ULM Warhawks

By Paul Letlow, ULMWarhawks.com Online Columnist

MONROE, La. – The battles for depth chart supremacy are ongoing on most football teams, but fall camp always seems to bring out some of the most heated competitions.

With that in mind, ULMWarhawks.com asked defensive coordinator Mike Collins to identify and size up some of the top positional battles so far.

"It's the ultimate thing," Collins said. "Who can get it done in the ballgame and who can get it done under pressure? Those guys who can consistently do those things are the guys who can make plays for you every Saturday night. That's what we're looking for."

BUCK
"Logan Latin is healthy again and Collin Turner is back, so that's two guys we didn't really have at all last year," Collins said. "They're back and forth and doing some good things. We're looking for that consistency and who can get it done consistently every single day. Who can make the plays?"

FREE SAFETY
"Austin Hawley and Tyler Glass, we've got a good battle going on right there," Collins said. "Both of them are extremely talented. The plus Tyler has is that he was here for spring practice. He's not a normal JUCO kid. He and Austin both are battling for the free safety position."

WEAK SAFETY
 "The one that's really up in the air right now is our weak safety position," Collins said. "Having Luke Hedrick back, Nick Ingram back, Wesley Thompson back and Cal Kee in the mix, we've got four really good football players there. We're trying to figure out how we can utilize each one of them, maybe in a different package, because they all can do certain things a little bit better."

LINEBACKER
"When you look at it overall, our linebacker position has really been amped up. Rashaad Harding had such a good last half of the year and then carried it over to the spring. There's David Griffith and Cortez Sisco, and Hunter Smith is really doing a great job for us. And Traveion Webster. So really, we've got good competition going up and down the board right there."

DEFENSIVE END
"The number one position where we have players from the ones to the threes is defensive end. Any of those guys from the ones to the threes could go in the game and be successful. We know some can do things better than others. Who can consistently get it done in all situations? Maybe we have a substitution going that way, and it looks like what we'll have going on, just because any of those six guys could line up and play for us. That's Sam Miller, Donald Louis, Kerry Starks, Ty Shelby, Shaq Warren and Barry Howard is our junior college defensive end. Those guys, you're talking about having a one and a three. I don't know if we have a one and a three." 

A STAR SO FAR
Asked to identify a top performer in camp so far, Collins said, "I think the guy who has been the most consistent every day is Marcus Hubbard. We're glad to have him back at the position he should be playing, at cornerback. He's just doing what he's supposed to do, being smart, coaching young guys and coaching them the right way. They see him work. He does the drills hard and fast, and he's talking to them and they get the point."