Head Coach: Will Hall is entering his 4th season as the head coach of the Golden Eagles with a 13-24 record. A lot of those wins happened in 2022 when they went 7-6 with a bowl win, otherwise it’s been a struggle to gain traction but hopefully that will change this year.
Program Outlook: For a lot of the program’s history Southern Miss was always a consistently good football program. The Golden Eagles always won more than they lost and when they joined CUSA their worst record from 1996-2011 was 7-6, and there were a lot of 8-9 win seasons that included victories over bigger programs. 2011 they went 12-2, won the conference and finished the season ranked 20th. Larry Fedora left for North Carolina and that’s when things went awry for the program. 2012 was an unfathomably bad season for the program they suddenly tanked to 0-12 (their worst season in program history beforehand involved 2 wins.) That 2012 season shocks me to this day, it’s honestly one of the worst seasons I’ve ever seen for any program. In a way Southern Miss is still trying to recover from it, there’s been a few good seasons but they really haven’t been the same since. Still there’s a passionate fanbase and hope that one day they can return to a high level of play.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: There’s a fair amount of transition, Southern Miss is toward the bottom of the country in returning production but it might not be all bad. During the entire Will Hall era they’ve struggled to find a QB their team average completion % hovers around 55% which is dreadful, despite having their starter around most of the year, last season (52% completions) was the worst yet even worse than 2021 when they had to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the position. Needless to say it was a huge pickup when they managed to snag former Florida State backup QB Tate Rodemaker out of the portal, he’s not spectacular by any means but he can run and is can run the offense better but he too needs to work on accuracy. The downside for the offense is that Frank Gore Jr is off to the NFL, for pretty much the entire Hall era he was this whole offense. The good news is Chandler Pittman who was the backup, showed up the potential to do a lot of what Gore could do. The rest of the offense will see an influx of transfers as well, they dipped into the portal for receivers and to try to upgrade an offensive line that struggled mightily. As much as the offense lacked consistency last year, the defense is the reason the Golden Eagles tanked last season. In half their games last season their opponents scored 40 or more points, they need stops. They have a great piece to work around in edge rusher Jalil Clemons he’s one of the best players in the conference, but he needs help. That could come in the form of the defensive line returning a lot of experience, but they also dipped into the portal to add a couple instant impact linebackers as well. The secondary has a few starters back and will be mixing in some transfers to retool back there as well.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: The Golden Eagles are going to need to be a lot better with the schedule they’re up against. Southeastern LA is a FCS foe Southern Miss can handle but the Lions are preseason #3 in the Southland after a disappointing 2023 season, they are dangerous enough that Southern Miss can’t take it for granted. The rest of the non-conference is pretty tough, Jacksonville State won 9 games last year and there’s no reason they can’t keep that up, while South Florida is expected to be much improved, Kentucky is always going to be solid in the SEC. JMU/Marshall is a pretty brutal draw from the East as well. It’s a schedule packed with teams that are in the top 75 of College Football so a lot of improvement is needed, but if the Golden Eagles do make a lot of improvement they can be very competitive against this schedule.
Vegas Projection: Southern Miss has a win total set at 4.5 with the odds weighed toward the under. Not a lot of optimism coming from Vegas.
2024 Best Case: Southern Miss finds a pass game and the defense improves. They battle tough with Kentucky to open the season but come up just short of the win. The Golden Eagles gain momentum after beating Southeastern LA, South Florida and even taking down Jax State on the road. The Golden Eagles open conference play strong as well beating Louisiana, ULM and Arkansas State to reach bowl eligibility. The Golden Eagles lose 3 down the stretch but an 8-4 regular season is very much welcomed in Hattisburg. It gets even better when they win their bowl game to finish 9-4, finally things are headed in the right direction.
2024 Worst Case: The offense gets even worse and the defense doesn’t improve. Southern Miss is blown out by Kentucky, barely survives Southeastern and is blown out by South Florida as well as Jax State. They lose to Louisiana to open conference play and then Southern Miss sees one of their few win opportunities slip through their fingers as they lose to ULM. That turns out to be their last shot at victory as they lose out from there for one of their worst seasons ever. Fans drown their sorrows at Mugshots Bar and Grill wonder if they’ll ever get back to the glory days.
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