ULM’s early season momentum ran dry in College Station against a rebounding Texas A&M team that finished Saturday afternoon with 557 yards of total offense.
The Warhawks’ (2-1) lone score in the 47-3 Aggie showcase came off a 24-yard field goal from Derek McCormick two minutes into the second quarter. From there, the offense was often challenged by the Aggies’ (2-1) high-level defense but seldom answered, going 1-of-12 on third downs and 1-of-2 on fourth downs.
Quarterback Jiya Wright returned to the starting role after Hunter Herring’s injury in his lone start of the season against Lamar. Wright’s 34 yards rushing led the offense on a unit defined by the ground attack through the first two games. Season-leading rushers Hunter Smith and Isaiah Woullard attempted just eight total rushes to give each running back 16 yards.
The defensive unit’s afternoon in Kyle Field resulted in just as many troubles.
After surrendering only two touchdowns in as many weeks, the Warhawks couldn’t prevent an Aggie score until their eighth drive of the day.
ULM will have Saturday off to focus on the first Sun Belt Conference game on the schedule when Appalachian State (2-1) visits Malone Stadium on Sept 30.
“We really need a bye week right now,” head coach Terry Bowden said. “We’ve had a quarterback get hurt and we’ve got some people banged up. We’ve had a tough three games and it will be a good time for us to get rested up.”
The Aggie passing game dealt its damage throughout the first half, totaling nearly 400 yards through the air to create two 100-yard receivers.
Aggie quarterback Conner Weigman proved to be rarely off target, producing just four incompletions in his outing as a starter.
“They threw the ball, they threw the ball, they threw the ball and we couldn’t get them to punt,” Bowden said.
For the third game of the season, ULM’s offense didn’t produce a 100-yard passer. Wright completed 6-of-15 passes, totaling 95 yards passing. Wide receivers Dariyan Wiley and Tyrone Howell combined for all but three of the Warhawks’ yards passing.
“I thought Jiya really handled the offense well, but they were too good for us today,” Bowden said.
Even after a game full of season lows across the board, Bowden said he is confident that his team will rebound mentally in time for the conference opener against the Mountaineers in two weeks.
“The kids will respond from that,” Bowden said. “I’ve been doing this too long. That’s why they pay you a lot of money to come out to places like this.”
