Here’s what we learned from FAU football’s win over Southern Miss
Florida Atlantic took full advantage of five Southern Miss turnovers to clinch the Conference USA East with a 34-17 victory over the Golden Eagles in Boca Raton on Saturday.
FAU (9-3, 7-1) will host the Conference USA title game against UAB at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 7.
USM drops to 7-5 overall and had its C-USA West title hopes come to an end with UAB’s 26-21 win over North Texas on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles may have to wait until after Saturday’s conference title game to find out where they’re headed in the postseason, but it’s seems unlikely that they’ll earn one of the conference’s top postseason destinations thanks two consecutive losses to close out the regular season.
In order to set up travel arrangements, the Bahamas Bowl should announce its C-USA participant ahead of the other bowl tie-ins. That game is set for Dec. 20.
USM and FAU are two of eight bowl-eligible out of Conference USA, joining Marshall (8-4), Western Kentucky (8-4), Charlotte (7-5), FIU (6-6), UAB (8-3) and Louisiana Tech (8-3).
USM redshirt junior quarterback Jack Abraham returned to action after leaving late in a 28-10 loss to WKU the week prior, but he turned in his worst showing of the season. In addition to four interceptions, he also had a lost fumble on a sack in the third quarter.
Abraham completed 25 of 39 passes for 182 yards as USM managed just 239 yards as a team.
USM appeared ready to make a rally when Abraham ran it in from two yards out to cut the FAU lead to 24-17 with 1:08 left in the third quarter, but that proved to be the high point of the game for the Golden Eagles. The next three USM possessions ended in a pair of punts and another interception.
Bright note
Redshirt sophomore running back Steven Anderson had his best game of the season for USM, running 11 times for 54 yards and a touchdown.
Anderson’s score game on an eight-run up the middle of the defense, pounding his way through multiple defenders and into the end zone.
Anderson’s previous best performance this season was 13 carries for 41 yards and a touchdown against UAB on Nov. 9.
Injury report
After losing both of its starting linebackers to injury in the first half of last week’s loss to UTSA, one was back on the field Saturday — junior linebacker Swayze Bozeman.
Bozeman, who was on crutches at the end of the UTSA contest, got the start and finished with five tackles.
Redshirt junior Racheem Boothe did not play on Saturday at FAU.
This story was originally published November 30, 2019 at 6:20 PM.
