Eye on the Prize: ULM enters bye week with historic momentum

MONROE, La. ( KTVE/KARD ) — The ULM Warhawks have this community beaming with joy!

Week after week–the ULM Warhawks continue to turn heads–upsets over UAB, Troy and James Madison–it seems to get better and better each time.

But it hasn’t just been upset wins for the Warhawks–giving Warhawk Football a new personality.

Bryant Vincent and company continue to make history with each win–the first homecoming win since 2016, the first 5-1 start since 1987–I could keep going and going–but that is what this team came in to do.

“We recruited this team to come in here and make history. We recruited this team to come in here and change the program and we own that mission,” Vincent said. “We were up front with every kid we brought into this program that there was one mission, and it was to turn this program around and to make history and to do things that have never been done.”

The ULM Warhawks continue their hot streak with a win over Southern Miss heading into a bye week.

The win puts this team one step closer to where they ultimately want to be, but it also presents another opportunity to do something else special.

“Every Saturday moving forward, we have an opportunity to make history,” said Vincent. “Saturday, we won the first homecoming game since 2016. We beat Southern Miss for the first time at home. We were able to be 5-1 for the first time since 1987. Right now, we are 4-0 at home. That next win, that 6th win gives us the opportunity to make history for the second bowl appearance, ever, which then gives us the opportunity to be the first team who has won a bowl game and be a bowl champion and we are still in this West race. We are 3-0 in conference. Right now, we are in first place in the West. Yeah, we are tied with Lafayette, which is good, and Texas State, but we have the opportunity in front of us to win the West and to play for a conference championship.”

What this team has been able to accomplish through 6 games this season has been nothing short of incredible.

They have put themselves in a position to do more special things–the question now–what do they do with this opportunity?

“We have positioned ourselves here at 5-1 and in this position, what are we going to do now?” Vincent said. “How are we going to approach today? How are we going to practice the next day? How are we going to handle the road? We’ve got to be road warriors. We’ve got to go on the road and play South Alabama. We have to go on the road and go to Marshall that has one of the highest winning home percentages in college football. We’ve got to play a great Texas State team at home. We’ve got to go to an SEC opponent and go to Jordan-Hare and play Auburn. There’s a lot of tough challenges ahead. That’s why we have to get tougher.”

Continuing to build off this success and getting tougher all starts with the work in practice.

In some cases, it takes a few years to get everyone bought in–but the Warhawks were all in from day one.

“I have been a part of several rebuilds and we challenge these guys throughout the entire offseason and throughout the summer and fall camp, I say guys, if we want to do it year one, then we have to do things year one that normally happen year two and that’s the discipline and that’s the attitude and that’s the effort in practice,” Vincent said.

But that effort and discipline on the practice field doesn’t just mean for the ones you see under the lights on Saturdays.

It is also for the guys who may not get the credit they deserve.

“Our scout teams are practicing at elite levels, and they are having fun, and they are growing and developing while that’s happening and that’s the future of our program,” Vincent said. “A lot of guys on scout team, they look at it as a negative and it’s a positive if you embrace it the right way because you grow and develop and then you are also helping prepare your offense, defense and special teams. Our level of practice in the last three weeks has been elite. In the scout teams, in the special teams and offensively and defensively and I think that’s where we’ve made our biggest steps and we’ve grown and developed. I think they are starting to embrace being a student of the game. I see a lot of our players up here studying extra film, studying their opponent more, studying the game plan more and when you spend extra time and extra effort in those things, then you have an opportunity to be sitting here 5-1.”

Vincent says over the course of the season–he has continued to see this team grow.

A team who is learning to win, a team who is learning to be lead and a team who is hungry for more.

“Our players are starting to drive this program,” Vincent said. “They are starting to lead this program. They are starting to own it. In the early stages, it’s always going to be coach-driven because they don’t know, but you have to be willing to be led and these players are willing to be led and they are taking it and running with it and if we can continue that and keep that hunger and sharpen that edge daily, we have a chance to do something in this final six-game stretch.”

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