What we learned from Liberty’s win over Southern Miss football
The Southern Miss football team traveled to Lynchburg, Virginia, without interim head coach Scotty Walden and starting quarterback Jack Abraham, and headed home with a 56-35 loss to Liberty on Saturday.
A big game by Liberty quarterback Malik Willis, an Auburn transfer, helped the Flames hold off a second-half rally by the Golden Eagles and improve to 6-0. The redshirt junior completed 24 of 31 passes for 345 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions. On the ground, he carried 12 times for 97 yards and a TD.
Southern Miss drops to 1-4 ahead of its return to Conference USA play at 2 p.m. Oct. 31 against Rice.
The road gets much tougher for Hugh Freeze’s Liberty squad with No. 19 Virginia Tech next up in Blacksburg on Nov. 7.
USM football attempted rally
The game appeared headed to a blowout with Liberty leading 35-7 at the half, but a forced fumble on a sack by Santrell Latham sparked a 21-0 run by the Golden Eagles in the third quarter.
USM redshirt sophomore quarterback Tate Whatley followed the turnover with a 16-yard TD run. Next, USM chased down a squib kick on the ensuing kickoff to earn a first down at the Liberty 35.
Eight plays later, Whatley punched it in from 1 yard out.
After the USM defense forced a punt on the next Liberty possession, USM went 94 yards on 13 plays and Whatley delivered another TD on a 4-yard run to cut the Liberty lead to 35-28 with 4:34 left in the third quarter.
The USM offense failed to get much going after that. A fourth-quarter interception thrown by Whatley and a failed fake punt in USM territory allowed Liberty to close out the victory.
Three missing for Southern Miss
USM was led by assistant head coach Tim Billings on Saturday with Walden back in Hattiesburg after testing positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
It was Billings’ first game as a head coach since the 2005 season when he wrapped a six-year run as the head coach at Southeast Missouri State.
Senior receiver Tim Jones, who has battled a hamstring injury since since the second game of the season, also did not make the trip to Liberty on Saturday.
Abraham was sidelined with an illness, but he’s expected to return in time for the Rice game.
Tate Whatley fills in for Jack Abraham
Whatley got the call in Abraham’s place and got off to a promising start when he led the Golden Eagles on a seven-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a 10-yard run into the end zone by Whatley.
The Golden Eagles finally picked up some momentum in the second half with Whatley leading a balanced attack. He finished 15-of-26 passing for career high of 188 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
He also ran 12 times for 52 yards and four touchdowns as USM mounted a balanced attack.
The Golden Eagles had 201 yards passing and 215 through the air.
Freshman running back Frank Gore Jr. continued to build on his breakout performance at North Texas in the previous game, running 15 times for 79 yards. He now has 71 carries for 287 yards and one TD.
USM defense struggles
As has been the case for USM much of the season, the Golden Eagles’ defense didn’t play well in many aspects.
However, redshirt junior linebacker Santrell Latham had a nice game, putting pressure on Willis in the second half. He finished with five tackles and two sacks.
The Golden Eagles allowed 345 passing yards and 192 yards on the ground.
Two fourth-down conversions by the Flames also proved crucial in allowing them to maintain the lead.
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 4:12 PM.
