Southern Miss handed brutal 55-3 road conference loss by South Alabama
South Alabama covered the three-score spread before Southern Miss ever saw midfield.
The Jaguars (4-3, 2-1) found the end zone on each of their first four possessions and scored on the first five on their way to a 55-3 thumping of the visiting Golden Eagles (1-6, 0-4).
Head coach Will Hall’s offense picked up only two first downs in the first half and watched as the Jags scorched its defense to the tune of 402 total yards and 31 points in the opening 30 minutes.
“Tough night for us, obviously,” Hall said after the game. “They kicked our butt in every way. We didn’t do much of anything in any phase.”
It wasn’t until the third quarter when USM dented the scoreboard. Holman Edwards, who replaced starting quarterback Billy Wiles in the second, led a 10-play, 61-yard drive that ended with a 32-yard field goal off the leg of Andrew Stein.
The offense gained nearly twice many yards on that possession as it did on the previous six drives combined. It was the third time this season and second consecutive game USM failed to score an offensive touchdown.
By the end of the night, USA had outgained USM in total yardage, 647-149, and never needed the services of its punter. It was the worst conference loss for the Eagles in school history by scoring margin.
“We’ve had two games in a row where we didn’t move the ball, offensively,” Hall said. “We had some things there. We had some drops in critical times that would’ve been big, explosive plays... I thought they kicked our butt in the trenches on both sides of the ball.”
Thin defense gets even lighter
Southern Miss entered the game with a growing problem in the back end of its defense. Multiple injuries at the corner position led to wide receiver Zay Franks making his first start at corner against the Jags and running back Antavious “Rambo” Willis backing him up.
To exacerbate the situation, All-Conference safety Jay Stanley was unavailable after going through pregame warmups. Also out was starting nose tackle Jalen Williams.
Against a short-handed defense, USA quarterback Carter Bradley had little issue carving up the Eagles. Bradley completed 21 of 27 passes for 319 yards.
Running back La’Damian Webb found 102 yards on the ground and a school-record four rushing touchdowns. Every Jaguar drive before the final kneel ended in USM territory.
“They had a great plan, offensively,” Hall said. “We’re extremely thin on defense... Y’all know we’ve lost five defensive backs. Jay Stanley’s out, that’s six DB’s since the start of the year... They did a good job taking advantage of that and exposing that.”
Linebacker Swayze Bozeman had a career-high 12 tackles and made one of the three tackles for loss recorded by the defense.
Officially against the wall
It’s the sixth loss in a row for Southern Miss, which hasn’t won an FBS game since defeating Rice in the Lending Tree Bowl in December of last year in the same stadium it lost in on Tuesday.
Southern Miss is now one loss away from missing bowl eligibility with still five contests to play. It’s the second time USM has lost six of its first seven games of the season in the last 10 years. The first occasion being in 2021 during Hall’s first year.
“We’re building this program,” Hall said. “We’ve had two recruiting classes. Our year one wasn’t like it is now where you can go to 85 (scholarships). We got a lot of young kids in our program. We’re not as far away as I think it seems. We got to keep recruiting and keep building and keep going.”
The schedule ahead isn’t favorable, either. The Eagles have just two home games against ULM and Troy with road trips to Appalachian State, Louisiana and Mississippi State.
Southern Miss returns against the Mountaineers on Oct. 28. That game will kick at 2:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
