Southern Miss football escapes Texas State after trading TD passes in final minutes
Southern Miss coach Will Hall admitted a week ago the product won’t always be pretty.
That was after a scrappy, one-point win over Arkansas State and it looked as if it would ring true again Saturday during what was a suffocatingly stale battle with Texas State.
Instead, the two sides traded long scores of 50-plus yards in the final 90 seconds of a sleepy-turned-thrilling 20-14 win over the Bobcats.
Southern Miss quarterback Zach Wilcke found Chandler Pittman deep down the right sideline, who then slipped a pair of defenders and crossed the plane with 32 seconds left to give USM the lead.
That was shortly after Texas State stunned the Golden Eagle secondary with its own deep strike.
The Golden Eagles had held Texas State scoreless throughout the second half and had a 13-7 lead heading into the final two minutes of the game. Then, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, Bobcat quarterback Layne Hatcher found Ashtyn Hawkins, who raced 74 yards for the go-ahead score.
That came after multiple USM possessions in the back half of the game that reached Bobcat territory and ended without points.
The flurry of scoring came following a period of more than 30 minutes without any scoring at all.
Throughout most of the game, the Golden Eagles were stunted by quarterback Zach Wilcke’s third consecutive game of multiple interceptions, and he was temporarily replaced by Jake Lange.
A two-yard score by Janari Dean represented the only USM touchdown of the first half.
Southern Miss was relentless on the defensive front, dishing out 12 tackles for loss, though the Bobcats made 11 such stops themselves.
Hall’s “Nasty Bunch” defense came away with the game-sealing interception when Natrone Brooks picked off Hatcher with just a few seconds left on the clock.
The Golden Eagles will return home to host Louisiana on Thursday in a nationally televised contest.
This story was originally published October 22, 2022 at 7:32 PM.
