Bad news.
- Thread starter B&GBU
- Start date
This really has me down. Hattiesburg and USM has so much potential and CUSA is not the conference it once was. Sad to see teams like TCu, Louisville and Houston explode and they were once conference peers. Dissapointed to say the least. We should be Boise stateing this conference though.
Despite the Big 12 announcement, our situation is no different than it has been for the past 15 years: Find a way to dominate this terrible conference on a year-in year-out basis, or continue to be mired in the quicksand that is the C-USA conference schedule. The only positive aspect of the C-USA schedule is that it offers up a winnable game every single time our guys run out of the tunnel.
To follow the Boise State model of dominating a weaker conference, USM would have to
1. Recruit regionally for speed. Since we can't exploit California (like Boise State), it has to be Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia. I think you have to recruit the speed, train for strength, and coach the football I.Q.
2. Land an exceptional coach who wants to stay at USM.
3. Be bold and creative in our marketing. Purple Cow (or in Boise's case, blue turf).
The above roadmap is much easier said than done, when you consider that Boise State is the only school to sustain their kind of success. Still, it's a plan.
To follow the Boise State model of dominating a weaker conference, USM would have to
1. Recruit regionally for speed. Since we can't exploit California (like Boise State), it has to be Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia. I think you have to recruit the speed, train for strength, and coach the football I.Q.
2. Land an exceptional coach who wants to stay at USM.
3. Be bold and creative in our marketing. Purple Cow (or in Boise's case, blue turf).
The above roadmap is much easier said than done, when you consider that Boise State is the only school to sustain their kind of success. Still, it's a plan.
I know what you mean. It's a lot easier to just make a blanket statement like "Just win, baby" or "dominate C-USA each and every year". But when you actually break it down to a few really important things, I think we could get it done with speed, the right coach, and creative marketing.
Of those three, keeping the really good head coach is the most difficult, especially in our part of the country.
Let's give Hopson time. 4-3 with a first year head coach. His record is better or at least on par with Fedora, Johnson (obvious), and Munken's first year record. I would still argue it is a building year.
This was the year to make some noise. We lose some serious talent to graduation. I hope we can find a graduate transfer or juco qb for next season.
We have our QB of the future redshirting in Keon Howard and a QB commitment from Miami, Florida .We don't need a wasted Juco QB in our next class.
We need a starting qb for next year. Neither of the quarterbacks you mentioned will be good enough to start or win games for us next year. They might be serviceable eventually.
You realize we also have redshirt junior in Parker Adamson that is our current backup. Juco qb's rarely work out straight into division 1 unless you are Cam Newton. Keon Howard will be ready to compete in division 1 after his redshirt Season and Adamson will give Gina good run in the Springs and fall workout. Our last Juco QB from ittawamba hasn't worked out!
We need fans in the stands and more donors to the athletic department.
Ask yourself, how did Louisville pass us by so much form 2000-2004? How about TCU a couple years later? Houston in the last 3-4 years? They put a LOT of money into their programs for recruiting and facilities.
Louisville build a brand new stadium, and have since expanded it twice. They were not selling it out before they built it. We owned them. They started recruiting non-traditional recruiting areas for them, and build the facilities and positioned themselves.
Houston is right now building a brand new stadium that will allow for expansion, and an indoor practice facility. They also began recruiting better around 2010.
TCU took the success of their 2000 team and leveraged it in recruiting. Then they left CUSA for the MWC because their fans did not like CUSA. They kept recruiting and putting money into all sports. Eventually they expanded the stadium, got Big12 invite, and then started a complete tear down and rebuilding of the stadium making it way larger.
We consistently do not seem to ever even contact a lot of the local talent rated 3 stars or higher if they are contacted by any SEC team. There are still a ton of high school coaches that says they never get contacted by USM coaches. We have leveraged NOTHING EVER. We do not sell out games to anything but baseball. And we have one of the lowest athletic budgets, and athletic donations, of any school in the country. Most of our fans seem to think we should get better just because we had a good run 17 years ago.
We need larger O and D linemen too.
Ask yourself, how did Louisville pass us by so much form 2000-2004? How about TCU a couple years later? Houston in the last 3-4 years? They put a LOT of money into their programs for recruiting and facilities.
Louisville build a brand new stadium, and have since expanded it twice. They were not selling it out before they built it. We owned them. They started recruiting non-traditional recruiting areas for them, and build the facilities and positioned themselves.
Houston is right now building a brand new stadium that will allow for expansion, and an indoor practice facility. They also began recruiting better around 2010.
TCU took the success of their 2000 team and leveraged it in recruiting. Then they left CUSA for the MWC because their fans did not like CUSA. They kept recruiting and putting money into all sports. Eventually they expanded the stadium, got Big12 invite, and then started a complete tear down and rebuilding of the stadium making it way larger.
We consistently do not seem to ever even contact a lot of the local talent rated 3 stars or higher if they are contacted by any SEC team. There are still a ton of high school coaches that says they never get contacted by USM coaches. We have leveraged NOTHING EVER. We do not sell out games to anything but baseball. And we have one of the lowest athletic budgets, and athletic donations, of any school in the country. Most of our fans seem to think we should get better just because we had a good run 17 years ago.
We need larger O and D linemen too.
Alford could supposedly walk on water and was a 4 star qb. He shouldn't have even been playing qb in college. He was a db. Adamson is not going to start a game for us. Juco and graduate transfers work out all the time. Ole Miss did it with both of their last 2 quarterbacks. We will have to see what we have with Griggs next year, but he hasn't gotten his shot yet. I agree that we also need lb, dl, cb and ol from the juco ranks too.
Howard will be your starting QB for the next four years and three years minimum if Adamson wins out. I highly doubt a top rated East MS CC QB that was a former 4 star recruit will come to Southern Miss. Next!!!
Wow you are a super positive USM fan! We need more like you. I guess I am just too realistic.
Last edited:
If Hopson can land a highly skilled JUCO QB or transfer then I'm all for it but I'm going to be all for our local guy from Laurel Keon Howard who was a 3 star QB and dandy dozen and had offers from Louisville, MS State, Memphis, and Minnesota.
He's a true QB unlike Alford. Howard had 11,000 plus passing yards in high school with over 111 TD passes in his 4 years as QB for Laurel High. His Laurel High football team won the 2014 5A state championship and he was a member of the 2016 5A Laurel High basketball state championship. QB in the MS/Alabama all star game and had two passing TD's in that game.
1. We sat still.
2. Bobby Petrino.
3. Speed.
4. Big infusions of cash from Papa John's Pizza and alumni into athletic program.
1. We sat still.
2. Gary Patterson
3. Speed.
4. Once the fans start to show up, the program gains momentum.
Agreed. We were ahead of both of those programs. The biggest thing is they are in major cities. Boise State couldn't even get in a big conference and they have a national following and several huge wins on their resume.
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
Southern Miss Baseball Has Narrow But Still Doable Path To The Postseason...- Latest: CoastGuardEagle