Sports

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

Golden Eagles prepare for Thundering Herd

HATTIESBURG— The defensive game plan for Southern Miss against Marshall is clear cut and simple.

Stop running back Darius Marshall.

The Golden Eagles (5-4, 3-2) are three-point favorites against a dangerous Thundering Herd squad on Saturday at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.

The Thundering Herd (5-4, 3-2 C-USA) are average at best on offense at 325.8 yards and 20.8 points per game, ranking 10th in Conference USA. They average only 136.8 yards rushing.

Marshall, a junior, has rushed for 1,032 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“(Darius Marshall) is their running game, basically,’’ Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora said. ‘‘He’s a good football player.

‘‘They want to be able to run the football with him. There’s no doubt they want to establish the running game.’’

Rounding out the one-two punch for the Thundering Herd is tight end Cody Slate.

The senior leads the team in receiving yards (582) and receiving touchdowns (four).

Quarterback Brian Anderson has thrown for 1,664 yards with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 58.5 percent of his passes.

‘‘Basically, their passing game is (tight end Cody Slate),’’ Fedora said. ‘‘He’s a heck of a player too. They have two guys that are really good football players. Not to take away from any of the others, but those guys are their premier guys and they make sure they get the ball to them.”

Southern Miss will counter with a defense that yields 243 passing yards and 118.6 rushing yards.

‘‘We have to take care of the football and score points, that is what you have to do,’’ Fedora said. ‘‘As long as we take care of the football, we have a good chance to win.

“Defensively, you have to stop (Marshall) and (Slate). Obviously, you prefer a team to have fewer star players. But it’s not like we can only focus on those two players and nothing.

“It feels good to know that when it comes down to a critical situation, the ball is going into one of those two guys hands most of the time.’’