Senior night ended in disappointing fashion as the Red Wolves came to Malone Stadium and stole the show, winning 42-14.
A crowd of 13,427 sat in the frigid rain to bid farewell to 16 seniors, including four year starting quarterback Kolton Browning. Emotions were put on the back burner when toe was put to pigskin beginning the game.
“I appreciate the people that showed up,” said head coach Todd Berry. “I wish we could have played better for that group that did show up.”
Only five plays into the game, Cordero Smith forced an Arkansas State fumble that was recovered by the Warhawks.
This marked the 24th consecutive game the ULM defensive has forced at least one turnover.
The offense appeared to be stale for the majority of the night, including the first quarter drive after the fumble recovery.
Berry said the lack of offensive production was due in large part to having no control of the line of scrimmage.
“Sometimes when you push the envelope too much, when you press you don’t play well,” said Berry. “I don’t know if that’s accurate but obviously its happened with this group before in some games where it felt like all of a sudden it felt like they, everybody was trying so hard to play well.”
Browning finished the night 17-37 with 191 and two touchdowns. One of which came on a 59-yard bomb to Rashon Ceasar. He also ran for an additional 72 yards on 13 carries.
“We started off really slow, be we kind of started getting things together near the end of the first half,” said Browning. “We came out (in the second half) and never really got it going like we did in that one drive or couple of drives like we did in the first half.”
Even though the senior Warhawks lost the last home game of their career, they have a positive outlook on the remaining games on the schedule.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling your kind of excited to play a game, it’s senior day and you want to go out with a win,” said Browning. “It’s a bittersweet feeling but doesn’t really hit you until after the game.”
The Warhawks will have an upcoming two-week break before their next game to rest up and prepare for back-to-back road games.
They return to the gridiron on Nov. 23 in Mobile, Alabama against the South Alabama Jaguars.
