Southern Miss Football

Southern Miss slammed Southern Methodist University (5-2, 3-1 C-USA) 27-3 in front of a solid crowd in Hattiesburg Saturday night to improve their record to 6-1 (2-1 C-USA).

The Golden Eagles defense, led by coordinator Dan Disch, dominated against the Mustangs, holding them to 14 first downs, 330 yards of offense, and zero points in the second half. SMU's only points came on a 19-yard Chase Hover field goal with 7:57 remaining in the first half.

Defensive back Marquese Wheaton snagged two J.J. McDermott passes for interceptions for the Southern Miss defense, including one to end a Mustang red zone possession and another that he took back for a 41-yard touchdown.

SMU was held to three points in the contest, something that had not been done by an opposing team since 2006, in a 35-3 drubbing by Texas Tech. The Mustangs were also held to a season low 173 passing yards in the game.

Southern Miss' offense scored first after kicker Danny Hrapmann notched a 27-yard field goal on the Golden Eagles' first offensive possession. On the next possession for USM, quarterback Austin Davis found receiver Kelvin Bolden in the back of the end zone to put the Golden Eagles up 10-0 in the first quarter before SMU got on the board before halftime. 

Another Hrapmann field goal came before an electric 55-yard scoring run by running back Jamal Woodyard, after the first Golden Eagle interception. Then came Wheaton's interception for a score that put the game on ice for the Golden Eagles who travel to El Paso next week to play the UTEP Miners, 4-3 (1-2 C-USA).

The Golden Eagles currently sit in first place in the East Division, with the East Carolina University Pirates. The two teams will play Nov. 5 in Greenville, N.C.

Brett Favre was directly involved with a football game for the first time since December 20, 2010.

He did not put on the pads and he was not hinting about coming out of retirement, but he was certainly talking football.

Favre worked the first televised college football game of his career out of the broadcast booth, joining Mike Morgan to call a Southern Mississippi vs. Rice game in Favre’s town of Hattiesburg, Miss..

The Golden Eagles alumni decided to make this Conference USA matchup his first in the broadcast booth with CSS-Sports.

This was a great game for the future Hall of Famer to get his feet wet with because he can provide a lot of unique angles and takes it on as a former QB for Southern Miss.

No. 4 looked a little shaky in the booth at first but did know what he was talking about. He spoke of the incumbent four-year starter, Austin Davis, and how he is breaking many of the records Favre set during his time there from 1987 to 1990.

While we do not have a full recording of his performance on Saturday, The Hattiesburg American has a great review of Favre’s calls during the game.

“Favre, who played at USM in 1987-90, sounded a bit nervous at the beginning of the telecast, but he loosened up as the game went on.

"He threw in a few football terms, like “smash route,” and pointed out errors by the defensive secondary as only a quarterback could.”

Favre is still highly coveted as an analyst even after his stock sunk a bit following the Jenn Sterger scandal and waffling comeback talk over the last few years that made him an annoyance in the minds of many fans.

“I'm not committing to a new career in broadcasting, but just wanted to support Southern Miss and check out the view from the press box,” he said in a press release.

As we have learned, however, you never know if Favre means what he says. I could definitely see him as an full-time analyst within a few years. 

After a humiliating 26-20 loss to the Marshall Thundering Herd on Saturday, the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles were nothing but dethroned from analysts' predictions that they would be future 2011 Conference USA champions.

Not only were the experts disheartened and the team shaken and frustrated, but so was the student body and thousands of fans.

And they were pointing to none other than Head Coach Larry Fedora to blame for the mess.

For most of the drives, Southern Miss kept the ball rolling and kept Marshall from scoring. In the fourth quarter and crunch time with a tight score, the Golden Eagle defense crumbled.

But to fans and those who have followed the team through out the years, this is just another fight that could have been easily won.

From Facebook posts to hearsay, many are calling for Fedora to be fired. This could be due to the fact that Southern Miss was favored to beat C-USA Champions as well as possibly progress to a relatively large bowl game. 

Southern Miss has had many struggles over the past few years being that they haven't been significantly ranked in the top 25 on any recent polling source.

Fedora received the coaching position to lead the Golden Eagles in 2008 and went on to establish one of the best winning records they have ever achieved in school history.

Yet as of late, the football program is not producing top-caliber players like it was so many years ago.

And with the Eagles' rough win against Louisiana Tech by a score of 19-17, fans are unsure if Southern Miss will prosper on the scale that was expected of them during preseason.

Fedora also explained in his weekly press conference that USM had multiple chances to shut out Marshall and it was "their game to win, but unfortunately it didn't end that way."

If anything, this fueled an already mounting resentment of the so called "unique" coaching style that was brought to the team.

Depending on how the coach finishes out this season will most likely decide the outcome of his future career as head coach at the University of Southern Mississippi.

The Beef “O” Brady’s Bowl between Southern Mississippi and Louisville will be played tonight in St. Petersburg, Fla. While you try to contain your excitement and contemplate whether you’d be better off painting a room in your house and then watching it dry, I’ll provide some keys to this epic matchup.

Enjoy.

Strength vs. Strength

Don’t be surprised if this game requires overtime tied at zero. That’s because the teams' strengths lie on opposite sides of the ball.

Led by quarterback Austin Davis, who has thrown for 2.898 yards and 18 touchdowns this season, the Southern Mississippi offense ranks No. 15 in the nation in scoring, putting up 37.6 points per game. In all, the Golden Eagles have scored 30 or more points 10 times this season.

