HATTIESBURG – Southern Miss is back in control of its own destiny in the race for Conference USA’s Western Division title.
The Golden Eagles’ 27-17 win over UT-San Antonio, coupled with UAB’s 29-21 win over North Texas, moved Southern Miss (3-3, 2-1 C-USA) to third in the C-USA West standings ahead of the Mean Green (6-2, 2-2 C-USA) and behind Louisiana Tech (5-2, 3-1 C-USA) and UAB (6-1, 4-0 C-USA).
With only one loss in league play, the Golden Eagles can now win the West outright if they run the table in their final five games. That may sound like a tall order, but if the Golden Eagles continue to play solid defense and get better each week on offense, coach Jay Hopson thinks his Eagles can hang with the Bulldogs and Blazers.
“We have some youth out there,” Hopson said. “So, we knew that we would go on a little bit of a roller coaster ride early in the season. The great thing is when you hit mid-season and you see that youthfulness dying. You see guys getting some reps and hope that you can continue to be better each week… and I feel like we took a step in the right direction tonight.”
On top of reaping the rewards from some personnel adjustments on offense, the Southern Miss defense feasted on UTSA freshman quarterback Jordan Weeks Saturday. They harassed him all night, sacking him six times and limiting him to 117 yards, and that was after Southern Miss had taken away the run and made UTSA one-dimensional. The Road Runners (3-4, 2-2 C-USA) gained just 57 yards on 26 rushing plays all night.
San Antonio went three-and-out on half of its 12 offensive possessions, punted on nine and turned it over on downs once. It moved the chains with first downs just nine times and converted on third down on only three of 13 tries.
All this success for the Southern Miss defense came after UTSA pulled a game-time switch on the Golden Eagles. It started Weeks over Cole Grundy, who had started the Road Runners’ first five games.
“We anticipated the other quarterback to play, but he didn't,” Southern Miss linebacker Sherrod Ruff said. “This guy came in and played… and we rattled him up a little bit. That's what we do."
Elsewhere in Conference USA’s Western Division
UAB 29, North Texas 21: UNT quarterback Mason Fine threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns, but the Blazers sacked him four times and limited the Mean Green to only 64 yards rushing. It was the first time UAB had given up 200 or more passing yards.
Louisiana Tech 31, UTEP 24: Louisiana Tech avoided the loss in the trap game 1,300 miles from home against the winless Miners, but just barely. The Bulldogs put up just 315 yards of offense and converted just once on 10 third-down tries.
Florida International 36, Rice 17: The Owls (1-7, 0-4 C-USA) are completely out of the conversation in a loaded Western Division after getting blown out for the seventh week in a row.
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