Aside from the excuse of a “game” against Prairie View A&M, this is going to be a fun season. Two ESPN games against an SEC and Big 12 opponent.

And yes, your college football season begins with a Thursday night match up involving Southern Miss.

Thur., Sept. 2 at South Carolina (ESPN)
Sat., Sept. 11 Prairie View A&M
Fri., Sept. 17 Kansas (ESPN)
Sat., Sept. 25 at Louisiana Tech
Sat., Oct. 2 Marshall
Sat., Oct. 9 East Carolina
Sat., Oct. 16 at Memphis
Sat., Oct. 23 Open
Sat., Oct. 30 UAB
Sat., Nov. 6 at Tulane
Sat., Nov. 13 at UCF
Sat., Nov. 20 Houston
Sat., Nov. 27 at Tulsa

My eternal man crush, former Southern Miss running back, Damion Fletcher this week in a practice facility in Atlanta.

There is no goal line stand to hold such an athlete.

Based on Yahoo’s Rivals.com rankings, the recruitment rankings in the Big East over the last three years would have been #2 in 2008, i#5 in 2009, and #4 in 2010. This comes without the benefits of recruiting into a BCS AQ conference.

Texas head coach Mack Brown is a Golden Eagle?

Brown began his full-time coaching career in 1975 at Southern Mississippi, where he worked with the receivers for three seasons. He earned a master’s degree in administration from Southern Miss in 1976.

This game was the worst. This game was the worst. This game was the worst.

That was such an impressive game by Dwight Dasher, it’s hard to truly get mad. That being said, if Fedora doesn’t fire at least 2 of his supporting staff in the off-season, the fan base may lose all faith in him. I have.

We lost in a bowl game to the Sun Belt.

Positives:

Middle Tennessee’s record of 9-3 carries a little less weight when this is considered.

via Rivals:

MTSU has averaged 41.1 points during its winning streak. But none of the opponents during that streak finished with a winning record, and the Blue Raiders’ NCAA schedule strength of 118th is the worst of any team in a bowl.

…but that doesn’t make me feel any better about tonight’s game:

Southern Miss is in the New Orleans Bowl for the second season in a row and the fourth time in the past six seasons. In addition, the Golden Eagles are making their eighth consecutive bowl appearance and the 12th in the past 13 seasons. Middle Tennessee State is playing in just its second bowl in school history.

Notice that we are slight (slight) favorite over MTSU. Which is kinda like being the best looking horse in the glue factory.

If you need me, I’ll be yelling at my television 3.5 hours Sunday night, over-analyzing mediocre play calling, wondering just how we lost to UAB, Kansas, Houston, Louisville, and ECU… daydreaming about being an actual BCS buster.

At least ESPN didn’t rank the New Orleans Bowl last.

28. R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Southern Mississippi vs. Middle Tennessee
8:30 p.m. ET, Dec. 20

It will be the final college game for Southern Miss running back Damion Fletcher, one of the most underrated players in the country. He has run for 5,224 yards and 44 touchdowns in his career. The Blue Raiders’ defense has been stout all season, leading the country with a per-contest average of 8.83 tackles for loss and finishing fourth in sacks with 3.17 a game.

2008, I was simply happy to go to a bowl. For real.

After watching Southern Miss throw away 3 easy wins in 2009, playing MTSU in the New Orleans Bowl (whose status is college football makes C-USA look BCS-like) is like taking your ugly sister to prom.

We won’t be attending, but it’s not that we don’t want to. Changing flights and adjusting vacation days this late in the season is like herding cats.

USM running back Damion Fletcher needs 40 yards to pass Herschel Walker and Ladainian Tomlinson on the all time rush list. He needs just 63 yards to have 1,000 for the season and become just the 7th person to have four 1,000 yard seasons.

For all the homer-ism for USM posted on the blog, I’m quite critical of my Mustard Buzzards (as evidenced by November’s booting).

In 12 regular season games:

- Field Goals: 12 of 18
- Extra Points: 42 of 51

Yes… we’ve missed 9 extra points. Two of those were blocked extra points returned for 2-points by the opposing team. Also, most of the field goals were within 20-30 yards.

Not bad. Stats here.

At best USM will finish 10-4 (ECU game, C-USA Championship, Bowl Game). At worst they will finish 7-6.

A video from Saturday’s Tulsa game. The 1:20 is pure glory.

Some numbers on Southern Miss’ backup QB, in 6 games:
1. Is 4-2 as a starter.
2. Thrown for over 1200 yards.
3. Has completed 62% of his passes.
4. Has only 1 INT in 152 attempts.
5. Has thrown 12 TDs (ran for 1).
6. QB rating is 150.

Southern Miss has missed (or had blocked) 16 extra points and field goals this year.

Ok, it’s not that high, but close.

Say hello to our new (commit) kicker.

Yes, this Saturday is Damion Fletcher’s last home game as a Southern Miss Golden Eagle. Makes me want to vomit. After Derrick Nix, I swore it would be 20 years before Southern Miss saw a ball carrier as good as Fletcher. I was wrong. Fletcher is the best ball carrier to ever wear the black and gold.

Southern Miss prides itself on finding diamonds in the rough. Fletcher is a diamond we’ll never be able to match. I seriously doubt USM will ever recruit someone near Fletcher’s potential. Hope I’m wrong this time as well.

Like many of you, I spend a portion of my day, and much of gameday on Rivals.com. Notably, BigGoldNation.com, which is the Southern Miss site.

The straw that broke the camel’s back: when I posted a mid-game poll inquiring if we should fire our Defensive Coordinator and his mustache.

Turns out that it’s against the Rivals.com rules to criticize coaches. Rule #7 was the reason I was given for my banishment.

7. No attacks on players or coaches. Personal attacks and insults, as opposed to criticism of gameplay will not be tolerated.

I’ve been guilty of this rule at least 7 times per game for the last 3 years. I’m sure many of you have as well. Watch yourself.