Southern Miss handed second straight loss, remains winless in young rivalry
The curse continues and the slide steepens.
Southern Miss was on the wrong end of a familiar loss Saturday in Mobile, falling 42-35 to a South Alabama team the USM program has yet to beat in six tries.
The Golden Eagles have suffered back-to-back losses to non-bowl eligible West Division rivals following last week’s 41-14 home no-show against Texas State.
“When you’re not playing good football, the ball does not bounce your way,” USM coach Charles Huff said. “And that’s what happened. You can look back, we were playing good football earlier in the year and the ball bounced our way a lot.”
Southern Miss struggled to get anything going offensively for the bulk of the contest in starting quarterback Braylon Braxton’s return to the lineup. South Alabama had little issue picking apart the Golden Eagles’ defense in building a lead that peaked at 35-7 early in the third quarter.
Braxton would throw for 295 of his 400 passing yards in the second half while leading a rally that resulted in USM outscoring the Jaguars 28-7 over the last 18 minutes.
It was a 64-yard fourth quarter back-breaking touchdown run by Jaguars back Kentrel Bullock that created too much space for a comeback attempt to fill.
South Alabama would tally 263 rushing yards by the end of the evening. It’s the fifth time USM allowed over 200 yards rushing and the fourth time in the last five games.
The Golden Eagles have met the Jags on the road three times now and have been outscored 128-45 across them.
The loss ultimately had no bearing on the West Division race with Troy’s win over Georgia State forcing a winner-take-all regular season finale.
“We’re bleeding a little bit”
The strengths that shouldered USM’s success through the first nine games have become weaknesses stunting the effectiveness of both sides of the ball.
Southern Miss was the nation’s top takeaway team following the win at Arkansas State, but have since created zero turnovers in the last eight quarters and are -4 in turnover margin in that span.
It’s faltered along the line of scrimmage, as well. The 41 rushing yards against the Jags are by far the fewest of the campaign. And the other side of the line has been gashed for 520 rush yards between the last two games.
“We’re bleeding a little bit,” Huff said. “Second week in a row no turnovers. (The players) are frustrated because that’s what they’ve lived by... And we’re doing it on offense. We’ve got to find that balance. We’ve got to find that balance. We’ve got to be better taking care of the ball, offensively, and we have to do a better job getting it out.”
Huff attributed part of the reason for the sudden drop in takeaways to how teams have been attacking them. Both Texas St. and USA rolled out ground-based game plans that featured a complimentary lateral pass game.
And the Eagles have failed to force either team to push the ball, resulting in very few moments to create takeaway opportunities.
“Having success on the back end, teams are going to adjust and game plan for us,” safety Corey Myrick said. “We have to go back and prepare and be ready to stop the run next week.”
Southern Miss returns home to face Troy in a battle that will determine the Sun Belt West representative in the conference championship game against James Madison. That game will kick off at 2:30 p.m. and air on ESPN+.
This story was originally published November 22, 2025 at 6:15 PM.
