2013 Record: 6-6

2014 Las Vegas Season Win Total: 6.0*

2014 Season Win Total Picks NCAA Football: 'Over'

The Warhawks were a bit of a disappointment last year, losing two out of their last three games as their defense ran out of gas towards the end of the season. The Warhawks suffered some bad home losses last year (Tulane, Western Kentucky, and Arkansas State) but this season I see them having a better campaign overall.

The talk around Monroe is that this defense will be pretty good and they have nine returning starters from last year. Gerrand Johnson and Joey Gautney will lead this unit and if the offense can stay healthy and groom the young offensive line then this team could make some noise in the conference.

The Warhawks have a brutal November schedule and that month will be their make or break time. The Warhawks have at least three winnable road games and if they can take care of business at home they should be able to hit the .500 mark again. In fact, if Louisiana-Monroe pulls off some upsets they can compete for a conference crown and maybe go bowling.

I think that six is the perfect number for Monroe because of the questions marks they will have on offense. Defense will be key and right now what I'm hearing out of Louisiana is that the offense is clicking so I would bet this number 'over'.Again, if Monroe can find a way to win three or more road games this team will cause problems in the Sun Belt.

2014 Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks Schedule

DATE OPPONENT TIME (ET) Location Result

Thu, Aug 28 Wake Forest Monroe, La. 6:00 PM E

Sat, Sep 06 Idaho * Monroe, La. 6:00 PM

Sat, Sep 13 LSU at Baton Rouge, La. 6:00 PM

Sat, Sep 27 Troy * Monroe, La. 6:00 PM

Sat, Oct 04 Arkansas State * at Jonesboro, Ark. TBA

Sat, Oct 11 Kentucky at Lexington, Ky. TBA

Sat, Oct 25 Texas State * Monroe, La. 6:00 PM

Sat, Nov 01 Texas A&M at College Station, Texas TBA

Sat, Nov 08 Appalachian State * at Boone, N.C. TBA

Sat, Nov 15 UL-Lafayette * Monroe, La. 6:00 PM

Sat, Nov 22 New Mexico State * at Las Cruces, N.M. 7:00 PM

Sat, Nov 29 Georgia Southern * at Statesboro, Ga. 5:00 PM

All Times EST

*Season Win Total Odds from Raphael Esparza. Esparza was a Las Vegas sportsbook manager for 13 years at some of the largest books on The Strip. He is a proven oddsmaker and this is his projected total.

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