LORMAN &8212; The Braves of Alcorn State boarded a bus Wednesday morning bound for Monroe, La. and the start of football season.

Alcorn will take on the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks tonight at Malone Stadium at 7.

This will be the first of nine road games the Braves will face in 2006.

Head coach Johnny Thomas said this season opener would feature a bit more uncertainty than most.

&8220;I don&8217;t know (what to expect),&8221; he said. &8220;I&8217;ve never played (Monroe) before. We looked at film from last year, but a lot of them aren&8217;t there anymore and a lot of the ones playing now weren&8217;t playing before. When you play a team two or three times in a row, you have that idea of where they&8217;re strong. As far as we compare, I don&8217;t know. It&8217;s hard to know these things when you&8217;re playing teams for the first time. It&8217;s hard to know with anybody for the first game.&8221;

Making things worse is the news that the Braves will be without running back Jeremy McCoy &8212; who rushed for 1,130 yards last season &8212; and tight end Tabari Lott for at least a few more weeks as medical hardship paperwork is worked out with the NCAA.

Michael Shepherd and Vernardus Cooper, who combined for 700 yards and eight touchdowns last season, will pick up the slack for the time being.

&8220;I&8217;m not too worried about the running back situation,&8221; Thomas told the Associated Press.

Monroe, coming off a 5-6 season and a first-place tie in the Sun Belt Conference, will also have question marks entering the game.

Quarterback Steven Jyles graduated and went on to the CFL after last season, and relatively untested Kinsmon Lancaster will step in for his first start.

Five of the top six Warhawk receivers from last season are gone as well.

Thomas said his biggest concern would be to see how his offensive line and defensive backs have developed over fall camp.

&8220;We&8217;ve

progressed in a lot of ways,&8221; he said. &8220;We still don&8217;t know how we&8217;re going to fare. We&8217;ve got some players out with injuries. Our starting fullback will be out, maybe one of our starting defensive backs as well. The test of our offense will be our offensive line. If they can do very well, the offense will do well. I&8217;m hopeful to see if our defense can rise to the occasion. If things go well, we should fare very well against the University of Louisiana-Monroe.&8221;

Taking on a Division 1-A opponent is always a tough step for smaller schools such as Alcorn, but Thomas said the differences aren&8217;t that great.

&8220;One thing about speed is relative,&8221; he said. &8220;If you&8217;ve got that guy who runs a 4.3 and they&8217;ve got that guy that runs a 4.6, you still might not be faster. That&8217;s up to the individual. If you&8217;ll be aggressive and be aggressive you can have some success. You&8217;ve just got to throw and catch, and block and tackl. It&8217;s the people who are able to sustain things than determine what you can do. They supposedly have better facilities, better athletes and better coaches, but we feel like we can go in there and play the game the way it ought to be played. If we don&8217;t give up the big play I feel like we can win.&8221;