Hopson's Golden Eagles look to continue what Monken's started

Southern Miss accomplished some good things in their three seasons under now-former head coach Todd Monken, including a 9-5 season in 2015.

However, Monken left Hattiesburg after last season for the NFL. New coach Jay Hopson, a Vicksburg native, not only knows USM football quite well as this is his third stint with the Golden Eagles, but also someone with immense respect for the traditions associated with it.

“Our goal every year is to compete for conference championships. As long as we put the Black-and-Gold on and as long as we go out there, that’s going to be our goal,” Hopson said Monday at Conference USA’s 2016 Football Media Days. “The reality is we know we’ve got to go to work. It’s a tough conference. It’s been since 2011 since we won it, and we know that each and every week is going to be a battle in this conference. We’ve got a tough non-conference schedule, like Southern Miss always does, and we know we got to battle week in and week out to achieve our goals.”

That tough non-conference schedule he speaks of includes a season-opening trip to face Kentucky on Sept. 3 and another road game at LSU on Oct. 15. Other schools might opt for a lighter non-league slate, but that’s nothing short of blasphemy for Hopson.

“It’s who we are,” Hopson said. “We say (we’ll play) anybody, anywhere, anytime. It’s who we are, it’s our identity. The bottom line is we’re going to play a tough schedule. That’s just the Southern Miss way. We’re not looking for the easy road.”

USM returns six players on each side of the ball, a group highlighted on offense by senior quarterback Nick Mullens, the reigning C-USA Offensive Player of the Year who also topped a media poll to repeat that honor.

Mullens was a big reason why the Golden Eagles averaged nearly 40 points per game last season and along with standout running back Ito Smith, who ran for 1,876 all-purpose yards and 13 touchdowns as a sophomore, their return gives USM fans plenty of optimism to think this year’s offense could also score plenty of points.

“Yeah, Ito’s a great player. We don’t know how he does it,” Mullens said. “He’s always making people miss in the backfield. Put him in open space, I’ll take him over anybody. He’s going to be a huge factor for us and we’ll definitely depend on Ito to make plays.”

‘Business as usual’

Mullens is now working with a new offensive coordinator in Shannon Dawson, who came over from Kentucky, but the USM senior feels it’ll be business as usual this fall for him and the Golden Eagle offense, mainly because of that culture his new head coach speaks about so often.

“They’ve really produced a great culture around the program and I think culture matters a lot more than people think,” Mullens said. “So to have that good culture going into the season has been great.”

Leading the D

Over on defense, more than half the starters return, a talented, veteran group including lineman Dylan Bradley, linebacker D’Nerius Antoine and defensive back Picasso Nelson, a junior. Bradley, Antoine and Nelson were all named first-team all-conference this preseason.

Senior linebacker C.J. Perry is another member of this returning defensive core and he thinks one area he and the entire unit really need to step up in 2016 is by playing better defense on the road.

USM was 4-2 away from Hattiesburg last season, a solid mark, but Perry knows that road record could be even better in 2016.

“I think it’s always good to get road wins. It just shows the ability of your team,” Perry said. “One thing that we did last year that we have to do this year is bring our defense on the road. That’s a goal for us as a defense, to bring our defense on the road every road game.”

But for Hopson, who returned to USM after stints at Michigan, Memphis and Alcorn State, one word sums up why he returned to Hattiesburg and what he’s all about as the program’s new steward.

“It’s a tradition from long before I was born,” Hopson said. “That’s something we talk about, Southern Miss football tradition is not something new, it’s not something that was just invented. It’s something I grew up watching as a kid and it’s something that I was blessed to coach in, it’s something these guys are blessed to play in. It’s a tradition. Anytime we put the Black-and- Gold on, we understand we got to live up to that tradition. It’s just an honor for all of us to be representing the Black-and-Gold.”

This story was originally published July 25, 2016 at 8:57 PM with the headline "Hopson's Golden Eagles look to continue what Monken's started."