Southern Miss rewrites portions of record book in 56-31 win over ODU
HATTIESBURG -- Southern Miss records fell just about as fast as the Golden Eagles scored touchdowns in the second half Saturday.
It was a numbers game, for sure.
In USM's 56-31 Conference USA victory over Old Dominion at M.M. Roberts Stadium on Saturday, quarterback Nick Mullens broke two Southern Miss single-season passing records and wide receiver Casey Martin broke a USM single-season receiving record.
And there were plenty of other milestones, too.
Mullens, a junior who has been starting since midway through his freshman season, eclipsed Austin Davis' 3,496 passing yards in a season. Mullens finished Saturday's game with 302 yards and now stands atop the USM record book with 3,578 yards.
Mullens also went past the single-season touchdown passes record of 30. Going into the game, Mullens was tied with Davis, each with 30 TD passes in a season. Mullens threw two scoring passes Saturday and now has 32 for sole possession of first place.
For good measure, Mullens, moved into second place in career completions, passing Brett Favre's 613. Mullens now has 621 career completions. Davis is in first place with 933.
And one more thing about the USM quarterback who finished the Old Dominion game completing 21 of 37 passes. Mullens moved into third place in USM career passing attempts. He started the game 32 attempts behind Dustin Almond (2002-05) and now trails Davis (1,527) and Favre (1,169).
The touchdown record was a play the Golden Eagles had not run much this season.
"We practiced the heck out of that route all summer," Mullens said. "We ran it a lot last year, got a lot of opportunities. But this season we haven't run it much.
"Two receivers to each side, a little seam route. We've got a lot of different coverages where that play is not that good. But Old Dominion played it right, and to be able to capitalize on it was pretty cool."
Martin got an extra kick out of the No. 31 record breaker, too.
"I didn't realize it until they showed the thing and I went, 'Hey, I caught 31!" Martin said. "I was feeling good that I caught it. Me and him, we've put in a lot of work. We practiced that route all summer and we scored a touchdown on it, so it definitely feels good."
Martin caught eight passes for 104 yards Saturday, the final one of which was his record breaker. He has now caught 68 passes this season, surpassing the mark of 67 set in 2008 by DeAndre Brown.
Southern Miss coach Todd Monken was especially happy for Martin, a senior who transferred from Houston before the beginning of the 2014 season.
"Casey likes the game of football," Monken said. "Casey walked on at Houston and couldn't get a sniff. And thank God he couldn't. Because if you do the right things with him, he's a good football player. Because he's tough to handle in space. I'm happy for him."
Martin expressed joy in coming to Southern Miss.
"Somebody called me a Houston Cougar," he said. "I ain't no Houston Cougar. I'm a Golden Eagle."
There were still more good Golden Eagle numbers.
Jalen Richard, who scored four touchdowns Saturday, went over 1,000 yards rushing for the season. He ran for 161 Saturday, giving him 1,047.
"A good season is 800, let's aim for that," Richard said he thought before the season began. "To get 1,000 is a great feeling, even more since we got the win. I can actually celebrate."
Ito Smith also went over the 100-yard barrier with 125 yards against Old Dominion.
It was the third time this year that Richard and Smith both rushed for more than 100 yards.
This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 10:43 PM with the headline "Southern Miss rewrites portions of record book in 56-31 win over ODU ."