It wasn’t a pretty season. But what went right for Southern Miss football in 2021?
Southern Miss players watch from home and coaches listen in from the recruiting trail as the college football postseason rolls along toward the final game of the 2021-22 season.
It wasn’t a pretty year for the Golden Eagles, but fans had seen worse. In fact, despite a poor 3-9 record, there was plenty to be optimistic about regarding head coach Will Hall’s first season.
From the game plan to player personnel, here’s what went right for USM.
Adapting staff
As injuries piled up at quarterback, the losses followed suit. Southern Miss ended up with an FBS-high quarterback usage. Walk-on quarterback Jake Lange took the majority of the snaps and, at times, wasn’t all that bad given the circumstances.
In most cases, Lange would have finished out the season and the staff would have filled the depth chart with underclassmen in attempt to gain experience and film on younger players in a lost year.
Not in Hall’s case. While younger players were given more time, the staff decided to get creative in attempt to compete down the stretch instead of lie down with nothing to play for. In came the super back formation.
This had two effects. The staff showed its players it was willing to fight for a win regardless of the situation. It also worked and instantly made USM significantly more competitive over the last three games.
As an added bonus, Hall now has the super back formation in his bag of tricks for later use as a known successful package.
Emerging stars
The potential was always there for running back Frank Gore Jr. and wide receiver Jason Brownlee. There was little doubt the two would become key players for the Golden Eagles. After 2021, it’s starting to feel like a guarantee.
Gore turned in the best rushing season of any Golden Eagle since Ito Smith’s 2017 campaign. He also threw for 189 yards and four touchdowns just to showcase his versatility.
In the super back’s debut against UTSA, Gore rushed for 123 yards on 6.2 yards per carry. He has shown more than just signs of being the bruising, durable back his father was — he proved it. Gore’s power and versaitility shined on the field this season.
Brownlee improved on his 2020 season despite USM’s quarterback problems. He displayed ball skills that would place him among the elites at the position if he were given the same targets some of the best receivers in the conference get.
Though defenders knew the ball was going to Brownlee nearly every time the Golden Eagles dropped back to pass, his size and soft hands were often times too much for opposing defensive backs.
Both players have the physical makeup of being stars at the Group of Five level and were given the chance to truly flash what that could look like under Hall’s system.
Dominating defense
Dominating may not be the word you think of when you check the box score or the conference rankings for USM. But when given a chance to breathe by its offense, the defensive unit played exceptionally well.
For the first seven of an eight-game losing streak in the dead middle of the year, the USM offense routinely failed to put together a string of first downs to at least eat of time of possession. The result was the defense being run onto the field far too often.
During the final three games, however, the story was different. Defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong’s group gave up just 21 points per game against UTSA, Louisiana Tech and Florida International after allowing 34.4 in the previous seven contests.
The team forced 11 turnovers in that final three-game stretch which is the most a Golden Eagle defense has caused in its last trio of regular season games since forcing 12 in 2008.
The aggressive Jay Stanley emerged as a playmaker alongside Malik Shorts in the secondary to accompany a strong linebacker duo in Santrell Latham and Hayes Maples.
There’s plenty to be excited about in Hattiesburg on both sides of the ball. Southern Miss is also working on a recruiting class that is currently ranked No. 2 on 247sports.com.
Regardless of which conference the Golden Eagles play in next season, USM should be competing once again.
