Similarly to their offense, the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks sported one of the absolute worst defenses in the nation back in 2020 before they fired their coach and pulled in Terry Bowden to rebuild the program. They went from allowing 42 points per game in 2020 to only allowing 33 last year to improve to 111th in the country. Through two games this year, they’re at 29.5 points per game.
Defensive coordinator Vic Koenning has been around the NCAA for a couple of decades and has put together a strong resume over the years. He brings a 3-3-5 system to the Warhawks that focuses on smaller, faster hybrid players to make tackles in space and shut down opposing offense’s perimeter games.