ULM coach Bryant Vincent Talks about upcoming game against UAB
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 4, 2024
Bryant Vincent, who played a key role in the growth of the UAB football program’s success since 2014, was asked earlier this week about the significance of playing the Blazers this week. Vincent, whose tenure as the Louisiana-Monroe football head coach is one game old, began by downplaying Saturday’s game a bit.
“I think to me, you know, it's the next game,” Vincent said of the non-conference game between the Blazers and Warhawks that will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Malone Stadium in Monroe. “It's about our growth and our development. It's about where we're trying to take this program.”
Yes, it certainly is about those things for Vincent and his team. But, it’s also about much more. Vincent’s history at UAB began as the offensive coordinator in 2014. After the program was shut down, Vincent went to South Alabama, but he returned to UAB in 2018. He was the program’s offensive coordinator from 2018-2021 and served as the interim head coach in 2022. Vincent went to New Mexico to serve as the offensive coordinator after Trent Dilfer was hired as the head coach at UAB.
It’s not difficult to find UAB connections within the staff that Vincent hired in his first season at ULM. His on-the-field staff with UAB ties includes defensive coordinator/safeties coach Earnest Hill, offensive line coach Cam Blankenship, quarterback coach Taylor Dupuis, defensive line coach Davern Williams and tight end coach Brady Vincent.
Other members of his staff with UAB ties include strength and conditioning coach Bryant Novick, chief of staff Mark Modleski, director of athletic performance Clay Templeton, senior offensive analyst Jackson Holladay, senior defensive analyst Tanner Luker, offensive graduate manager Brayden Burkhardt, defensive graduate manager Yusupha Foster and director of football video operations Michael Atiyeh.
“You know, there's a lot of relationships in Birmingham,” Vincent said during his weekly press conference. “You know, we go into Birmingham at UAB in 14 and they've never won a bowl game. We go in there and go 6-6 year one and the program gets shut down. Well, the community and the people bring it back and to be able to win three straight West Division championships in 18, 19, and 20. The only conference championships in 18 and 20, beat BYU ranked 13th, which is supposedly the biggest win in school history. And then being the head coach in 22 and going and winning the Bahama bowl. I mean, I think that there's obviously a lot of great memories. I love so many of those players that I still stay in contact with, because that's what it's about. It was about our relationship with those players and those coaches and everything we made history. We achieved and did everything there that had never been done. And we're gonna do the same thing here at ULM.”
On Saturday, he will face many of the players he helped recruit to UAB. Dilfer has restructured the roster, for the most part, but there will still be plenty of familiar faces on the field.
“There's a lot of guys on that team that we signed, from their starting quarterback (Jacob Zeno) to most of their offensive line to Michael Moore,” Vincent said. “They've got great players. They've got a lot of speed, they're coached extremely well. We've got our hands full. I think it came out yesterday, what everybody informed me, is that we're a 13-point underdog going into this game. I said, well, we were ranked 134 coming into this season. I didn't really expect us to be ranked or whatever they call it, favored in any games. We like where we're at. We like that chip. Count us out.”