Western Kentucky University
at
University of Louisiana-Monroe
3:30 PM EST
Quarterbacks: WKU is led by junior Kawaun Jakes. The junior quarterback has connected on 57.2% of his passes on the season including a season high 83.3% in last week’s win versus Louisiana Lafayette. Jakes also threw for a season high 242 yards in that game versus the Ragin’ Cajuns. After a very poor start to the season that included 8 interceptions in the 4 game losing streak to start the season, Jakes has only been picked off once in the last three games. Not coincidentally, the Hilltoppers are on a 3 game winning streak as a result. Jakes seems to have finally found his niche in this offense and has become a weapon rather than a hindrance. ULM brings sophomore Kolton Browning at the quarterback spot. Browning has completed 57.9% of his passes on the season although he only completed 46.9% versus a suspect North Texas defense last week. Browning shows signs of being a big time talent as evidenced by his 23-31 for 275 and 3 touchdowns performance versus Troy 2 weeks ago. Browning is somewhat injury prone leaving at least 3 games this season with injuries. Edge: Push.
Running Backs: WKU is led by senior running back Bobby Rainey who has 910 yards rushing on the season, good for 6th in the nation. Rainey has run for over 100 yards in 6 of the 7 games in 2011 including a 206 yard performance last week versus Louisiana Lafayette. Rainey is also the 2nd leading receiver for the Hilltoppers with 25 catches good for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns on the season. Quarterback Kawaun Jakes is the only other rusher with over 100 yards on the season (120 on 45 carries). Fullback Kadeem Jones has scored 3 times on the ground in goal line situations. Junior Keyshawn Simpson has recently become the backup running back and has 58 yards in the last 2 games. ULM has a rushing attack that is struggling to say the least. The Warhawks are only getting 135.1 yards on the ground per game and recently lost leading rusher Centarius Donald for the season due to injury. The Warhawks will rely on Browning from the quarterback spot (71 for 153 yards) and newly promoted starting running back Jyruss Edwards (77 for 298 yards) to get ULM by on the ground. Edge: WKU.
Receivers: WKU junior tight end Jack Doyle who is 1st on the team in catches after a 7 catch 106 yard performance last week versus ULL. Doyle has 30 catches for 369 yards with two 100 yard performances coming versus MTSU and ULL. Doyle has 87 catches in his 3 year career for the Hilltoppers. Running back Bobby Rainey is second on the team with 25 catches for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns on the season. Junior Marcus Vasquez and freshman Boe Brand are the only other receivers with at least 10 catches on the season though Vasquez was lost in the Indiana State game. WKU did show some new versatility with 6 different players making catches last week versus ULL with freshman Mitchell Henry making his first grabs of the season. ULM has the 62nd ranked passing game in the country with 228 yards coming in the air per game. Junior Brent Leonard is the team’s leading receiver with 46 catches for 480 yards and 4 touchdowns. Leonard has two 100 yard performances on the season. Sophomore Tavarse Maye is second on the team in catches with 35 for 455 yards and 3 touchdowns. Maye did not play last week versus North Texas. Anthony McCall, Colby Harper and running back Jyruss Edwards also have over 10 catches on the season for the Warhawks. Edge: Push.
Offensive Line: ULL has an offensive line that has led the way for 135.1 yards on the ground per game while allowing 20 sacks on the season. The line has had trouble in with being held below 100 yards rushing as a team in 3 separate games this season. The line is giving up a sack once every 13 pass attempts on the year. WKU has gotten past the trouble with its offensive line earlier in the season by fixing some of the problems with a shuffling of starters with redshirt freshman Cameron Clemons being promoted to starter. WKU runs for 164.4 yards per game on the ground with 204 on the ground versus FAU and 234 coming last week versus ULL. The yards per carry is just barely below 4 so the holes are still not quite as big but things are looking much better. The line has only given up 10 sacks on the year after giving up 28 in 2010. They should easily get below that number when the season ends. Edge: WKU.
Defensive Line: WKU is led on the defensive line by senior defensive end Jared Clendenin who has 31 tackles including 7.5 for loss to go with 3.5 sacks and an interception. Junior defensive tackle Jamarcus Allen has added 25 tackles including 3 for a loss and half a sack. Quanterus Smith and Bo Adebayo combine to bring in 37 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, and 4.5 sacks to the defensive line. ULM runs a 3-3-5 defense and gets almost all of its defensive work from a three man group. Senior Troy Evans has 22 tackles, 8 for loss, and 2.5 sacks from his defensive end position. Senior Ken Dorsey comes from the other defensive end spot with 20 tackles, 4.5 for loss, and 1.5 sacks on the season. Sophomore nose tackle Kentarius Caldwell mans the middle and has 17 tackles. 5 for loss, and 3.5 sacks on the season. Due to the depth of the WKU defensive line, WKU barely gets the nod. Edge: WKU.
