Warhawks Down Texas State on Homecoming

(photo credit: Jansen A. Nowell, ULM Media Relations)

 

MONROE, La. – Backup quarterback Will Collins tossed two touchdowns in relief and ULM rushed for 298 combined yards on the ground as the Warhawks grabbed a 40-34 victory on Homecoming in Monroe Saturday night for their first Sun Belt victory of the season.

 

 

THE BASICS

FINAL SCORE: ULM 40, Texas State 34

LOCATION: JPS Field at Malone Stadium

RECORDS: Texas State (2-4, 0-2 SBC)

ULM (2-4, 1-2 SBC)

 

TURNING POINT

-With starting quarterback Garrett Smith knocked out of the game due to injury early in the second quarter, redshirt-freshman Will Collins stepped up and tossed his first two collegiate touchdowns, both later in the second quarter, as part of a 9-for-16 passing stat line with 125 yards in the air as he led the Warhawks to the victory.

-As a group, the Warhawks outscored Texas State 23-0 in the second quarter to seize control of the game.

 

HOW IT HAPPENED

-ULM opened the night’s scoring with a Craig Ford 48-yard field goal on the game’s opening drive before Texas State responded with a 75-yard drive capped off by a 17-yard touchdown pass a minute and a half later.

-The Warhawks traveled 62 yards and ended the drive with Ben Luckett’s one-yard touchdown run with four minutes remaining in the opening quarter before again Texas State answered, this time with a three-yard touchdown run of its own in the final minute of the quarter to take a 14-10 lead into the second quarter.

-Following Smith’s injury on ULM’s opening drive of the second quarter, Collins stepped in to complete the drive and notched his first collegiate touchdown – a 12-yarder to R.J. Turner that kick-started a 23-point second quarter. Collins added a 22-yard passing touchdown to Kyle Nevels later in the quarter to cap an 88-yard scoring drive.

-Luckett scored his second touchdown of the night – another one-yard run – to extend the advantage before a Ford field goal helped ULM take a 33-14 advantage into the break.

-Texas State scored 20 of the second half’s 27 points, starting with a 57-yard interception return for a touchdown five minutes into the third quarter, and then a pair of fourth quarter scores.

-Tucked between the visitor’s scores, Warhawk freshman Duke Carter tallied his first collegiate touchdown with a nine yard rushing touchdown late in the third quarter for the final ULM score of the night as they went up 40-21.

-Texas State pulled closer with a 50-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown with 11 minutes remaining to set up the interesting end of the game.

-The visitors traveled 76 yards late in the game and scored on a 16-yard rushing touchdown to pull within six points. After the Warhawks punted, Texas State took over on its own 16 yard line with 1:07 remaining. Texas State was able to move up field to its own 41 yard line, where a deep pass to the endzone was knocked away by the ULM defense in the endzone as time expired.

 

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE

-Six different Warhawks tallied rushes in the game, led by Carter’s 104 yards and Luckett’s 100 yards, for 298 team rushing yards. After previously struggling on the ground, ULM has now tallied back-to-back games over 200 yards rushing following last week’s 221 yards against Idaho.

-ULM tallied 73 total rushing attempts in the win, the most a Warhawk team has notched this century. The program-high mark for total team rushes in a game is 80 attempts, accomplished in the 1975 season under then-head coach Ollie Keller in ULM’s first season as a member of the NCAA. The Warhawks played that season as a Division I Independent following their move from the NAIA.

-ULM converted nine third down attempts for the second week in a row following a three week stretch (at Oklahoma, at Ga. Southern, at Auburn) where it converted just 11 total third down attempts.

-The Warhawks totaled 477 yards of offense on Saturday night, and now have exactly 1,000 yards of total offense over the last two weeks (523 total yards vs. Idaho). In the three prior games (at Oklahoma, at Ga. Southern, at Auburn), ULM totaled 951 combined total yards.

-The touchdowns for Luckett doubled his season total to four rushing touchdowns this season, while both Carter and Nevels, along with Collins, recorded their first collegiate scores in the win.

-Wesley Thompson led the Warhawks with seven total tackles in the win, followed by Jarred Dunn’s six tackles and five tackles each by Marcus Hubbard and Aaron Townsend.

-ULM hit the 40-point plateau for the first time in nearly three years. The last time the Warhawks hit the mark was on October 31, 2013 when they scored 49 points in a victory at Troy (49-37 win).

 

UP NEXT

The Warhawks will take a quick step out of Sun Belt Conference play when they travel to take on New Mexico next Saturday with an 8:00 p.m. CST kickoff. The game will be televised on ROOT Sports Network.

 

credit: Nick Phillips, ULM SID