MONROE, La. - The ULM football
team broke fall camp with a near three-hour scrimmage under the lights in
Malone Stadium Saturday night.
The scrimmage pitted the No. 1
offense and No. 1 defense against each other for the first half, while the No.
2 offense battled the No. 2 defense and so on. The big question mark heading
into Saturday's scrimmage was at the quarterback position.
"I'm anxious to go back and
watch the tape," head coach Todd Berry said. "All three of them (Kolton
Browning, Trey Revell and Cody Wells) did some good things, as I expected. A
couple of times they had some negative plays, but we have a few saboteurs on
offense today too - guys were not necessarily where they were supposed to be
which can be tough on a quarterback. We got them in there with all the
different groups and they got to go against the first and second team defense
so we should have a pretty fair evaluation."
Junior wide receiver Luther
Ambrose was the offensive star for the Warhawks during the scrimmage. The
speedster caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Browning and showed his
world-class speed returning a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. Brent Leonard
and Todd Muse also had touchdown receptions and Oliver Jackson returned an
interception 30 yards for a score.
"Luther certainly had a great
camp and I think he has become a much, much more dynamic receiver," Berry said.
"He has really grown and I am really proud of him. He has a great work
ethic and is somebody I have to get the ball to. We haven't really focused on
it in camp because the idea is to get evaluations on everyone and that was kind
of what tonight was all about. This was not about productivity on either side
of the football, it was about getting good evaluations and it was about getting
the young people to understand that these games are long."
Even with a lot of new faces
on both sides of the ball, Berry feels confident in his team's ability to
adjust to their opponents' scheme after having to face their teammates in
practice.
"One of the interesting things
about our team is we are very unique on both sides of the ball," Berry said. "We
tend to challenge each other mentally to an extreme degree because of the uniqueness
that both sides have. We're not completely there yet mentally, but in the same
sense I am hopeful that when we get to game time that not only will the game be
easier from a physical standpoint but also from a mental standpoint because we
do so much on both sides of the football."
The Warhawks will take Sunday
and Monday off before returning to practice on Tuesday. The players will have
their first day of classes on Monday. ULM opens the season three weeks from
today when they take on No. 17 Arkansas on Sept. 11. The game will be televised
by Fox Sports Net and kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
