Miserable Southern Miss drops 9th straight game with Senior Day loss to South Alabama
Senior Day festivities couldn’t put a stop to the piling losses.
Southern Miss (1-10, 0-7) closed its home schedule with a 35-14 loss to rival South Alabama (6-5, 5-2), seeing its losing streak reach nine games in the process.
The Golden Eagles opened the game with their longest drive of the season by time of possession, marching 75 yards over seven minutes and finishing with a short touchdown pass from Tate Rodemaker to Davis Dalton.
But Southern Miss would average just 3.6 yards per play the rest of the game while struggling to contain the Gio Lopez-led Jaguar offense.
Lopez threw three touchdowns and Fluff Bothwell’s 104 rushing yards spearheaded a balanced attack that produced four touchdown possessions of 70 or more yards.
“I was happy with the way we came out in this game,” interim coach Reed Stringer said after the game. “I thought our guys were locked in. I thought they were playing with a lot passion. I thought they were excited to be here. There were times in this game where we could’ve done some things to put us in a position to win the game.”
Rodemaker and John White alternated at quarterback for the Eagles while Ethan Crawford sat out with a lower-body injury suffered last week against Texas State. The pair struggled to build consistency despite getting the team’s first 100-yard rushing game of the season from Dreke Clark.
Though USM was down only 14-11 at halftime thanks to a 59-yard field goal by Connor Gibbs, a third quarter 40-yard strike from Lopez to Jamaal Pritchard followed by White throwing a pick-six put the Golden Eagles in familiar territory.
The loss puts USM in a tie among current Sun Belt members for consecutive double-digit losses, matching the nine achieved by Arkansas State between 1941 and 1945 (School did not play 1942-44 due to World War II).
“We’re at Southern Miss, we’re supposed to win football games,” Stringer said. “Being 1-10, that’s not who this program is. That’s not who we are as coaches or players.”
Quarterback woes find room to worsen
The first three seasons of Will Hall’s tenure at USM were marred by instability at the quarterback position. Fifteen different players threw a pass, including 11 in 2021, and the team finished bottom-third in its league all three years.
Hall brought in Florida State transfer Rodemaker to battle with the promising rising sophomore Crawford and prized recruit John White ahead of the 2024 season. The result, with one game left, has been the position’s worst season yet since 2021.
The trio are averaging just 167.3 passing yards per game and have thrown only five touchdown passes against 15 interceptions. All three figures are tracking to be worse than the winless season of 2012.
If the season ended today, the Eagles would be one of only two FBS teams since 2019 to throw at least 10 more interceptions than touchdowns.
Rodemaker and Crawford have two seasons of eligibility remaining after this year while White will retain his redshirt for the season and have a full four years left to play.
Southern Miss has one quarterback committed in the 2025 class in Pascagoula three star Silas Corder.
Interim candid on job
The results haven’t changed in the four games Stringer has been on the job, but it hasn’t been for a lack of trying.
Stringer told media following the 58-3 loss to Texas State that film revealed only one instance of a player showing signs of giving up on a play. Stringer reiterated Saturday that he’s proud of the effort the team continues to show, despite the circumstances.
“I’m proud that our kids continue to play hard,” Stringer said. “I think they do play hard. I think they played hard the whole game.”
But it hasn’t been easy for Stringer, who has been on staff since 2018. The former 2012 Sun Belt Conference recruiter of the year winner was emotional after the game when opening up on taking over the program he has helped guide for the last 82 games.
“Ultimately, yeah, we’d love to go out there and win games,” Stringer said while fighting back emotions. “The truth of it is that was going to be really hard. I want to hold this team together. We’re not that far away from being a good team and I wanted these guys to band together and believe in each other and play hard for one another. And that’s what they’ve done.”
Stringer believes USM can win and can do so quickly following a tumultuous decade-plus since the 12-win campaign of 2011.
“I do think that Southern Miss is a great football program,” Stringer said. “We are really close to getting back to that, a lot closer than a 1-10 season, I promise you that. That’s what I want to see. That’s what’s expected here. Coaches, players, fan base, we expect to win here and that’s a good problem.”
Southern Miss will close the season at Troy next Saturday. That game is scheduled to kick at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