Charlie Strong’s defensive-minded Cardinals will try to cancel out that offensive production. Louisville allows 18.7 points per game, which is No. 15-best nationally. The unit includes a pair of senior playmakers up front in ends Rodney Gnat and Malcolm Tatum, who have combined for 13 of the Cardinals’ 37 sacks, second-most in the Big East.

So, which side ultimately gives in?

Fedora, Strong Reacquainted

Once colleagues as assistants at Florida, Strong and Southern Mississippi’s Larry Fedora will reunite Tuesday night.

Fedora served as an offensive assistant in many capacities, including offensive coordinator, under Ron Zook from 2002-04. He accepted the Southern Mississippi job in 2008, after running the offense at Oklahoma State for three seasons. In his three seasons in Hattiesburg, the Golden Eagles have ranked no lower than 31^st nationally in scoring offense.

The philosophy’s a bit different for Strong, who engineered the Florida defense for eight seasons, first under Zook from 2002-04 and then Urban Meyer from 2005-09. Like Fedora, Strong has made a quick impact on his program, only he has turned Louisville into a team built around sound defense and a solid running game.

The men will bring contrasting styles to the field Tuesday night, and the first one to take the other out of his game plan figures to have the advantage.

Brown or No Brown?

With the matchup between the Southern Mississippi offense and the Louisville defense seemingly a draw, Golden Eagles receiver DeAndre Brown could be the X factor. That is, if he plays.

The junior Brown, who owns 2,166 career yards and 24 touchdowns, is the most skilled player on the Southern Mississippi team, and at 6’6”, 239 pounds, he presents a tremendous mismatch to opposing defenses.

However, Brown has played in all but five games this season because of bone spurs in his leg. He participated in two of the Golden Eagles’ final three games, but sat out the season finale against Tulsa.

Fedora told reporters on Monday that Brown’s status was not yet determined, leaving open the possibility that the receiver could be a game-time decision. If he plays, Louisville will have to contain another threat in a receiving corps that already includes Kelvin Bolden, Johdrick Morris and Quentin Price, who have combined for 121 catches and 1,730 yards.

Run First, Pass Second … or Maybe Not

It’s clear that Strong is trying to give his offense a run-first mentality. During the regular season, the Cardinals ran the ball (443) considerably more than they threw it (331), yet the offense scored four more touchdowns in the air then on the ground.

Will Strong consider altering his philosophy for this game? The numbers indicate he should, despite boasting running back Bilal Powell, who is 10^th nationally with 1,330 yards.

Southern Mississippi allows only 113 rushing yards per game, which ranks 13^th in the nation. But as good as the Golden Eagles are at stymieing the run, they are 103^rd against the pass, allowing an average of nearly 250 yards.

If giving the ball to Powell is unsuccessful early, Strong and offensive coordinator Mike Sanford might want to take some shots downfield to loosen up that Southern Miss pass defense, which shouldn’t be much of a chore. That, in turn, should open up some lanes for Powell to start gashing the defense and keeping the Golden Eagles’ offense off the field.

A Little Pregame Action Never Hurt Anybody

Not exactly bitter rivals, these two programs may have already given us a preview of what’s to come Tuesday night.

During what was supposed to be an innocent poolside dance competition on Sunday, a verbal sparring match broke out between several members of both teams, halting an event called the Beach Bash and creating some friction for the game.

The fracas had little to do with anything football-related, as an unidentified Southern Mississippi player told local media that Louisville players “started talking trash about us being in Conference USA, [that] we can’t dance … it was just stupid. We’ll do our talking on the field.”

Oh, them’s fightin’ words.

Things should be a tad more interesting now. And thank God, because for a second there I thought this was going to be a real snoozer.

The St. Petersburg Bowl this year features Louisville vs. Southern Mississippi. Louisville is -2.5 with a total of 57.

The best sports picks experts use different key handicapping numbers than the square player. Here is a preview of that game from a handicapping standpoint.

The Cardinals are 6-6 both straight up and against the spread, while Southern Miss is 8-4 straight up, but 6-6 to the number. The Eagles have gone over 8-of-11 this season.

Louisville averages an impressive 4.9 yards per rush squads usually permitting 4.0, but they get a pedestrian 7.1 yards per pass to teams that normally allow 7.2. Overall, the Cards get 5.8 yards per play to 5.4.

On defense, Louisville allows 4.0 yards per rush to teams normally getting 3.9. However, they permit a stingy 6.3 yards per pass to teams that usually get 6.9 and just 4.9 yards per play to 5.2.

Southern Miss gets 4.7 yards per rush to squads usually permitting 4.5, but just 7.0 yards per pass to 7.6 and 5.8 yards per play to 5.9.

The Eagles are tough against the run allowing 3.6 yards per rush to teams that usually get 4.0, but not so impressive against the pass at 7.5 to 6.9, allowing 5.6 yards per play squads that normally accumulate just 5.4.

Top expert pick on this game: America’s Greatest sports service GodsTips is 8-2 in college football the last 10, including 2-1 in the bowls. The first Wise Guy of the bowl season goes on the Louisville-Southern Miss side.

Wise Guy plays from GodsTips are widely accepted by virtually every bookmaker, Vegas runner, pro bettor, Vegas insider, oddsmaker, and fellow handicappers alike as the strongest pick in sports gambling. Get the winner now against the spread.

Spread betting trends (all records are against the spread): Louisville is 12-1 to Conference USA, 30-11 in non-conference, and 24-11 games after accumulating more than 200 yards rushing in their previous game. However, they are 3-8 off a spread win. Louisville is also 5-0 in the series.

Southern Miss is 2-9 after accumulating more than 280 yards passing in their previous game.

Over/under trends: Southern Miss has gone over 7-1 their last eight.