It’s a bit strange to see UAB heavily favored over Southern Miss at home, but that’s where the struggling Golden Eagles find themselves after a 1-5 start and a bleak loss to UTEP last Saturday. Will Hall’s Golden Eagles are a 15.5-point underdog to the 4-2 Blazers, and the numbers for the conference battle don’t line up well for USM.



UAB looks to be in contention for another West division championship in CUSA, due largely to their stifling defense that ranks top 10 nationally in takeaways and has halted the ground attack of their opponents. This is bad news for a Southern Miss offense that has yet to find any answers running the ball and has struggled to find a way to throw defenses out of stacking the box. The Golden Eagles rank 119th out of 130 FBS teams in production on the ground and Saturday will be another stiff test.



Former fifth-string quarterback Jake Lange has been the best of three quarterbacks for Will Hall in managing the offense in 2021. However, weak offensive line play has prevented real production (or protection) for a battered quarterback room. So battered in fact, that Jake Smithhart, former student assistant, was brought onto the roster and officially named the third-string quarterback for Southern Miss on Tuesday morning. For an offense that has totaled 6 touchdowns in five contests against FBS competition, a matchup against the stingy Blazers defense isn’t a favorable one.



But let’s look at the bright side. Southern Miss still ranks top 50 in total defense even after a rough outing last Saturday night. On the other side, UAB has struggled to score points and brings another run-heavy system into MM Roberts Stadium. The defense failed to meet the bar that was set through the first five games on the schedule against UTEP, but the strength is still in stopping the run. Should the defense find a way to recover and get back to what has been the bright spot of a long season in Hattiesburg, it’s no long shot that this game will be competitive.



With injuries, transfers, and youth remaining a factor, turning around the offensive woes will be an uphill battle in the second half. However, winning the turnover battle and slowing down the UAB rushing attack would likely mean this game is much closer than the two-touchdown spread is projecting. The keys to a competitive game for Southern Miss are exactly what they have been all year long, yet even more so in battle with the visitors from Birmingham. Winning the turnover margin, preventing big plays in the running game, and catching a few breaks offensively would give Southern Miss an opportunity to score an upset and win number one of the conference schedule.



On top of this, it goes without saying that the offensive line must take a step forward. Protection breakdowns on three- and four-man rushes will again spell disaster Lange and Co. For this reason, much has been made of revamping the personnel in the trenches this offseason, but for now, what you see is what you’ve got. What Hall coach has “got” is a deflated, underperforming group that holds little confidence. But a competitive outing against one of the top teams in the conference would go a long way into building some momentum for the looming offseason.

What are your keys to a win for Southern Miss on Saturday? At this point, how do you define success for Coach Hall's group?

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Rank your top 3 football positives
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And while this is true it makes me wonder what went wrong with Hopson. He was going into year 5. Should have been busting out if he had things in order . What were the biggest issues for his fall?

I'm gonna say recruiting and keeping coaches?

1. No more more excuses, the OL is pathetic. They were getting beat up front all night with only 3 or 4 DL. The Miners were also able to stop the run with only 3 or 4 DL.

2. Playcalling was atrocious. Walker can't throw, UTEP knows that, and you bring him in and run the same play 2 times in a row. That's called trying to be too cute.

3. Defense plays well, but continues to give up the big play time and time again.

4. This season is a wash and basketball starts soon.

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Sorry if this has been answered already but any new info on installing a new scoreboard at the Pete this year?

On this week's episode of To The Top Talk presented by BETUS: -Everyone made it home for Homecoming -Is using the restroom a criminal offense? -USM vs UTEP recap -Golden Eagles back at home vs UAB #SMTTT #AIE

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UAB -16. This scares me. We haven't done a good job of covering the spread this year. Winning this game would be a big upset. I hope we have 26,000 fans at this game or at least 15,000.

How? One good win over a mediocre Notre Dame. One lower level p5 win over Indiana.

....yesterday? Watkins ran a deep route totally uncovered and Hurts didn't see him. Missed an easy 6.

At this point, Southern Miss is struggling. However, there have been a few bright spots. Let's take a look at the grades I feel each group deserves.

Offense: F
No other way to describe it. The offense is atrocious. The Golden Eagles are on their 5th QB now. The OL does more standing around watching than blocking. The play selection is mind-blowing (and not in a good way). The injuries are concerning. This is laid at the feet of the HC Will Hall. He is the OC/QB Coach. Has he taken too much on his shoulders? This could possibly be the case. He went out and sold to the fanbase that this team would be better and will win now. A 2020 Golden Eagle football team who dealt with a pandemic and 3 different HC's was much better and more more competitive than this team. The team has not changed, it is still, minus a few, the same team as the 2020 group that won against FAU is convincing fashion. The offense moved the ball in that game and was productive. Offenses get better as the season goes along, this team has not. There are no excuses for not improving. This lays at the feet of Will Hall. Does he need to hire a new OL Coach to get things improving? That is a choice the HC and OC must make. UTEP did not stack the box and were able to stop the run and pressure the QB with only 3 or 4 man fronts. That is unacceptable. On a positive note, we did see the first reverse of the season. However, it looked uglly from the start and actually lost yards.

