Southern Miss holds title hopes entering FAU game. Will QB Jack Abraham be available?
Thinking their Conference USA West title hopes had essentially come to an end, the Southern Miss football team limped off the field after suffering several key injuries during a 28-10 loss to Western Kentucky on Saturday.
While USM head coach Jay Hopson lamented his team’s lost opportunities against WKU on Monday, he acknowledged that there’s still a lot to play for headed into Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. game at Florida Atlantic.
“If there was a silver lining it was the result of the La. Tech-UAB game. We’ve got a big game this week and have to get ready to play,” Hopson said.
Thanks to UAB’s 20-14 victory over Louisiana Tech, USM (7-4, 5-2) is in a three-way tie with UAB (8-3, 5-2) and Louisiana Tech (8-3, 5-2) for first place in the C-USA West.
USM will play in the Dec. 7 C-USA title game under these three scenarios:
▪ Southern Miss beats FAU and Louisiana Tech loses to Texas-San Antonio.
▪ Southern Miss beats FAU, Louisiana Tech tops UTSA and UAB takes down North Texas on the road.
In the event that all three teams win, USM would get the bid because the it would go all the way down to tie-breaker No. 8, which says, “If still tied, the representative will be the team that has not participated in the championship game most recently.” USM hasn’t been to the title game since 2015 while UAB went last year and La. Tech in 2016.
▪ Southern Miss, La. Tech and UAB lose. Like the previous scenario, USM would advance to the title game thanks to tie-breaker No. 8.
The problem for USM headed to FAU is that it could be hampered by injuries to several key players.
USM’s two starting linebackers, redshirt junior Racheem Boothe and junior Swayze Bozeman, both left the game in the first half. Boothe had to be helped off the field by a pair of trainers and Bozeman was standing on the sideline on crutches at the end of the game.
The injury that’s had USM fans buzzing the most since Saturday is the one to starting quarterback Jack Abraham, who left in the fourth quarter after appearing to injure his left leg. The redshirt junior writhed in pain on the ground and later had his knee wrapped in ice.
Hopson declined to address Abraham’s injury on Monday, simply saying, “We’ll see.”
However, one source close to Abraham told the Sun Herald Monday that the Oxford native’s injury was not as serious as it first appeared and he should be healthy enough to play at FAU on Saturday.
If Abraham somehow suffers a setback between now and Saturday afternoon in Boca Raton, Fla., USM would turn to sophomore Tate Whatley, who started a pair of games a year ago and showed promise throughout spring practice and fall camp.
Hopson, who typically avoids comment on injuries, did not indicate whether Bozeman or Boothe would return anytime soon.
Redshirt freshman Hayes Maples and redshirt sophomore Santrell Latham saw time at linebacker Saturday with the two starters down. Latham finished with eight tackles and Maples had seven.
USM defensive coordinator Tim Billings admits that it would be difficult to replace Boothe, who is considered the leader of the defense.
“I thought Santrell and them came in did a good job. He’s getting better and better,” he said. “(Boothe) is hard to replace. You could see the emotions on the sideline from him and the players with him not in there. They were in shock, but they rallied together.”
Billings said that sophomore safety Shannon Showers, who sat out Saturday’s game for an undisclosed reason, will return for Saturday’s game at FAU.
As for redshirt senior receiver Jordan Mitchell, it seems that he will be limited going forward after getting his first playing time against WKU since suffering an unspecified injury on Sept. 28.
“We’ll probably get a couple of plays a game out of him,” offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said. “It’s an unfortunate injury. We were hoping to get 10-15 snaps out of him. Once he ran the deep crossing route (vs. WKU), that was it. (Head trainer) Todd McCall has done an unbelievable job of trying to get him ready. He’s done an unbelievable job of trying to play. It’s just been unfortunate for him. You really feel for him being a senior, especially the way he started out the year. He was one of the top receivers in the conference. It is what it is.
“He’s been a tremendous leader throughout the course of the process. He’s a guy that we travel him to games for just his leadership. We’ll continue to do that. Hopefully we’ll be able to get something out of him on the field. But we’re getting a lot out of him when he’s not in there from a leadership standpoint.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 2:52 PM.
