It was an ugly game. Southern Miss lost 41-13, which makes the following numbers both humorous and upsetting.

Total Yards:
South Carolina: 449
Southern Miss: 404

Trips to the red Zone: Southern Miss: 6… only 2 of which resulted in points.

As good as South Carolina was… Southern Miss beat themselves.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume Southern Miss scores 7 on each of those other four trips into the red zone (LOL!), 28 points would have been the result. The score in “Landon’s Hypothetical Land”: 41-41. (Southern Miss would have found a way to lose in overtime.)

If for some reason or another you are upset with me and would like to get me riled up by bringing to light additional embarrassing statistics… have at it and post your findings in the comments section below.

I don’t want to talk about it. I haven’t been this embarrassed since… well… the last game we played.

Welcome once again to the brief results of my over-analyzation of the Conference USA mid-major that is my fall/winter lifestyle, Southern Miss.

College football season is here, and it kicks off on a Thursday with Southern Miss. THE Southern Miss you’ve come to know, love, then cheer for against the “bigger guys”.

What’s at stake in 2010? With 13 consecutive winning seasons, Southern Miss has the third longest streak in the nation of its kind. Additionally, we’ve been to 8 consecutive bowl games, and we’re picked by many journalists to win Conference USA this year.

No pressure.

Southern Miss is famous for 3 things: 1) Being consistently good but never consistently great, 2) Finding a way to either dominate or be dominated on a national TV stage, and 3) Promising to play “Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime.”

Be careful what you wish for.

The first game of the 2010 college football season features Southern Miss against a formidable SEC team (Anyone) on the road (Anywhere) on ESPN in prime time (Anytime).

Fearless prediction: South Carolina 27-14 Southern Miss.

2010 Season Overall: 10-2, C-USA Championship, and a spot in the Dallas Football Classic or Liberty Bowl .

09/02 at South Carolina [ESPN] 6:30 CT - Loss

09/11 vs Prairie View A&M 6:00 p.m. CT - Win

09/17 vs Kansas TV [ESPN] 7:00 p.m. CT - Win

09/25 at Louisiana Tech 6:00 p.m. CT - Win

10/02 vs Marshall [CBS College] 7:00 p.m. CT - Win

10/09 vs East Carolina [CSS] 6:30 p.m. CT - Win

10/16 at Memphis [CSS] 11:00 a.m. CT - Win

10/30 vs UAB [CSS] 11:00 a.m. CT - Win

11/06 at Tulane 2:30 CT - Win

11/13 at UCF [CBS College] 11:00 CT - Win

11/20 vs Houston 6:00 CT - Loss

11/26 at Tulsa [CBS College] 5:30 p.m. CT - Win

I’m nervous. Very nervous. Can’t breathe, to be quite honest with you.

It’s here… college football season. Because you’re all honorary Southern Miss fans (by default, due to reading this blog of course) let’s practice our fight song you don’t screw it up as you yell it from your couch tomorrow night.

Southern Mississippi To The Top! To The Top
So lift your voices high, show them the reason why
That Southern spirit never will stop!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Southern Mississippi all the way, banners high
And we will Fight! Fight! Fight! to victory,
Hear our battle cry!

Great job, gang. Great job.

I have my fantasy football draft tonight. I’ll be the guy who takes Favre, and everyone will laugh.

We’ll see who’s laughing come week 16. (Mwuuuah-ha-ha-haaa!)

Like the Blazers? Like Conference USA? Of course you do! Especially if you’re a Birmingham resident whose tax dollars are paying for 5,000 football tickets to UAB each year.

The city of Birmingham is investing in the city by purchasing football tickets. Every year they buy 5,000 UAB football tickets and 1,000 Miles Collage football tickets. Birmingham City Council member Johnathan Austin says it’s to keep the teams coming to Legion Field.

[...]

The mayor gets around 850 season tickets, the council gets around 350 season tickets and the rest get divided among city departments.

The blog has a such a variety of readers that it’d blow your mind. From Atlanta to London to Taiwan and Australia, people read what I write and I have no idea why. However, none are more special than those from Jasper, Alabama. Why? because Jasper’s home and the people of Jasper were the first ones to actually read my online accounts back when I was cutting my blogging teeth in 2001. Also, Jasper is awesome, and if you’ve ever visited you would know that already.

Jasperians are also the best at reconnaissance missions… and I’ve got one today. See that sweatshirt that Walker High School football coach John Holladay is wearing? Find it. Preferably in a hoodie, but a normal sweatshirt will do as well.

When you find it, email me and I’ll pay for it/postage to Seattle.

[This blog post will self destruct in 5 seconds... because someone from Jasper planted a bomb in it.]

That was Southern Miss’ record in the first season fielding a football team. The year was 1912. Fairly certain that they used an actual golden eagle as a substitute for a football.

Oh my. A couple of videos promoting Southern Miss season ticket packages from 2003.

They’re bad. Bad.

If you’re reading this post from home, it means you have power. Only a “bojo” would try to access the internet without power.

But do you have… Longhorn power?

No? Would you like some? If you live in Texas, now you can.

Via AdAge:

The passion of college sports fans to buy almost anything with their favorite school’s emblem attached to it will certainly be tested with a new partnership in which the University of Texas and Texas A&M will both be selling … energy.

Yes, energy. Branded energy.

Crimson Tide fans would love this idea. Too bad most of them don’t have electricity. (I kid!)

[Click for larger image.]

The mighty city of Jasper and the lowly redneck-filled crevasse of Cordova are a mere 15 minute drive from one another. But you mean to tell me that they haven’t played a regular season high school football game against one another in almost 50 years?

(I’m just kidding, by the way. Cordova isn’t “filled” with rednecks… it’s populated by them.)

[via Deadspin]

Yes, I know about DeAndre Brown getting arrested.

Yes, I was freaking out in anticipation that he’d be suspended for the college football opener on ESPN.

No, he won’t be suspended. Disciplined internally, but not suspended.

It’s always nice when the big boys pay attention to what you’re doing. EA Sports is a year behind schedule on the North End Zone video scoreboard, though it’s nice to see they added the South End Zone stadium addition this year, even though there are some slight architectural differences for the field level bleachers.

So help me… if we don’t lose that inflatable Southern Miss helmet in the North End Zone. By far the most high school-ish piece of our gameday puzzle.

NCAA 10

NCAA 11

NCAA 10

NCAA 11