By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
Two weeks ago, it looked like Southern Miss had finally turned the corner in the Jay Hopson era.
The Golden Eagles had just boat-raced UAB 37-2 in a game that had been billed as a must-win for the USM program. The defense was playing dominant football, the offense was making big plays and the special teams were, well, special.
That positive feeling carried over last week in a 36-17 victory over UTSA at San Antonio, Southern Miss’ third consecutive victory.
At 7-3 overall and 5-1 in Conference USA, the Golden Eagles went into Saturday’s game against Western Kentucky with high hopes of jumping past Louisiana Tech into the top spot in the West Division and enhancing their bowl profile.
Positive vibes and momentum were all on the side of Southern Miss with two games to play.
And in three hours it all went up in flames.
It’s hard to state just how disastrous Saturday’s 28-10 loss to the Hilltoppers was for USM. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Golden Eagles in an avalanche of bad luck, bad decisions and all-around bad football.
This was more than just a bump in the road. This was like running into an oak tree at 70 miles an hour, plowing into an iceberg at 25 knots. A full-blown, five-alarm conflagration that consumed the entire Southern Miss football homestead.
And worse than the defeat itself was the injury list.
Southern Miss will likely go to Florida Atlantic for next Saturday’s regular-season finale without starting quarterback Jack Abraham, defensive leader Racheem Boothe and linebacker Swayze Bozeman, who all went down with injuries Saturday and did not return.
Suddenly, instead of being on track for a conference title and a possible double-digit win season, Southern Miss is staring at another mediocre record and the possibility of not even getting a bowl invitation.
How did this happen?
It started right from the outset. Southern Miss won the pregame coin toss and elected to defer to the second half, a decision that could have been – should have been – catastrophic except for some curious decision-making on the part of WKU.
The Hilltoppers took the opening kickoff and drove pretty effortlessly 75 yards on 14 plays, converting a third down and a fourth down en route to a 21-yard touchdown pass from Ty Storey to Jacquez Sloan.
USM then went three-and-out, and Storey picked up right where he left off on the previous drive, converting a third-and-1 from the WKU 25 on a 3-yard keeper, then hitting tight end Joshua Simon for a 47-yard completion down the right sideline to the USM 25.
The Golden Eagles stiffened, however, and the Hilltoppers lined up for a field goal that would have given them a 10-0 lead. But WKU head coach Tyson Helton rolled the dice on a fake, and USM stopped it a yard short of the first down.
After a pass interference play gave USM 15 yards, Abraham found Tim Jones wide-open on a post pattern for a 68-yard touchdown pass and a 7-7 tie.
For awhile that seemed to give the Golden Eagles some life. USM got stops on the Hilltoppers’ next two possessions, but the offense did nothing, and eventually WKU made them pay.
With 12:07 to play in the second quarter, the Hilltoppers hit a carbon copy of Southern Miss’ touchdown play, as Storey hooked up with Jahcour Pearson on a 64-yard post pattern and a 14-7 lead.
Then came the sequence that sank the Golden Eagles for good.
After recovering a muffed punt at the Golden Eagle 44, Southern Miss drove to a first-and-10 at the WKU 11. On second down, Abraham hit Quez Watkins on a slant pattern and he appeared to score as the ball came out of his hands.
Trae Meadows picked up the fumble in the end zone and returned it 47 yards, then an unsportsmanlike conduct call moved the ball to the USM 38. The play was reviewed, and replay showed a catch, then the ball coming out before Watkins crossed the goal line.
Four plays later, Storey connected with Quin Jernighan for a 21-yard touchdown pass. That was a 14-point swing on the scoreboard, and emotionally a completely deflating turnaround.
The Golden Eagles played better on defense in the second half, but the Hilltoppers kept USM bottled up on offense, denying the big plays that had become so routine.
Then USM finally got a good drive going early in the fourth quarter, moving from their own 15 to a first down at the WKU 16.
But the Golden Eagles came up empty when Neil McLaurin dropped a sure first-down catch on third-and-1 from the 7, then DeMichael Harris was stacked up for no gain on fourth down.
USM got a three-and-out on defense, but a 63-yard punt and a personal foul pushed the Golden Eagles back to their own 11, where WKU got the kill shot.
On the first play of the series, Abraham fumbled as he was sacked DeAngelo Malone picked up the ball and ate up 5 yards in a nanosecond for a 28-7 lead.
On the next series, Abraham was tackled after a scramble and was helped off the field with a left leg injury.
That might explain – maybe – why Hopson elected to kick a field goal with 1:52 to play after back-up quarterback Tate Whatley drove USM to a fourth-and-goal at the WKU 5.
The game was lost by then anyway, so maybe Hopson wanted to reward his young, untested quarterback with some points – any points – in that situation.
Nevertheless, that decision left a bad taste in the mouths of the handful of fans left in Roberts Stadium by that time. It was a real bad look, a white flag in a game where attitude is everything.
There are a lot of places where one can parse this game to try to figure out how this game was lost.
The Golden Eagles only rushed for 98 yards and failed to make any explosive plays on the ground. Abraham was 16 of 31 for 223 yards, but if you take away the 68-yard pass to Jones, there weren’t many explosive plays in the passing game either.
WKU finished with 365 yards of offense, as Storey completed 20 of 30 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns, much of that in the first half.
The Hilltoppers were efficient on offense in the first half and Storey hit receivers who were open against loose coverage. USM tightened up defensively in the second half, but the damage was done.
Far worse for Hopson than the nit-picking over statistics was the feeling among Golden Eagle fans.
Hopson had silenced his critics with the Golden Eagles’ three-game winning streak, but they were back with a vengeance after Saturday’s debacle, filling social media with words like, “mediocre,” and “Ill-prepared.”
Moreover, a bowl bid that seemed secure could be in jeopardy. C-USA has primary associations with six bowl games, ranging in quality from the Frisco Bowl in Texas to the Bahamas Bowl, plus secondary partnerships with three other bowls.
FIU’s upset of Miami and Charlotte’s win over Marshall Saturday gives the league eight bowl-eligible teams. How attractive do you think a 7-5 Southern Miss will be in the C-USA bowl pecking order without its veteran quarterback and riding a two-game losing streak?
I’ll answer that. Not very.
This is not what anyone expected when the day started.
Southern Miss should have been building to a peak as it approaches the end of the season, with its goals all approachable. But the Golden Eagles took a huge step backward Saturday and may have just wrecked their season.
Stan Caldwell is a 35-year veteran sports writer in the Hattiesburg area, and most recently served as sports information director at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi.
