Putting a winning team on the field is a more difficult task at Louisiana-Monroe than at most places in college football.

The Warhawks have finished with a winning record just once in the last 30 years, an 8-5 mark in 2012. They went 10-26 in three seasons under Terry Bowden, who was fired after posting a 2-10 record in 2023.

ULM has among the smallest athletic budgets in the FBS and is forced to play two power-conference opponents each season just to have a chance to break even. Expectations are once again low this season for the Warhawks, who were picked to finish last in the Sun Belt Conference West in the preseason coaches’ poll.

“This job, from a football perspective, is a total rebuild,” athletics director John Hartwell said. “I knew we had challenges when I took this job 16-17 months ago and have prided myself on turnarounds and upward trajectories. Getting all your people in alignment is extremely important, as is being a ‘glass half-full’ guy. Don’t look at things as obstacles, but rather as opportunities.

“… We’ve had what I would characterize as apathy around our football program in the last few years. But the proof is going to be in the pudding. You have to win a significant number of games to get the people of northeast Louisiana energized the way they need to be.”

The man chosen to be the latest architect of a proposed turnaround is Bryant Vincent, the 48-year-old former South Alabama and UAB offensive coordinator who served as the Blazers’ interim coach in 2023 following the health-related retirement of Bill Clark. Vincent coached UAB to a 7-6 record and a Bahamas Bowl victory that season, but was passed over for the permanent job in favor of college coaching novice Trent Dilfer.

Vincent spent last season as offensive coordinator at New Mexico, but jumped at the opportunity to return to the Southeast, where he spent most of his coaching career. The Kentucky native spent the offseason remaking the ULM roster, adding 73 newcomers to 51 returning players by summer’s end.

“We’re excited,” Vincent said. “We’ve got a locker room that’s exited. We’ve got a town in northeast Louisiana that’s starting to get sparked. We’ve got to improve that spark, grow it into a flame and then into a fire. Those are the necessary steps we’ve got to take.”

A West Alabama graduate, Vincent spent 24 consecutive years as a high school and college coach in his adopted home state before heading to New Mexico in 2023. He was head coach at Greenville High School and then Spanish Fort, leading the Toros to a state championship in 2010 before moving to the college ranks.

He was first tight ends coach and then quarterbacks coach at South Alabama before following Clark to UAB as offensive coordinator in 2014. After the Blazers’ program was shut down (temporarily, as it turns out), Vincent returned to Mobile as the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator under Joey Jones.

That led to a return to UAB for Vincent, who enjoyed arguably the most sustained success of his career as Blazers’ offensive coordinator from 2018-21. The revived program won a pair of Conference USA championships and three straight division titles, plus three bowl games during Vincent’s time on the southside.

Each of his stops was a building — or rebuilding — job in its own way, Vincent said. Thus, he’s prepared for what lies ahead at ULM.

“When you’ve been through all those experiences, it prepares you for this moment,” Vincent said. “And there is no doubt this was God’s plan for me to be the head coach at ULM at this time. To see where this program is at, but the potential, there is no doubt in my mind. I walked into ULM on Day 1 comfortably because I understood what I was getting myself into. I understood the necessary phases and the building blocks that have to happen first.

“And I think we’ve been able to accomplish a lot of things and put a lot of things in line that have to be done to get off the floor. … And we’re also owning what has to be done daily moving forward.”

Though Vincent and Hartwell had never worked together before Monroe, the two have been circling each other for years. Hartwell grew up in Mobile, as was AD at Troy during Vincent’s days at South Alabama and UAB.

Hartwell said he has long admired Vincent’s ability to help his teams improve, including lifting New Mexico from last in the FBS in yards per game to a Top 50 total offense in just one year. When the decision was made to move on from Bowden, Vincent quickly rose to the top of the list after interviewing with Hartwell at a nearly deserted hotel in Orange Beach over the winter.

“We spent about three hours together and I could tell, about 15 minutes in, he was the real deal,” Hartwell said. “He has a track record as a program builder. Both at the high school level and the collegiate level, he has either been the head coach or been part of the leadership team as offensive coordinator. He has taken some jobs that a lot of other people wouldn’t necessarily take, that were total rebuilds, whether it was Greenville High or Spanish Fort, his time at South or UAB and then last year at New Mexico.

“As I drilled down on him, I could tell he wasn’t afraid of hard work, he wasn’t afraid of rolling up his sleeves and going at it as a grassroots effort.”

Despite all the personnel turnover, ULM does have some intriguing pieces, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Hunter Herring and General Booty — a former Oklahoma recruit with north Louisiana roots — are among seven quarterbacks on the roster, while veteran guard Elijah Fisher might be the best overall player on the team.

Defense is much more a work in progress, with All-Sun Belt defensive end Adin Huntington now at Tulane and pass-rusher Kenard Snyder gone to Iowa State. Middle linebacker Carl Glass, a Monroe native, is expected to lead the way in 2024.

“We know the history of this program and we embrace the situation,” Vincent said. “We own who we are and we understand where we’re at. We approach every single day taking the necessary steps that it’s going to take to build this program and lay a foundation in Year 1.

“We’ve made tremendous progress in really 6 1/2 months. We feel like we’re beginning to get some momentum. And when you come into a program that’s had some tough times, there’s necessary things and there’s necessary steps that have to take place that have to happen to build that next brick, to lay that next brick, to take that next step.”

ULM opens the 2024 season at home Aug. 29 (a Thursday) against Jackson State, then remains home for what should be a highly anticipated game Sept. 7 vs. … UAB.