Linebackers: ULM runs a 3-3-5 defense and has a quartet of linebackers that get a lot of playing time and are led by senior Jason Edwards. Edwards is the leading tackler with 58 tackles, 3 for loss, and 1.5 sacks. Juniors Cameron Blakes and RJ Young both have 21 tackles on the season a piece. Blakes adds 5 tackles for loss, 1 sack and an interception. Young brings 4 tackles for loss,2 sacks and a fumble recovery. Junior DaCorris Ford is the other linebacker and has 9 tack WKU also puts three linebackers on the field the majority of the time. Sophomore Andrew Jackson leads the way with 74 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 1 interception, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble on the season. Sophomore Xavius Boyd plays the WLB spot and has come up with 39 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, 1 recovered fumble, 1 forced fumble, and blocked a punt in the FAU game leading to a game sealing touchdown run. Senior Ben Duvall has contributed 26 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks from the SLB spot. Freshman Terran Williams has looked good in spot duty mostly out of the nickel packages adding 14 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 1 sack on the season. Both teams have outstanding linebacker corps with Edwards leading the Warhawk group and Jackson leading the Hilltopper group. Edge: Push.
Secondary: ULM runs 5 defensive backs for a majority of the snaps per game. 5 of the 6 leading tacklers are defensive backs with 7 defensive backs having at least 10 tackles on the season. Senior safety Darius Prelow leads the secondary with 45 tackles, 2.5 for loss, 1 sack and 3 interceptions. Senior Tim Taylor has 36 tackles, 1 for loss and a blocked kick from his cornerback position. Sophomore safety Isaiah Newsome has 35 tackles, an interception, a forced fumble and 2 fumble recoveries on the season. Eddie Vincent and Nate Brown round out the starters with a combined 65 tackles, 2 for loss and an interception. WKU is led by senior defensive back Ryan Beard and his 39 tackles, 3.5 for loss, and 2 fumble recoveries. Sophomore Tyree Robinson adds 29 tackles, 2 for loss and a forced fumble as well as solid coverage from his cornerback position. Junior Kareem Peterson also has 29 tackles on the season from his safety position. Senior Derrius Brooks has 30 tackles, 3 interceptions and a forced fumble on the year. Redshirt freshman Cam Thomas adds 22 tackles and an interception. Sophomores Arius Wright and Kiante Young also have given support making a combined 40 tackles. The WKU secondary is not as good as the ULM secondary but has come up with big plays in the last 3 games. Edge: ULM.
Special Teams: ULM has a kicking game that is not very impressive. Kicker Justin Manton is 5-10 for the year including 2-7 from beyond 30 yards. He is 3-3 from inside 30 yards. Aaron Munoz and Connor Fryoux have shared the punting duties but Munoz has been the punter of choice in the last 3 games with a 39.7 yard average and 7 landing inside the 20. One punt was also blocked. The kickoff returns are non-descript averaging just over 23 yards per return with a long return going 100 yards for a touchdown. The punt returns are among the worst in the nation with a 1.6 yards per return average on 12 returns with a long of 7 yards. WKU has quite possibly the worst kicking situation in the nation. As a whole, the WKU field goal kicking is 2-10 with 2 blocked kicks. Senior Casey Tinius is 1-8 with a 41 yarder the only made kick and 3 misses within 40 yards. Sophomore Monte Merrick is 0-1 with his miss from 34 yards. Freshman Jesse Roy is 1-1 with a make from 40 yards although he did miss an extra point attempt earlier in the season. Roy has been promoted to the starting job and while he attempted no field goals, he was a perfect 6-6 on extra point attempts versus ULL. Sophomore Hendrix Brakefield does the punting averaging 42.3 yards per punt with 12 landing inside the 20 yard line and 10 going over 50 yards. The WKU return team is averaging 7.9 yards per punt return with a long of 39 yards from freshman John Evans. The kickoff returns are at 25.9 per return with Evans taking one back 90 yards for a touchdown versus MTSU. Edge: Push.
Coaching: ULM is in its second year with head coach Todd Berry. Berry was formerly a head coach at Illinois State and then at Army. Berry also was the one time offensive coordinator at ULM before leaving to take a job at UNLV. WKU is in its second year with head coach Willie Taggert. Taggert went 2-10 in his first year with the program in 2010. Taggert formerly coached running backs at Stanford from 2007-2009 with Vikings running back Toby Gerhart his star pupil during those years. Before that, he was an assistant at WKU from 1999-2006. WKU is his first head coaching job. Edge: ULM.
Overall: This matchup looks very good on paper for the Hilltoppers with WKU having an advantage or a “push” in 7 of the 9 categories, with ULM only having a better secondary and kicking game. WKU dominated the 2010 matchup but was undone by a 28 point 4th quarter by the Warhawks that won the game. The WKU defense will keep that in mind during this game. The running game will be how the game is won or lost with the very talented Warhawk defense doing everything possible to stop Sun Belt leading rusher Bobby Rainey. The WKU game plan will probably be more conservative than last week versus ULL with Monroe having a much better defense. ULM must play much better than last week’s 38-21 loss to a North Texas squad that has not looked very good this season. WKU has the chance to keep momentum moving forward and spoil homecoming for the Warhawks. Success was handled in impressive fashion last week and the Hilltoppers should be able to avenge last year’s loss.
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