2010 AU FOOTBALL PREVIEWS: Berry’s arrival at ULM echoes Chizik’s

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a series previewing Auburn’s 2010 football opponents. This week: Louisiana-Monroe (Oct. 2). The series will run weekly.

On the surface, it will appear that Gene Chizik and new Louisiana-Monroe coach Todd Berry are worlds apart when their teams face off in a non-conference game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in October.

Chizik, of course, is the second-year leader of the back-on-the-map Tigers who are positioned to make a run at Alabama for the SEC West crown. Berry is, well, the coach at Louisiana-Monroe, an FBS, non-BCS qualifier that typically gets its only national exposure from its once- or twice-a-year, high-priced routs against SEC teams.

Really, though, Berry is to the Sun Belt this season as Chizik was to the SEC in 2009.

He’s a familiar face replacing his former boss, having served as the team’s offensive coordinator from 2004-05 under Charlie Weatherbie.

He’s a flashback to the past, which — unlike the glory years of Auburn when Chizik was the defensive coordinator — wasn’t all that successful, but certainly seems better than the standstill under Weatherbie.

He’s an unexpected hire who has been completely embraced by his athletic director, and, in turn, the Warhawk fanbase.

“Todd Berry is the right man at the right time for ULM,” Louisiana-Monroe athletic director Bobby Staub said at Berry’s introductory press conference. “He’s here to build a winning program both on and off the field, and with the support of the entire Warhawk family, I’m quite confident he’ll be successful in doing just that.”

And like Chizik, he’s inheriting a program that wasn’t exactly in ruins.

The Warhawks went 6-6 in 2009, but failed to qualify for a bowl game and came up short against Louisiana-Lafayette in the penultimate game of the season. Both factored into Weatherbie’s dismissal.

Berry has attacked ULM’s rebuilding with a hands-on approach.

Berry, whose specialty has always been with quarterbacks, anointed himself the Warhawks’ new quarterback coach under offensive coordinator
Steve Farmer, whom Berry hired for his second stint with the program.

Less than a week into spring practice, he opened up the entire depth chart and made every player live during offense-versus-defense practice sessions.

Quarterbacks included.

“With our offense, the quarterback has got to be live,” Berry told the Monroe News-Star in March. “We can’t evaluate them if they’re not. So much of our offense is predicated on those guys making plays.”

Like Chizik, Berry helped bring the spread offense back to ULM.

Only he didn’t need a guru like Gus Malzahn; he’s implementing it himself.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Kolton Browning proved to be the most apt, leapfrogging incumbent Trey Revell, who played in all but two games in 2009, completing 121-of-210 passes for 1,739 yards, 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Browning started the Warhawks’ spring game, connecting on 12 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown.

“That’s what’s happened all spring is they’ve all had their moments — good and bad,” Berry told the Monroe News-Star. “We’ve got to obviously get that bad out of them, but competition is a wonderful thing. I think that continues to show.”

There are question marks aplenty all over the other parts of the field, but especially so on the offensive line. The Warhawks dressed just 10 players there this spring.

The Warhawks bring back two top playmakers, with workhorse running back Frank Goodin, who rushed for 1,126 yards last season, and junior wide receiver Luther Ambrose, who had 34 catches for 455 yards.

The defense will be under familiar eyes, as Berry retained coordinator Troy Reffett, who just wrapped up his first season with the Warhawks. He won’t have many familiar faces, though, as ULM, which ranked second in the Sun Belt allowing 347 yards per game, returns just four starters.

Those four — DE Troy Evans, LB Theo Smith, CB Nate Brown and SS Darius Prelow — have plenty to live up to.

ULM put four players on the 2009 All-Sun Belt First-Team defense and one other on the second-team.

“When everybody is out there, I think this defense will be very good,” Berry said. “It is a fast defense, and they are comfortable within the scheme.”

agribble@oanow.com | 737-2561

La-Monroe at Auburn
When: Oct. 2
Where: Jordan-Hare
2009 Record: 6-6
Final Ranking: N/A
Bowl: N/A
All-Time Record vs. Auburn: 0-7
Last Meeting: 2008 (AU won, 34-0, in the season opener)