They ranked us #10! NATIONAL MID-MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

10. Southern Miss (12-2) Previous rank: 8
The Golden Eagles beat Nevada, 24-17, in the Hawaii Bowl. A stunning upset victory for the conference championship, a bowl-game win, and a free trip to Honolulu—how many teams had a better year than that, really?

A year in review will come soon, but for now, we simply enjoy this: Mississippi’s only Top 25 team.

Kick off versus #24 Nebraska is in 235 days.

Games 1-3

Games 4-6

Games 7-9

Games 10-12

Conference USA Championship Game vs. Houston

Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl vs. Nevada

Southern Miss’ Defense broke a 40 year-old FBS record in 2011 with 8 interceptions returned for touchdowns, meaning that of their 18 interceptions (tied for 5th in FBS) almost half became a Pick 6. However, these stats only speak to part of the craziness that was the 2011 season. (Why “crazy”? Because, really, who loses to UAB only to turn around and defeat #6 Houston two weeks later?)

Overall, 25 different Southern Miss players scored touchdowns in 2011. I’ve cataloged the Defensive and Special Teams touchdowns below. On a “Crazy Scale” (official NCAA scientific terminology?) of 1-5… 1 being “Kinda Crazy, Bro” and 5 being “Very Crazy, Bro”… I’ve rated the following Southern Miss Defense and Special Teams stats from their 14 games of 2011.

The most mind-blowing (are mid-majors allowed to use that term?) game of all has to be the East Carolina, who was at one point down 21-7 to USM without Southern Miss having scored a single Offensive touchdown.

Individual games stats and videos below.

Southern Miss vs SELA
Korey Williams 60-yard interception return for TD
Octavius Thomas 6-yard interception return for TD

Southern Miss vs Virginia
Danny Hrapmann fake Punt out of own end zone for 31-yard gain

Southern Miss vs Rice
Marquese Wheaton 96-yard fumble return for TD

Southern Miss at Navy
Marquese Wheaton 79-yard blocked field goal return for TD

Southern Miss vs SMU
Marquese Wheaton 41-yard interception return for TD

Southern Miss at East Carolina
Jamie Collins 97-yard interception return for TD
Tracy Lampley 60-yard punt return for TD
Emmanuel Johnson 15-yard blocked punt return for TD
Deron Wilson 79-yard interception return for TD

Southern Miss at UAB
Fake FG for TD – Ryan Hanks 10 yd pass from Peter Boehme

Southern Miss vs Memphis
Deron Wilson 35-yard interception return
Kendrick Presley 100-yard interception return for TD

Southern Miss at Houston [C-USA Championship Game]
Furious Bradley 11-yard blocked punt return
Ronnie Thornton 26-yard interception return

Southern Miss vs Nevada [Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl]
Tray Becton-Martin 0-yard blocked punt for TD
Danny Hrapmann fake Punt out of own end zone for 29-yard gain

Some clips below.

The homepage at USM.edu.

A little bit of homerism in this post, but some revealing numbers on just what a good and a bad season can do to key college football demographics.

Ole Miss has fallen to the third most popular sports team in the state. Mississippi State topped the list with 36 percent favoring MSU, 27 percent for Southern Miss, and just 21 percent selecting Ole Miss. Going 2-10 with three straight Egg Bowl loses will do that for you. But here is an interesting note from the crosstabs: Among those 18-29, Southern Miss is the top choice favored by 41 percent of voters in that age group.

It’s no speech from Hoosiers, but it would excite me nonetheless.

[Note: Lots of Memphis highlights because Southern Miss played Memphis the week before. Plus, we all know how easy it is to get highlights against Memphis.]

I’m angry that I, and my wife, and my extended family, and tons of friends cannot go to the bowl game… but Rick Cleveland makes a great point:

USM could have gone to Dallas, Birmingham, New Orleans, or back to St. Petersburg, Fla., where the Eagles played last year.

Both Fedora and athletic director Richard Giannini say that the decision was left to Fedora, who chose the Honolulu bowl. Many USM fans are angry because 1) they can’t make the trip; and 2) the Christmas Eve slot and 3) USM could have played Penn State or BYU in one of the Texas bowls.

Fedora wanted to reward the players the best way he knew how for their record-setting season. Let’s see now: Dallas in January or Honolulu at Christmas?

Hula skirts or earmuffs? White sandy beaches or a good chance of a sheet of ice?

Penn State, any other year, would have been intriguing. Penn State this year meant you would play in a game where the media focus was going to be on child sex abuse.

We could argue this all day.

I’d argue Fedora’s side hour by hour.

[via HA]

Far from perfect, but better than ever.

“Nightmare”

Pre-Game

Team Inroduction,

Halftime Video

But this isn’t Silly Season in Mississippi this year. No, this is the Magnolia State’s football version of an insane asylum. We’ll get to the coaching part, as well, but let’s start off with this: Southern Miss (10-2) will play undefeated Houston Saturday morning for the Conference USA championship. Should the Golden Eagles win, they’ll get a really nice trophy but it will cost the school more than half a million dollars. That’s right. It would knock Houston out of a BCS bowl and cost USM its share of the league’s BCS split.

USM athletic director Richard Giannini, who fights an annual battle to balance the budget, confirmed that fact of C-USA life Monday afternoon, but when asked about how much he could use the extra $550,000 or so, Giannini said, “To hell with the money. We want to win.”

[via Clarion-Ledger]

#20 Southern Miss (9-1) vs UAB (2-8)
Legion Field – Birmingham, AL
November 17, 2011
Kickoff: 7:00 PM Central

7:00 PM
@SportsMediaFolks: Meh. Overrated. Call me when you’re 11-1 vs Houston. I’ll be watching Tebow getting Tebow’d on the NFL Network.

10:30 PM
@SportsMediaFolks: JEEBUZ KRIST SOUTHERN MISS BLEW IT!!1! THE WORLD WAS WATCHING AND THIS WAS YOU BEST EFFORD? NVER VOTING 4 U AGAIN!! #pppffftt

This was (save for the 1995 Alabama game) the most stressful Southern Miss game I’ve ever attended.

Kudos for the EaglePost board for posting this interesting tidbit.

If there is a breaking point for Houston, it has been the 200-yard mark. Over the past three seasons, the Cougars are 9-7 when allowing more than 200 yards on the ground and 16-4 when allowing 200 or fewer. Tulsa and Southern Miss have combined to eclipse 200 yards on 24 occasions during that span, including each team’s win over Houston last season.

[...]

If Tulsa can reel in a Keenum pass or two on November 25, its chances to win will greatly improve. Since Keenum began his career in 2007, Houston is 23-3 in games when he has not thrown an interception, 15-12 when he has a thrown at least one pick, and 4-7 when he’s thrown two or more.

The game on Saturday? My goodness.

The video above is the final play, as shot by yours truly, on UCF’s 2-point conversion. Pretty sure I use the word “ridiculous” 17 times.

Southern Miss decided to have some fun in 2011, moving to flat black helmets and switching up the sticker designs every three games. The latest version leaked today, and it might be my favorite, with this one coming in a close second.