MONROE, La. -- With exams underway and the start of summer break just a few days away, ULM head football head coach Todd Berry sat down with director of media relations Alex Edwards to look back at the 2013 spring as well as look ahead to the 2013 campaign. Today is the second part of a two-part interview with coach Berry.
Q: The Warhawks will enter the season at the top of the total returning career starts and 2012 player start charts. As a staff, what is the overall sentiment knowing that you have the majority of your team coming back for another season?
A: "From day one I think we recognized that when we first got here three years ago that this freshmen class we inherited, and the ones we plugged in because it's half and half, had a chance to be a special group. Certainly it was a talented group and a group that wasn't tainted by the past. They really had a strong belief in themselves and a lot of athleticism and belief in the process. Obviously, those guys have been playing a lot of football and it kind of felt like this year was going to be the breakout year for us. I felt like last year we had the talent. I wasn't sure we had the depth and we got tested last year with some of the injuries we had. I wasn't sure we would have that breakout year. I think that last year was a breakout year for us, not necessarily in terms of the wins because the win number went up, but because I think generally the breakout comes with the confidence level of the football team in terms of their abilities to do things and how they handle certain situations. I think last year's group matured faster than what I thought it would. Obviously now, that leads us in to this year where we have a significant group of experienced players coming back. They have gone through a lot of adversities, not just individually but also together. I think that's really galvanized this team in terms of what their expectations are and how they got there. That bodes well for us this season."
Q: After an 8-5 season and the team's first bowl game of the FBS-era, the team will come into the season with high expectations from media and fans. How do you expect the team to respond?
A: "I think this group has had to grow up together. One of the things we stressed early on was not listening to the outside entities and to look around and see who you are and what your expectation is. When we first got here, the outside entities (and I'm talking about the fan base and the media), the expectations were not high. I understand that, the team does, too. Again, the outside entities aren't in recognition of who we are. For this group, I don't think that there's going to be any form of belief into what other people are saying. I just think they are going to believe in who they are. I think that was backed up by what happened after the Arkansas game last year and the publicity that they got. The validation came that next week against Auburn and we played another really talented team early in the season before their season started falling apart. They had high expectations and we played pretty well. That proved to me that this team doesn't care about what's going on outside the team. All those peripheral opponents that are outside the team you're getting ready to play are going to try to distract you from being who you need to be. I was pleased with that last year. Moving forward, this group has its own set of expectations and they are going to be higher than anyone else's, honestly."
Q: The team opens the season at Oklahoma and also has road contests at Wake Forest and at Baylor during September. What goes through your mind as a coach when you see the early season schedule knowing what lies just around the corner in Sun Belt Conference play?
A: "We know we're always going to have a challenging schedule and it's two-fold. One is from a financial standpoint in terms of being able to support the programs at the university. We're always going to have a challenging schedule because those are the ones that pay the most money because no one wants to play them. It's important for us to play those people because the ultimate goal is to be a Top 25 program and that's what we would like to do. In order to do that, you have to go out of conference and play people who are traditionally Top 25 teams. I think that over the last three years, we've played a lot of those teams and certainly they're on our schedule this year and into the future. That gives us opportunities just like Arkansas and Baylor did last year to validate where we're at. We haven't arrived yet, but it is part of making the strides that you need in order to be that type of team and I think every year we're getting closer to that ultimate goal."
Q: What are your overall thoughts about the three levels of the team – offense, defense and special teams?
A: "Offensively, we had the majority of our team back. We were relatively efficient for the first time. This was the third year in the system last season and I felt like a lot of things would start making sense and that proved true. Early in the season, we were a better offense because we were well-rounded, and that's what we needed to be. Injuries certainly impacted that and our players had to adjust on the run. I think they did a nice job of that. I think our offensive line made tremendous gains last year in terms of how they feel about themselves. It all starts there. I have high expectations for that group. You want a quarterback who has the ability to change the game, and we have that. I think our receivers have shown the ability to impact the game with their ability to make plays and changed the game with explosive play. I think running back is a position of depth, and part of that is due to injury. We have a lot of very, very experienced players back there. I think our tight end group is now a group that is geared towards what we want our tight ends to look like and do. I feel very strongly that we should make another big leap this year because we have all of those pieces in place."
"Defensively, we slipped last year in terms of what our expectations were. Some of that was due to injuries that impacted us early on. That changed the dynamic of how we do things. We were young last year, especially up front. To see the growth of that group, which are the expectations, but I think younger players improve faster than an older player would who might be at his potential and just pushing it on that curve. I think we will return to where we've been in the past, which is a really aggressive defense. We have a lot of guys with experience. It's certainly the most athletic defense we've had. Last year's group was the most athletic. This year we have experience plus athleticism. I'm excited to see that group return."
"On special teams, for the first time since we got here, we have had some continuity. Early on, it was a jigsaw puzzle because we were mixing and matching and putting new guys in there. We got the bulk of our coverage group back and our return group back. We've got some really high expectations of
Justin Manton as our kicker and punter. He's reached that point where he's really connecting with the ball right now. He was forced into a situation as a true freshman where young people shouldn't be, but because of an injury, he had to play. He's got that confidence. We'll see our special teams grow. I get asked a lot if that's going to change our fourth down mentality in terms of kicking field goals and it's not. We're still going to be aggressive in that phase of the game. Overall, we have a lot of experience coming back in that position. It should be a position of strength for us now and not one where it's been patchwork."
