Southern Miss exorcises demons, posts huge home victory over Northwestern State
Southern Miss splashed into the win column in a big way with a 64-10 win over Northwestern State on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles (1-2) found the end zone four times in the second quarter and rode a suffocating defense to their largest victory under head coach Will Hall.
“Defensively, we played lights out,” Hall said after the game. “Offensively, we had a really explosive day. We had 588 yards on 71 snaps where we played everyone on our team.”
Quarterbacks Zach Wilcke and Ty Keyes alternated drives throughout the first half, and both led multiple scoring drives. Wilcke played exclusively in the first half and threw for 102 yards.
Keyes was mixed in over both halves and hit on multiple big plays, throwing touchdowns of 48, 89 and 58 yards.
The Nasty Bunch defense did not allow a first down for the first 23 minutes of the game and kept the Demons out of the red zone until late in the third quarter.
It was the first time Southern Miss scored at least 60 points in a game since putting 66 on Charlotte in 2017.
Quarterback battle continues
Two quarterbacks took center stage at The Rock, both dressed in Black and Gold. Wilcke got the start while Keyes was mixed in behind center.
Wilcke, a true freshman, completed nine of his 18 pass attempts and threw a seven yard touchdown to Jakarius Caston. Keyes only attempted nine passes, but completed six of them and three were touchdowns of 40 or more yards.
Neither threw an interception and, for the first time in the Hall era, USM didn’t have a single turnover.
“We had no turnovers, that’s a huge step in the right direction,” Hall said. “With our main guys that played, I didn’t think we had any critical errors that cost us. It was good to see us play a lot of kids and see us execute the way we can execute. We didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Caston was the primary benefactor of Hall’s two-quarterback system, catching six passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns.
Caston caught a touchdown pass from each quarterback.
“We do that at practice anyway, so it wasn’t really nothing special,” Caston said about having two quarterbacks throw his way. “We go with almost all the quarterbacks, not just one... You can have a favorite, but you got to get used to everybody. You got to play with everybody. It was really normal.”
When asked who the starting quarterback would be going forward, Hall replied he didn’t know just yet and that they still had a week of practice ahead to figure that out.
Keyes was the starter coming into the season and was unseated after a head injury kept him out of the Miami game in Week 2. He’s since battled back and is taking his role alongside Wilcke seriously.
“Anything to help this team win a game, I’m fine with it,” Keyes said of the two-quarterback system. “Just being there everyday for Zach and trying to help him in ways that I can. Lead the right way, on and off the field. We actually had a great week of preparation in practice, we need to carry that over to this week.”
Golden Eagles dominate field position
Relentless defense, pinpoint punting and electric punt returning led to a vast discrepancy in the average field position between the two sides.
The USM offense was treated to an average starting field position of its own 43-yard line. On the other side, NSU’s average start was its own 23.
The three phases of the field position game worked together in perfect sync between Mason Hunts’ four punts downed inside the 20-yard line, including a 43-yarder dropped at the two-yard line, the 145 punt return yards from Natrone Brooks and the 3.6 yards per play the defense allowed.
“Mason Hunt and then our punt return team, too, Natrone and Ty Mims fielding every punt, returning them back,” Hall said. “(Special teams coordinator) Greg Meyer does a phenomenal job with our kicking game and I thought that really showed.”
Aside from the effective day by both ends of the punt team, defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong’s unit was also responsible for nine points. Swayze Bozeman returned a Dominic Quewon strip sack for a touchdown in the second quarter and then Arian Gregory forced an intentional grounding in NSU’s end zone for a safety.
It was an especially important and emotional day for Armstrong, whose mother passed away earlier in the week.
“That’s not an easy thing to go through, that’s not an easy day to handle,” Hall said. “There’s a lot of kids here that count on him, you know what I mean? That’s what this world needs, is more Austin Armstrongs. We need more people who, when times are hard, they’re still there for everybody that’s depending on them.”
The defense allowed only eight first downs, and the front seven gave up just 0.8 yards per carry. Bozeman led with eight tackles, while Jay Stanley had an interception.
Northwestern State was forced into three-and-outs on six of its first seven drives. On the only drive it wasn’t, it fumbled into Bozeman’s hands.
Southern Miss will hit the road next week and face an undefeated Tulane team that took down Kansas State Saturday, 17-10.
This story was originally published September 17, 2022 at 9:37 PM.