Defense: B+
The group that has a true coordinator is the group that is most improved. With multiple injuries to the LB corps, this defense has continued to play well all season (minus the Alabama game, but they were on the field a lot). Latham is the latest victim and with the recent departure of Portlock, that group is getting thinner and thinner. The secondary has a tendency to give up the big play. In 5 of the 6 contest the defense has played well enough to win. Tackling is much improved this season. Shorts is playing at an extremely high level. The front 7 has done a good job at stopping the run. There isn't much to complain about here. The big play has to be stopped or the grade would be higher.

Special Teams: B
For the most part this group has been solid. Briggs has missed some FG's and that is uncharacteristic of him. Kickoff coverage has been a mixed bag. They have played well at times and give up long returns as well. Kickoff return is the same Harrell has done a solid job returning kicks, but he has also not even got to the 25 a few times. Mason Punt, who was named to Ray Guy Punter of the week list, has been phenomenal. 3 punts downed inside the 10 is just incredible, add to that a 60 yarder, and he has earned his scholarship. He is the best player on the team at his point. That is never a good thing to say.

What do you all think?

Well…I will be the first to admit this isn’t what I expected through 6 games. I was anticipating 4-2 at the worst, based on all that I was hearing about the strength of the team being the o-line, Trey Lowe etc. My guess was that the defense would be our weakest link. I was very excited about the energy Hall brought and mistakenly equated it to winning. Our results thus far are nearly 100% related to what coach Hall inherited. If y’all will remember, Monken went 1-11 his first year and arguably had more talent than we have today. I posted Saturday that this was ELOSS 2.0, and I still believe that, but not from a coaching standpoint. This situation is different in that ELOSS ruined the players; this is that Hopson left us bone dry in depth and talent. We do have some very talented players, just not enough to win with. I’ve been a season ticket holder and Eagle Club member for 25 years, and I’m not giving up on this team. I expect though, to see measured improvement from week to week, and that hasn’t happened. So that’s my worthless 2 cent opinion on our mid year results. I am expecting BIG improvement in basketball. SMTTT!!!

Got a chance today to catch the final of 3 intrasquad scrimmages this weekend. Here a couple of notes/highlights:

Starter for the Gray team was Ben Ethridge, starter for the Gold was Drew Boyd.

Unofficial numbers for Boyd: 1 H, 2 K (both swinging), 1 BB, 0 ER
For Ethridge: 2 H, 4 K, 0 BB, 1 ER

Both threw 2 complete innings.

Tanner Hall saw a few innings of action, giving up one hit to Brady Faust and inducing a 4-6-3 double play.
-Hall made several of the true freshman look silly at the plate. You don't see many 90-92 MPH 2-seamers that move 6-8 inches in high school.

Isaiah Rhodes threw one inning of clean work, as did Justin Storme and Garrett Ramsay. Ramsay struck out the side to end the scrimmage.
Dustin Dickerson threw the final inning for the gold team and got a groundout + 2 swinging Ks after a leadoff double by Matthew Russo.

On the offensive side of things, the bats are behind the pitching (as is often the case). McGillis doubled and walked, Carson Paetow was 2-2 with a double (advanced on an error by CF), Brady Faust was 2-2 with a couple of singles, Matt Cedarburg tripled off of Hall, and Matthew Russo doubled off of Dustin Dickerson. Charlie Fischer also singled.

Defensive alignment will be all over the place as Coach Berry tries to figure out the outfield configuration and where some of the new guys can add the most depth on the infield.

Fischer and Ewing got reps in left field, Montenegro and Paetow in center, Husser and Wilks in right field.

Danny Lynch was behind the plate for the gold team and looked semi-comfortable. I don't believe he's ever played catcher consistently but they need depth there with Stanley no longer on the team. Rodrigo Montenegro appears to be dealing with some type of ailment, though I won't speculate on what it might be. He's been at fall practice dressed out and not showing any visible sign of injury so shouldn't be anything concerning. Lynch blocked several balls in the dirt and threw out Chris Sargent on a steal attempt on one of the said dirtballs.

Creek Robertson will provide good depth at shortstop and possibly allow Dickerson to see more time on the mound. The Madison Central product looks as smooth with the glove as you could ever hope for a true freshman, but his bat needs some development. In fact, several of the newcomers look the part. Collin Husser is as toolsy as advertised and is really going to push for that centerfield spot. 6'5" 200 and runs well.

Chris Sargent also made two great plays at first base - one being a diving stop to his right and tossing to the covering pitcher for the putout. His glove has really come a long way since the first half of last spring.

We'll break things down in further detail as we get deeper into fall ball.

Based on the limited sample of games played, do you think J. Lange has the skill set to be a good quarterback in college (considering that he wasn't a full time starter in high school I believe). Southern Miss football has to have a good quarterback to win. Is his arm strength strong enough?

Hopefully, we will have a good problem with 2 quarterbacks when Keyes returns from injury.

CBS says realignment of CUSA, AAC and Sunbelt to be presented Monday.