MONROE, La. -- The ULM football team returns to the friendly confines of Malone Stadium for its 2013 home opener when it welcomes Grambling State to Monroe for a 6:04 p.m. kickoff on Saturday night.
First and Ten...
• ULM returns to Monroe for its first home game of the 2013 season as it welcomes Grambling State to Malone Stadium for a Saturday night contest... It will be the third meeting all-time between the two Northeast Louisiana schools... The Warhawks own a 2-0 record in the series.
• Last season, ULM posted a 3-2 record at home, including wins over Florida Atlantic (35-14), South Alabama (38-24) and North Texas (42-16)... The Warhawks dropped last season's home opener to Baylor in a 47-42 shootout as well as falling to UL-Lafayette (40-24).
• Following the home tilt against Grambling, the Warhawks will hit the road for its next two contests... The team will travel to Winston-Salem, N.C. next weekend to face Wake Forest, followed by a trip to Waco, Texas for a Sept. 21 showdown against Baylor.
• ULM fell in its 2013 opener at No. 16 Oklahoma, 34-0, on Aug. 31 in Norman, Okla... It was the first time the Warhawks were shutout since a 34-0 loss at No. 5 Florida State to open the 2011 season... Saturday's shutout ended the Warhawks streak of 24 straight games of recording at least one score.
• ULM held the Sooners to just 124 passing yards, marking the first time since 2011 the Warhawks held an opponent below 150 passing yards... In the season finale against Florida Atlantic (Dec. 3, 2011), ULM limited the Owls to 79 passing yards.
• Senior LB Cameron Blakes led the Warhawk defense at Oklahoma as he recorded a career-high 16 tackles (9 solo, 7 asst).
• Michael Johnson, making his first collegiate start, set a new personal best with six tackles (3 solo, 3 asst) at Oklahoma.
• The redshirt-freshman trio of Justin Backus, Lenzy Pipkins and Tevyn Cagins combined to record 11 tackles in their debuts... Backus tallied six tackles, while Pipkins and Cagins added three and two, respectively.
• Senior QB Kolton Browning completed 20 passes at Oklahoma and the Mabank, Texas native now sits just 25 completions shy of becoming the new all-time leader in ULM history... Browning has 771 career completions, trailing only Steven Jyles (2002-05) who tallied 795 in four seasons at ULM.
• Last Saturday's game at Oklahoma marked the sixth straight season that the Warhawks have opened the season against a ranked foe... The streak began in 2008 when ULM faced No. 10 Auburn... Since then, ULM has opened seasons with: No. 2 Texas (2009), No. 14 Arkansas (2010), No. 5 Florida State (2011) and No. 8 Arkansas (2012).
• The road game at Oklahoma was the ninth time since joining the NCAA ranks in 1975 that ULM has played a game in the month of August... The Warhawks are now 4-5 in the month of August (since 1975)
• After facing the Oklahoma Sooners, the Warhawks have now faced eight of the current 10 members of the Big 12 Conference... The only schools ULM has not faced are Texas Tech and West Virginia.
• A total of seven Warhawks earned preseason recognition from either the Sun Belt Conference or a preseason watch list (Josh Allen; Kolton Browning; Kentarius Caldwell; Je'Ron Hamm; Justin Manton; Tavarese Maye; Isaiah Newsome).
• Last season, the Warhawks played in a FBS-high four overtime games and ULM won three of those contests... ULM def. No. 8 Arkansas, 34-31 (OT; Little Rock, Ark.; Sept. 8); ULM lost at Auburn, 28-31 (OT; Auburn, Ala.; Sept. 15); ULM def. Western Kentucky, 43-42 (OT; Bowling Green, Ky.; Oct. 20); ULM def. FIU, 23-17 (OT; Miami, Fla.; Nov. 24).
• ULM won eight games during the record-setting 2012 campaign... The eight wins were the most since the squad won nine games in the final year at the 1-AA level in 1993.
#ULMvsGSUSeries
ULM and Grambling State last met on the gridiron on Sept. 10, 2011 at Malone Stadium with the Warhawks claiming a 35-7 victory... ULM leads the all-time series 2-0 as the squad earning a 28-14 victory in the first ever meeting between the two schools on Nov. 10, 2007.
#SoonerRewind
ULM dropped its 2013 season opener at No. 16 Oklahoma by a score of 34-0 on Aug. 31 in Norman, Okla... Kolton Browning inched closer to the career completions record as he now sits just 25 completions shy of become the program leader... Browning has 771 career completions and trails only Steven Jyles, who had 795 completions from 2002-05... Cameron Blakes tallied a career-best 16 tackles at Oklahoma as he registered nine solo and seven assisted tackles... His previous high was 12 against Middle Tennessee on Nov. 12, 2011... Michael Johnson also set a new career-mark as he finished with six tackles in the contest, including one for a loss... Cordero Smith recorded the first turnover of the season for the Warhawk defense as he picked off Trevor Knight in the fourth quarter... A total of 10 different players made their Warhawk debut at Oklahoma: Justin Backus (RS-Fr.), Tevyn Cagins (RS-Fr.), Ajalen Holley (RS-Fr.), Tre' Hunter (RS-Fr.) Kenzee Jackson (Jr.), Trey Martin (Fr.), Nathan Meadors, Jr. (RS-Fr.), Alec Osborne (RS-Fr.), Lenzy Pipkins (RS-Fr.) and Diontre Thomas (RS-Fr.).
#SixteenTackles
Senior LB Cameron Blakes made his presence felt as he tallied 16 tackles, a new career-best, in the season opener at Oklahoma... His previous career-best came against Middle Tennessee in Monroe on Nov. 12, 2011... Blakes registered three tackles in the first quarter as he and the rest of the Warhawk defense kept the Sooners off of the scoreboard... At the half, Blakes had seven total tackles, before tallying seven tackles during the third quarter... He added two stops in the final quarter to finish with 16 tackles (nine solo, seven asst).
