Will Hall was in a much better mood this week than he was a week ago.
As well he should have been after getting his first victory as the head coach at Southern Miss, dominant 37-0 trouncing of the Grambling State University Tigers in front of an announced crowd of 25,235 at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
Southern Miss improved to 1-1 for the season, and the Tigers are also 1-1 after losing for the first time this season.
“We’ve got to get better as the season goes along, because we’re a young football team,” Hall said. “And we got better this week a little bit.”
The Golden Eagles rode a stout running game and a smothering defense for their first shutout since 2017, a 24-0 victory over UTEP.
Frank Gore Jr. ran for 162 yards on 21 carries, including a back-breaking 51-yard touchdown scamper midway through the third quarter. Dajon Richard also showed out running the ball, gaining 76 yards on 10 runs.
“We had a great game tonight,” said Gore. “We just preach body blows, body blows, body blows, and the knockout punch will come. That’s what happened tonight.
In all, the Golden Eagles ran for 290 yards, and Hall said that will be the theme for Southern Miss offense, until the passing game can work out the early-season kinks.
“We ran the ball extremely well,” Hall said. “(Grambling) is a football team we have great respect for, and I don’t think they’ve given up that many yards rushing in a long time. That’s a credit to our O-line, credit to our tight ends and also to our backs.”
But the story of the game was the play of the defense. Southern Miss held the Tigers to just 141 yards of offense, nine first downs and made life miserable for two Grambling quarterbacks, with two sacks for 24 yards in losses.
“It was good,” said Carr, who came in late after transferring from Southeastern Louisiana, where he was a two-year started at linebacker.
“We worked really hard this week and took the positives from last week into this game. We already had a goal in our minds that we were going to shut them out. We had to get it in our minds to get the tradition back.”
Grambling only came close to scoring once in the game, driving as far as the Golden Eagle 30 midway through the second quarter. But the Tigers bogged down there, and Garret Urban’s 47-yard field goal attempt was short.
“Nasty Bunch, right?” Hall said of his defense. “We made a lot of promises when we got here. We’ve come through on a lot of them. We didn’t put our best foot forward last week, but we played well defensively.
“Our players played unbelievable. To hold a team to 140 yards, 4 of 17 on third down, and pitch a shutout at The Rock is unreal. Hat’s off to them. We were doing the Nasty Bunch cheer in the locker room tonight. It was a lot of fun.”
Southern Miss scored on its second possession of the game, driving 68 yards on 10 plays, scoring on a 12-yard pass from Trey Lowe to Jason Brownlee.
The touchdown came on a third-and-7, after the Golden Eagles converted two previous third downs on a 3-yard run by Gore and an 18-yard pass to Richard on a swing pass to the right side. For the game, USM was 9 of 17 on third downs.
“It really was (a key), and we were actually better than that for a long period of time,” said Hall. “We didn’t get some later in the game when we were playing some different guys. But I was pleased with how we played on third down.”
Southern Miss extended its lead to 10-0 on a 40-yard field goal, set up by a 15-yard run by Gore and runs of 8 and 11 yards by Richard.
Lowe was 10 of 13 passing for 99 yards, but he left the field for halftime with a slight injury and true freshman Ty Keyes came in for his first collegiate action.
“Trey had a lower extremity injury,” said Hall “He was playing well; had a nice throw on the touchdown, and I thought he looked way more sure of himself than he did last week.
“Ty came in and did what Ty does. Ty wakes up and wins. He’s been doing that his whole life. He showed some good ability to run, made some big plays with his feet. He made some real good throws, and he was on-point with some reads.”
Hall said he would have to assess Lowe’s injury before deciding on the starting quarterback position moving forward.
Keyes was only 4 of 11 passing for 50 yards, but he netted 56 yards rushing on 8 carries, and showed the ability to escape the pass rush that was his hallmark for three state championship teams at Taylorsville.
“When Trey went down, I knew I had to step up big time for the team, the team needed me, and they believed in me. The coaches believed in me to execute and get the job done. The just told me to be myself and relax.”
On the opening possession of the second half, Keyes and Gore missed a handoff, resulting in a lost fumble, but after getting the better of a battle for field position, Gore put his stamp on the game.
Taking over at the Golden Eagle 42, Gore took a third-and-4 play around right tackle, broke into the open field and dashed 51 yards for a touchdown.
“It was a play I’ve been asking Coach to call all game, and he finally called it,” said Gore. “The O-line blocked it right. I just saw one guy, I made him miss and took off to score the touchdown.”
Southern Miss extended its lead on another field goal by Bourgeois, this from 25 yards out. That was the biggest criticism Hall had about his offense. The Golden Eagles were 4 of 4 on red-zone chances, but two of those only resulted in field goals.
“I was embarrassed at how we played in the red zone,” Hall said. “We should have done better in the red zone. I’m a little disappointed in that.”
Nevertheless, the second half was something offensive clinic for the Golden Eagles, as they scored on five consecutive possessions.
Richard scored on a 27-yard run early in the fourth quarter, Bourgeois added another field goal from 34 yards out and Keyes capped the scoring with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jakarius Caston.
“We said when we got here that we were going to build a program that is first class,” said Hall. “We didn’t do that in the first game. I take that personally.
“People tell me, ‘You’ve got to put that behind you.’ Look, I’ll never put that behind me. It’s not OK to lose a game that way. We’re going to lose again; that’s just part of life. But the way we lost is not acceptable. And we were much better this week.”
Southern Miss will be back at home next week to take on Troy University. Kickoff next Saturday is scheduled for 6 p.m.
