That's the real story of the trip to Malone Stadium: UL Monroe finally gets to play in front of its own fans after opening the season with back-to-back true road games against a Power 4 program and a Group of Five team that beat them by less than a touchdown. The Warhawks hung with UAB into the fourth quarter before a 43-yard touchdown pass with 9:34 left sealed it, a sign the roster is further along than 0-2 suggests.
Add in a forecast pushing 99 degrees at kickoff and this one could turn into as much a test of conditioning as scheme, especially for a Lions offense that has already had to claw back from a fourth-quarter deficit once this season.
For UL Monroe, the calculus is straightforward: get to the friendly sideline and see if a defense that held a Group of Five offense to 26 points can carry that over against an FCS opponent that's had its own scoring hiccups. For SE Louisiana, it's about proving the North Alabama win was a real step forward and not a one-off, against a Sun Belt program still hunting its first win of the year.