Southern Miss football's strong linebacker depth set to be tested by injuries

In the buildup to Southern Miss football's 2022 season, it was reasonable to wonder how the Golden Eagles would fit all of their experience at linebacker onto the field.

Hayes Maples, Swayze Bozeman and Santrell Latham each brought over 1,000 career snaps to the table. TQ Newsome had played a significant role as a redshirt freshman in 2021, and senior Daylen Gill had joined the fold from Ole Miss.

Before the Golden Eagles began preseason practices, they lost Maples for the season with a lower-body injury. Last week, coach Will Hall revealed that Bozeman would also be sidelined for the remainder of the campaign for an injury suffered in Week 4 against Tulane.

"It's tough to lose two great players like that who are great people," Hall said during the Sun Belt Conference media call Monday. "But hopefully we've got enough depth that we can keep going."

Now, as Southern Miss (2-2, SBC 0-0) prepares for a road matchup with Troy (3-2, 1-1) on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN+), the Golden Eagles' stockpile of experience in that room has dwindled to three available players to fill two spots for 60 minutes.

Bozeman shared his starting role with Latham on the USM depth chart before his injury against the Green Wave. The Golden Eagles will release an updated one on Wednesday.

With Gill occupying the starting job at the other linebacker spot, Newsome seems poised to provide depth at both positions. Should the Golden Eagles need more reinforcements, they'll have to reach further down the depth chart than they might have assumed heading into the season.

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Redshirt freshmen Caleb Garner and Arian Gregory, along with sophomore junior college product Drew Horton, are the three names Hall touted as potential fill-ins.

Each of those players featured in Southern Miss' rout of FCS Northwestern State in Week 3, but they have yet to play a snap against FBS competition, according to Pro Football Focus data.

"We went into the year with five linebackers that have played a lot of college football," Hall said. "We've lost two of them. So that's the bad news. We've still got three, and that's the good news."

David Eckert covers Southern Miss for The Hattiesburg American. Contact him at deckert@gannett.com or on Twitter @davideckert98.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss football's linebacker depth set to be tested by injuries