USM football hopes to break six-game losing streak Saturday
Southern Miss football will be back at The Rock Saturday looking to snap a six-game losing streak.
North Texas comes to M.M. Roberts Stadium for 2 p.m. kickoff Saturday in Conference USA action.
The Golden Eagles (1-7 overall, 0-4 conference) are coming off a 35-10 defeat at Middle Tennessee last week. USM gave up touchdowns on a fumble, an interception and a blocked punt to spoil a solid effort by their defense.
“We played well enough to win up front,” said USM coach Will Hall. “We just had some breakdowns in other areas where we have to do better.”
Although the Golden Eagles gave up seven sacks for 61 yards in losses and another seven tackles for losses totalling 15 yards, Hall was pleased with the play of his offensive line against the Blue Raiders.
“I thought it was the best game our O-line has played,” Hall said. “We had 17 first downs in the first half, which is an unbelievable number.
“A lot of the sacks were not the O-line’s fault. A few were late in the first half in the two-minute drill situation. We just have to keep working and playing right there, but we took major strides with a lot of our young O-linemen.”
The offensive mistakes overshadowed a good effort from the defense. Southern Miss allowed only 287 yards of offense, forced four turnovers and held MTU to 1 of 9 on third-down conversions.
This week’s practice schedule was altered somewhat because of NCAA rules that disallowed practices on Tuesday, which was Election Day in many locations. Hall met with the media on Monday and again on Wednesday.
“Tuesday (was) a civic duty day, and we talked about that with our kids,” Hall said. “We explained to them what an important day that is and what an unbelievable right it is to be able to vote, and how important it is.”
Hall had high praise for junior wide receiver Jason Brownlee, who had a career day, catching nine passes for 120 yards and the Golden Eagles’ only touchdown, which gave Southern Miss an early 7-0 lead.
“We’re seeing some really good improvement in some leadership skills for some guys like Jason Brownlee,” Hall said. “He’s coming along as a leader, the way he practices and works every day. We’re seeing some young guys improve daily.”
Frank Gore Jr. ran for 83 on 20 carries for the Golden Eagles against the Blue Raiders.
The Mean Green (2-6, 1-3) snapped their own six-game losing streak last week in a 30-24 victory at Rice.
“They’re a really talented team that’s improving,” Hall said. “They’re a lot like us; they lost six in a row and found a way to win. They have some talented guys that continue to get better. They give you some problems defensively.”
This will be the 16th meeting between USM and UNT in a series that was first played in 1954. Southern Miss leads the series 8-7, including wins the past two seasons, 45-27 in 2019 at Hattiesburg and 41-31 last year at Denton, Texas.
The Golden Eagles will honor the 2011 C-USA champions during the game in recognition of the 10th anniversary of their championship season.
That team finished 11-2 overall, defeated Houston in the conference championship game 49-28 and were ranked 19th in the final Associated Press rankings, the last time Southern Miss has appeared in the national rankings.
Saturday’s game will be livestreamed on ESPN+ and can be heard on the Southern Miss Sports Network from Learfield Sports (WBUV-FM, 104.9 in Gulfport).