SMU Mustangs @ Southern Miss Football Preview

Mustangs face Golden Eagles at The Rock

Date: Saturday, October 13, 2007, 6:30 pm Central

Flags flew as SMU's Devin Lowery was mugged in the first half against UTEP.

Location: M.M. Roberts Stadium, “The Rock”, (33,000); Hattiesburg, Miss.

Television: CSTV

Season Records: SMU 1-4, 0-1 C-USA / Southern Miss 2-3, 1-1 C-USA.

The Series: 0-0

Injuries/personnel report

SMU:

• running back DeMyron Martin (hamstring) – probable

Southern Miss:

• quarterback Martevious Young (broken leg) - out
• quarterback Jeremy Young (ankle) – questionable
• defensive end Robert Henderson (foot) - questionable

SMU @ Southern Miss Overview

The first meeting between SMU and the Southern Miss Golden Eagles will be remembered for this, at the very least: one team’s title hopes got an early boost and the other team officially started sweating bullets.

It’s been awhile since either team won – September 8 for SMU and September 15 for Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles, now riding a two-game skid, were stunned at home last week by previously winless Rice, 31-29.

The Mustangs, after a bye, are coming off a bitter, 48-45, overtime loss at home to UTEP - a game SMU led, 28-7, and, 42-28. It was SMU’s third loss in a row.

And after Southern Miss, the Mustangs have two more tough rough games in three weeks - at Tulsa and Houston.

So, might desperation hang in the cool Hattiesburg breeze Saturday night?

“Well, I don’t know if ‘desperation’ is the right word,” said SMU head coach Phil Bennett on Tuesday. “‘Urgency’, to my mind. You’ve got a challenge. There’s no doubt.”

Bennett said he thought the West Division would be won with two, maybe three, conference losses. “You look at this conference right now and there’s just no standout team,” he said, adding later, “It’s anybody’s for the taking. If you happen to get hot and get on a roll at the right time, good things can happen for you.”

But time grows short. “Our clock is ticking,” Bennett said. “We’ve gotta get consistent and we’ve get consistent in a hurry.”

Senior wideout Zack Sledge said getting over UTEP was tough. “But I think we’ve got kind of a positive attitude, a resilient attitude,” he said. “We know that we played pretty poorly. But we can still go to a bowl. We can still win a conference championship, if we just bring it all together the rest of the season.”

For a bit of weirdness to this upcoming rodeo: Southern Miss head coach Jeff Bower was on former SMU coach Bobby Collins’ staff in the 80s. Collins, you’ll recall, was at SMU when the world stopped turning in ’87. That’s right - the “death penalty.”

Collins later returned to Hattiesburg, where he’d coached previously, and became active in the Golden Eagle booster club. Now retired, Collins still lives there. He might even be at the game.

(If you see him and want to visit, you might consider hiding your SMU attire. He refused a death penalty-free interview with this intrepid Mustang fan/reporter because of my association with SMU. Geez.)

Bennett’s record in his sixth year at SMU is 18-45. Bower has a 114-80-1 mark in his 17 th season at Southern Miss.

The Golden Eagles - charter members of C-USA, now in its 13 th year - have won four conference titles and were East Division champs last year.

Under Bower, Southern Miss is 61-17 at home, including a 31-8 mark in C-USA home games.

“We’re fixin’ to face a challenge,” Bennett said.

(Then again, Rice left with a “W.”)

SMU Offense vs. Southern Miss Defense

Advantage: Southern Miss

It’s strength against strength here: The Golden Eagles’ conference-leading defense against quarterback Justin Willis and the Mustangs’ increasingly explosive offense.

Against UTEP, the Mustangs rolled up 516 yards of offense, with Willis throwing for half of it and two touchdowns. James Mapps rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns and a finally healthy Cedrick Dorsey added 63 yards. Dorsey got 50 of it on a scoring run in the second quarter.

“They get after you,” Bennett said. “They don’t mind playing the press man, getting in your face, eleven guys up on the ball.”

The Mustangs must account for sophomore middle linebacker Gerald McRath (6-3, 220). His 62 tackles are tops in C-USA and rank second nationally.

Southern Miss’ first team defensive linemen and linebackers are all returning starters.

Sophomore free safety Eddie Hicks and senior corner Brandon Sumrall have two interceptions each.

Southern Miss Offense vs. SMU Defense

Advantage: Southern Miss

Against UTEP, SMU failed to hold big leads and gave up a third-and-fifteen on the Miners’ game-tying drive in at the end of regulation.

“Defensively, we struggled,” Bennett said. Poor tackling and busted coverages were to blame, he said.

James Mapps (20) heads right against UTEP. Mapps rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns.

