 161 yards after contact, an average of 4.2 yards after contact per rushing attempt.

Of course, that’s also an indictment of how well the offensive line is blocking in Vincent’s preferred zone schemes since Hardy is having to achieve almost all of his production on his own.

Most notably, though, ULM hasn’t turned the ball over in two games even if the red-zone offense has been lacking, scoring just four touchdowns on eight trips inside the opposing 20-yard line.

Defense

According to SP+, the defense was just as bad as the offense for ULM last season, ranking 127th and allowing 34.9 points per game with the pass defense serving as a primary culprit, giving up 28 scores through the air as opponents averaged 8.3 yards per attempt, tied for 119th in the country.

Vincent tapped his former colleague UAB, secondary coach Earnest Hill, to be his defensive coordinator, something of a calculated risk since Hill’s primary experience is at the high school level as a head coach, a similar background to the ULM head coach.

Hill runs a hybrid 3-4 scheme with a nickel base that has held up well against the run so far, allowing 2.6 yards per carry through two games by playing with solid fundamentals — the Warhawks have allowed six runs of more than 10 yards, but none of those runs have gone for longer than 15 yards. And with two fumble recoveries and two interception returns, the defense has contributed to the team’s plus-four turnover margin.

To anchor the middle, ULM relies on undersized nose tackle Jaylan Ware, a 6’0, 285-pound junior college transfer currently ranked as the team’s top run defender by PFF. Keeping Ware on campus was likely a high priority for Vincent upon his arrival as Ware recorded 32 tackles, nine quarterback hurries, and 22 run stops last season for the Warhawks.

At Hill’s hybrid outside linebacker position, termed the Bandit in his defense, Billy Pullen is off to a promising start. From Kaufman, Texas, Pullen played at Copiah-Lincoln CC in Mississippi, where he was the MACCC Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team Junior College All-American after recording 13 sacks and 17.5 TFLs in 2023. Through two games, Pullen has four sacks and nine pressures while holding up well against the run in the UAB win.

On the opposite side, East Central University transfer Dylan Howell has been active, too, as the team’s highest-graded defender thanks to seven quarterback pressures.

The secondary is showing some signs of improvement as well behind the play of safeties Wydett Williams Jr., a Delta State transfer, and Carl Fauntroy Jr., a UAB transfer. Holdover Car’lin Viggers, an Independence CC product and a big cornerback at 6’2, 200 pounds, had the interception return touchdown against UAB and allowed two catches for 16 yards on six targets in that game.

With a tackling rate over 80 percent, the Warhawks are playing decent football defensively so far.

Conclusion

The huge line reflects the absolute mismatch presented by ULM traveling to Austin to face the nation’s new No. 1 team, but Vincent will take a conservative approach to this game, hoping to avoid turnovers by running zone plays from the Pistol and limiting Booty’s involvement in the passing game while hoping that his defense can hold up against the run facing a depleted Longhorns running back corps while potentially trying to throw enough at quarterback Arch Manning in his first start to force a turnover or two.

If the Warhawks can accomplish those goals, Vincent’s hope is that they could beat the spread by a touchdown or two and take a slight moral victory back to Monroe.