Gameday: WKU defense vs. ULM offense

Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
By Elliott Pratt (@TheElliottPratt): Western Kentucky has faced questions all season about the durability of its defense. After last week’s standing performance to shut down the top ranked rushing attack in Navy, the Hilltopper (3-2) defense is licking its chops heading into Louisiana-Monroe Thursday night.
The Warhawks (2-3) are without quarterback Kolton Browning, the four-year starter and reigning Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year who sustained a torn quad muscle injury in ULM’s 31-14 loss to Tulane.
Because Browning has aspirations to coach some day, coach Todd Berry will allow his injured quarterback to remain on the sidelines to “help with the young quarterbacks”. That young quarterback could be either sophomore Brayle Brown or freshman Brian Williams. Brown substituted Browning Saturday completing 10-of-18 passes for 133 yards and two interceptions, and Williams, according to Berry, has “grasped things very quickly.”
No matter who the quarterback is in the Warhawk’s conference opener, the Hilltoppers are ready to prove they can win on the road after back-to-back home wins.
Browning’s absence will present a new look of the ULM offense, but coach Bobby Petrino and company will look
Keven beyond what the quarterback has brought to the Warhawk offense.
“We just have to go on the history of what Berry likes to do,” Petrino said. “We do have some video with Brayle Brown in there and what they executed when he was in the game. It’s a challenge for us to really understand what exactly they are going to try to do, particularly on a short week like this.”
WKU will hope to use this short week to carry the momentum from shutting down Navy’s triple-option attack. Going into the contest, the Midshipmen averaged 398 yards per game on the ground – the Hilltoppers sunk them to a mere 107 yards rushing.
But once the clock hit zero at the end of regulation in WKU’s 19-7 win over Navy, they immediately went to work on Louisiana-Monroe according to coach Petrino, who says the team didn’t even review the game film on Navy.
During a short week such as this, offensive coordinator Jeff Brohm said a team doesn’t have the time to sit on a win, so they have “kind of worked extra this week” to prepare for ULM.
Having a short week to prepare for another quarterback presents its challenges, says WKU defensive back Cam Thomas, but the defense can’t focus on just one position.
“He’s definitely a factor for their team. He’s a great player, we have the utmost respect for him,” Thomas said. “But now we just have to focus on the two quarterbacks they have…whoever the quarterback is, we still have to cover and we still have to defend the run.”
ULM, a team that entered the season as the favorites to win the Sun Belt, has struggled to move the ball on offense even with Browning at quarterback averaging only 349 yards per game so far this year, a stat good for a spot in the bottom half of the conference.
Despite those offensive concerns, the two teams have developed a bit of a rivalry that has made up the conferences best games over the years. In the last three years, ULM holds a 2-1 advantage over WKU with games being decided twice in overtime and a combined nine points.
Players like Thomas have been a part of the rivalry over the years. Thomas said the team “owes them” after ULM came back from a 28-7 deficit at WKU’s homecoming last season to win 43-42 in overtime.
With this being the last game between the two schools in the Sun Belt Conference, Berry said the players’ history between the schools will make for an interesting Thursday night in Monroe.
“We have so many guys that have been four-year starters for us and there is a significant number there,” Berry said. “At Western Kentucky, there is also a number who have been significant players for them for quite some time. We’ve had some really crazy games over the past three years.”
Thanks to Elliott Pratt for this piece. Elliott will be one of our writers for WTRT, and this is his first contribution to the site! Give him a twitter follow at @TheElliotPratt.
Stand up and cheers.