Look ahead/look back Thursday, Part 8

By Drew Champlin

Published: July 30, 2009

Let the record show that this will get posted before midnight Friday. Just had a lot of stuff to get done today.

LOOKING AHEAD - Troy vs. UL-Monroe, Oct. 31, 6 p.m.

ULM is always one of those weird teams to me because every year I think they’re going to be good and then they fall, or vice versa. Last year I picked the Warhawks to win the league, only to see them lose their first three conference games before beating Troy in the final minute. ULM was picked seventh this year by the coaches, so not a lot is expected of them, but head coach Charlie Weatherbie was confident this team could challenge for a league championship. He got me drinking some of his kool-aid, so I’ll figure they are better than 7th place this year. The Warhawks return a lot off a defense, which is making a change to a 3-3-5 scheme, and returning offensive stars such as running back Frank Goodin and wideout Darrell McNeal. Junior Trey Revell, who came in as an injury replacement last year against Troy and marched the Warhawks down the field to win the game, will be the starting QB. He probably just needs to be solid, not a gamechanger, for ULM to be good. I’m so thankful to not be making the drive to lovely Monroe, La. this year. HERE is the NY Times Quad Blog breakdown of ULM.

Plenty of good places to read about ULM. You can go to warhawkreport.com or Warhawk Nation, and check out their preseason poll, which, surprise surprise, has a fan site picking its own team to finish 2nd behind Troy. Check out The News-Star for great newspaper coverage.

What do I think? Tough game for the Trojans. ULM always matches up well with Troy and keeps the Trojan offense in check while doing all the right things. I’d pick Troy in a close one right now. I like ULM’s talent and they very well could finish second, but it seems like early conference losses always seem to doom its season.

LOOKING BACK: ULM 31, Troy 30

I can’t bring up this game again without mentioning how my own trip got off to a weird start. Troy left Jerrel Jernigan (knee) at home and one of the first things I saw when I woke up Saturday morning was trainer Chuck Ash, center Danny Franks and linebacker Bear Woods sharing an ice bucket for their foot injuries. Franks played, but Woods couldn’t. That was a key loss for the Troy defense. We had a game chat during that game which went well, I think. Except for one imposter who was banned. At the end of the game, Sam Glusman went in for a 56-yard field goal attempt, and while he showed me he could kick it pretty far (farther than several Lou Groza watch list kickers), the kick hit the cross bar and bounced back for Troy’s only Sun Belt loss.

POSTGAME LINKS: You can read my game story and my notebook.

Here’s a pretty good play from the game