What we learned from Southern Miss football’s comeback win over North Alabama
For a Southern Miss football team that’s rarely had the ball bounce its way in 2020, a 24-13 victory over North Alabama Saturday provided a bright moment for the Golden Eagles and interim head coach Tim Billings.
USM (2-5) didn’t take the lead until the 12:08 mark of the fourth quarter when senior running Kevin Perkins ran into the end zone from 11 yards out to give the Golden Eagles a 14-13 lead.
Perkins scored three touchdowns, including a 17-yarder with 5:33 remaining. He ran nine times for 37 yards, barreling through the North Alabama defense for yardage after contact on several carries at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
A 38-yard field goal by Briggs Bourgeois with 1:33 remaining put the game out of reach for the Lions (0-3)
USM football rallies in the second half
Down 10-7 at the half, Billings changed his team following a sluggish start on offense that included three turnovers in the first half.
“I just told them that they’ve got to decide if they want to win this,” he said. “We’re behind and it’s all because of us. We’ve got to make the decision on whether we’re going to win or not. We’re good enough to win and we should win this game.”
Down to its third string quarterback, West Virginia transfer Trey Lowe III, Southern Miss struggled to get going early against a North Alabama program that has only been in the Football Championship Subdivision since 2018 after making the leap from Div. II.
In the second half, the defense began to consistently come up with stops and the the ground game built up steam on offense. As a team, USM ran for a season high of 245 yards on 42 carries.
USM freshman running back Frank Gore Jr. led the way with 13 carries for 103 yards and redshirt junior Darius Maberry had seven rushes for 53.
It was Gore’s second 100-yard game of the season, pushing his season total to 458 yards, and he did it while battling a sore toe.
He re-aggravated his turf toe late and had to sit out the final moments.
“He has a little turf toe and he was banged up,” Billings said. “He’s an excelling running back. Darius Maberry and Kevin Perkins had some great runs. (Perkins) willed his way into the end zone. It was really impressive. All three played well.”
North Alabama was held to 175 yards of offense.
“That’s what we’ve been wanting to do all season,” said junior linebacker Santrell Latham, who had 10 tackles and two stops for negative yardage.
Southern Miss avoided its first loss to an FCS/1-AA team since falling 34-24 to Northeastern Louisiana in 1987.
USM next plays at Western Kentucky at 2:30 pm. On Nov. 7.
Trey Lowe III gets his shot at QB for USM
Lowe showed the ability to scramble for yardage, but he never quite connected on passes well down field.
He threw a pair of interceptions — one in the first half and another in the second — and completed 12 of 20 passes for 100 yards.
On the ground, he ran 10 times for 31 yards with a long of 12.
“I think he handled it well. He made a couple of mistakes, but he progressed from a week ago,” Billings said of Lowe. “I think he commanded the offense pretty well. He made a couple of mistakes, but the running backs made mistakes and the offensive linemen had penalties that stopped drives. The defense won the game for us, and that’s a good thing.”
The 6-foot-2, 218-pound Lowe arrived as a graduate transfer during the summer, making him immediately eligible to play this season.
Lowe used only one year of eligibility at West Virginia in 2019, playing in five games. He saw eight plays on offense and pitched in on special teams.
Southern Miss down several key players
Southern Miss was working without several key players on offense, including redshirt senior quarterback Jack Abraham, who took a hard hit in the second quarter of a 30-6 defeat to Rice last week and hasn’t played since.
Abraham’s backup, redshirt sophomore Tate Whatley, was unavailable for the second consecutive week after taking a hit up high at the end of the 56-35 loss at Liberty on Oct. 24.
Billings said that both Whatley and Abraham are in concussion protocol, but he expected both to return for the WKU game.
“Both were on the sideline and we plan to have them both there next week,” Billings said. “I think they’re ready to get back. I think the whole team is ready for them to get back. I’m excited to have more than one quarterback to play next week.”
Senior receiver Tim Jones was dressed out, but he did not touch the field on Saturday. He saw his first action since Sept. 19 against Rice last week.
Junior center Trace Clopton played on Saturday for the first since Sept. 26 at Tulane. He replaced redshirt freshman Louis Smith, who had played well in his place the three previous games.
Redshirt junior defensive tackle Tahj Sykes did play on Saturday after leaving the Rice game with an injury. He had a tackle and one quarterback hurry.
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 6:13 PM.
