College football’s preseason bottom 10 of 2010: #10 UL Monroe

Why bother ranking the bottom 10 of 2010?  Because any nitwit can come up with a top 25.  Checking in at #10 on the list is UL Monroe (6-6 in 2009, 5-3 in the Sun Belt), a football program that hasn’t been totally crappy the last few years.  Hell, they beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2007 and lost by a point to Arkansas in Little Rock in 2008.

But in seven years on the job, head coach Charlie Weatherbie never could get the Warhawks over the hump.  His 31-51 record didn’t include any winning seasons so the school pink slipped him right after the conclusion of the 2009 season.

The job now belongs to Todd Berry, whose previous head coaching experience involved leading Army to a scintillating 5-36 mark from ‘00 to ‘03.  Berry was ULM’s offensive coordinator under Weatherbie back in 2004 and 2005 and spent the last couple of seasons directing UNLV’s offense.

He inherits a team that finished a not-so-terrible 48th nationally in total offense (392.3 yards a game) and a pretty decent 44th nationally in total defense (347 yards allowed per game).  But only four starters return on each side of the ball, so duplicating those numbers in 2010 looks like it’ll be a name near impossible task.  A few BCS conference powerhouses can reload and compete after losing a ton of veteran personnel. But UL Monroe doesn’t have a bunch of former Parade All-Americans sprinkled among its underclassmen.

The personnel losses were especially brutal on defense, where three First Team All-Sun Belt performers are gone: defensive end Aaron Morgan, safety Greg James and linebacker Cardia Jackson, who was the league’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year. The good news is that defensive coordinator Troy Reffett was retained from Weatherbie’s staff, so at least the new starters won’t have to worry about absorbing new schemes and terminology.

The outlook’s a little rosier on offense, where tailback Frank Goodin returns with a great shot at breaking the school’s career rushing record. Quarterback Trey Revell is also back, but he’ll have to hold off Cody Wells and Kolton Browning in an old fashioned quarterback competition. Berry and new offensive coordinator Steve Farmer will tinker with the spread offense that the Warhawks ran last season, but the loss of three starting offensive linemen will limit how creative they can get.

Why UL Monroe is in the bottom 10:  This team will have trouble stopping the opposition.  Even with a defense last season that was pretty good by Warhawk standards, they still gave up 59 points to Texas, 38 points to Arizona State and 42 points to Troy. UL Monroe opens up the 2010 campaign with Arkansas, whose high powered offense might leave the Warhawks a little demoralized through the first portion of the schedule.  A trip to Auburn on October 2 won’t exactly boost the defense’s confidence, either.

How UL Monroe can avoid the bottom 10:  Yesterday, wide receiver Luther Ambrose finished third in the 100 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a blistering time of 10.12.  So let me state the obvious:  get Ambrose the damn football.  Reverses, bubble screens, kickoff returns, you name it.  When you’re in a non-BCS league and you’ve got one of the fastest athletes in college football, that’s a helluva weapon to have.