LITTLE ROCK — Louisiana-Monroe Coach Todd Berry spends a portion of his Mondays during game weeks fielding questions from a media contingent of five local reporters.
That media coverage has grown since Saturday’s victory over Arkansas, with the addition of national media personalities like CBS broadcaster Tim Brando, USA Today columnist Mike Lopresti and Sports Illustrated college football writer Stewart Mandel.
Those are a sliver of the 30 interview requests facing Berry roughly 36 hours after the Warhawks sent No. 8 Arkansas tumbling out of the Associated Press top 25 with a 34-31 overtime victory at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Quarterback Kolton Browning’s 16-yard touchdown run has brought more attention to a program with a $2.9 million budget and from the Sun Belt Conference, which has an 11-222 record against power conference programs.
Berry said he gave the Warhawks an off day Monday,allowing them 48 hours to bask in upset of an elite SEC program.
“We can’t get caught up in all the peripheral distractions of people patting us on the back,” Berry said. “We have to make sure we’re the same guys we were seven days ago when we were a team with a chip on its shoulder and wanted some respect.”
Awaiting the Warhawks on Saturday is a trip to Auburn, Ala., where two seasons ago they were hammered 52-3 by the eventual national champions.
Auburn (0-2) is coming off a 28-10 loss to Mississippi State in its SEC opener.
Berry said it’s important for the Warhawks to turn in another strong performance.
“The only way we’re going to validate what happened this Saturday is to play well this next week,” Berry said.
Berry said his team didn’t panic against Arkansas, even when trailing 28-7 in the third quarter.
“There was a nice calmness on the sideline,” Berry said. “This is a little bit more experienced team, and they didn’t get caught up in the moment, came out and made some plays.”
That included converting 6 of 7 fourth-down plays, among them the final play in overtime on which Berry said Browning had a “a lot different options for him.”
“I don’t know if there was any magic,” Berry said. “We haven’t really changed much systematically or any of those other things. We just have a much more experienced team that’s gone through some adversity over the past couple of years.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 09/11/2012