JOURNAL SPORTS
MONROE – First-year ULM athletics director John Hartwell dismissed Monday the idea that the Warhawks’ athletic program should drop from the Football Bowl Subdivision’s Sun Belt Conference for financial and competitive reasons, and said he hopes to name a new football coach in 7-10 days.
Speaking at a press conference at Malone Stadium, Hartwell discussed his decision to dismiss 67-year-old Terry Bowden as head coach at the end of his third season with a 10-26 overall record that ended with a 10-game losing skid.
He also fielded a question addressing conjecture that ULM, which has had only one winning season in football since leaving the Division I-AA (now labeled as the Football Championship Subdivision) Southland Conference, should drop back to that level in hopes of being more competitive and fiscally efficient.
“Not an option. Not an option,” Hartwell said in response to a question from KNOE-TV sports director Aaron Dietrich. “We are making the commitment to be FBS, to be proud members of the Sun Belt Conference. You can make the argument – and the facts don’t lie – that the Sun Belt is the strongest Group of Five conference out there right now.”
Only ULM and Southern Mississippi are not bowl-bound among the 14 Sun Belt teams. The Warhawks have only one bowl appearance, in the 2012 Independence Bowl after an early-season upset at Arkansas.
“Obviously we want to get ourselves in that group that does regularly play in a bowl game. We want to make sure we’re playing meaningful games in November, and not just to get to six wins, but to get to seven or eight,” he said.
“It’s not realistic for me to tell (coaching) candidates every year we have the expectation of playing in the Sun Belt championship game,” said Hartwell. “I’m hoping five years down the road and we can get to that point.”
Hartwell said his belief that a coaching change was needed crystallized Saturday evening in the closing minutes of a season-ending 52-21 drubbing at in-state rival UL-Lafayette, wrapping the Warhawks’ record at 2-10.
“About two minutes left in the game … there on our sideline, and we were getting our tails handed to us, we had several guys with tears in their eyes,” said Hartwell, “and we had other guys who were on the sideline laughing. There’s nothing funny about getting your tails kicked, especially by your rival. I want us to have a team full of guys and a staff full of people where it hurts to lose.
“We have every opportunity to be successful, and I’m going to make sure this next staff gives these student-athletes the opportunity to do that.”