The Mustangs rank near the bottom of C-USA in scoring defense (38.8 points per game) and total defense (498 yards per game). Passing defense is last, at 339.6 yards per game.

The Mustangs are looking for improvement at middle linebacker. “Basically, [against UTEP], we didn’t get much play at all from our middle linebacker,” Bennett said.

Outside backers Will Bonilla and Wilton McCray will move inside this week as possible fixes. Damon Hurst, who’s seen time in the middle, will also be in the mix, Bennett said. “Damon is very physical,” he said. “Just his awareness and his knowledge have to get better.”

Bennett admitted he didn’t think replacing departed middle linebacker Reggie Carrington would be still be a problem after five games.

Bennett called SMU’s line play “inconsistent.” “I think the effort has been good,” he said, “but when you play defensive line, you’ve gotta have high-motor and you’ve gotta be very technique-oriented, and I think we’re a little bit inconsistent with that.”

Bennett said missed coverages in the secondary are due to inexperience.

SMU had two picks against UTEP, one by McCray for a touchdown and the other by Bonilla. Safety David Haynes led SMU with 10 tackles.

For the Golden Eagles, seven turnovers killed them against Rice. “It will be a long time again before they have seven turnovers,” Bennett said. “And still they had a chance to win.”

The quarterback position has been hit hard by injuries. Longtime starter Jeremy Young was hurt at Boise State, then number two, Stephen Reaves, was held out against Rice with a strained muscle. Early against the Owls, number three, Martevious Young, went down with a broken leg, forcing Reaves into action.

Reaves had four picks, but led a fourth-quarter 22-point rally that fell just short. He’s slated to start Saturday. Sophomore Todd Wilson is next in line.

Sophomore running back Damion Fletcher (5-10, 175) had 142 yards and two touchdowns last week. Fletcher, last season’s GMAC Bowl MVP, leads Southern Miss with 542 yards on 101 carries.

The Golden Eagles’ top receiver is senior wideout Chris Johnson (6-0, 176), who has averaged 6.5 catches and 77.5 yards over the last four games. Against Tennessee, Johnson caught eight for 127 yards.

Junior tight end Shawn Nelson (6-5, 240) has a touchdown pass in each of the last three games.

SMU vs. Southern Miss Special Teams

Advantage: Even

Southern Miss punter Britt Barefoot’s 45.1-yard average leads C-USA and ranks tenth in the nation.

For SMU, Thomas Morstead’s 33.5-yard average on two attempts against UTEP dropped him to third in C-USA, at 44.48. He also missed a 25-yard field goal, his first of the season. “[Morstead’s] a better player than that,” Bennett said.

Another short field goal chance ended with a bad snap. For the year, Morstead is 5-6 with a long of 37. His school-record PAT streak stands at 51.

Barefoot, Southern Miss’ long-range field goal kicker, hit a 51-yarder at Tennessee. Justin Estes is 4-7 with a long of 40, including three at Tennessee.

SMU’s Sanders averages 7.4 yards on 11 punt returns, with a long of 24. For the Golden Eagles, Chip Johnson averages 10.1 per try on seven returns, with a long of 22.

Southern Miss kickoff returner Tory Harrison averages 22.9 yards per attempt, fifth in the conference. Jessie Henderson is sixth with a 22.5 yard average for the Mustangs.

Intangibles

Advantage: Even

Homecoming in Hattiesburg spells hostile environment and what better setting for the Golden Eagles to end a losing streak?

While reportedly plenty mad about losing to Rice, Southern Miss is likely still a bit shocked too. The Owl factor could go either way.

SMU’s week off helped heal UTEP wounds and provided time to figure out things on defense.

SMU vs. Southern Miss Prediction

Southern Miss, 30-20. The Golden Eagle D stands firm and, without a repeat turnover eruption by the offense, that will be enough.

Quotable Bennett

• On learning Tuesday that his longtime friend, Southern Miss defensive coordinator Jay Hopson, has had a recurrence of cancer: “It puts a lot of things into perspective. He’s a great guy, a wonderful coach, a wonderful father - just a dear friend. It’s been a painful day trying to get ready for this.”

• On Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione’s special e-mails for paying boosters: “I don’t even know how to do e-mail. … I think more coaches than you’d ever realize have things like that. … I doubt very seriously had they beaten Miami and were 4-0 it would be that big of a deal.”

SMU Football - Did you know?

• The Mustangs will stay in New Orleans Friday night and bus an hour and forty minutes to Hattiesburg on game day. Bennett said the only hotel option in Hattiesburg required a two-night stay.

• Bobby Collins coached Southern Miss from 1975-81. He was inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame in 2002 and the State of Mississippi athletic Hall of Fame in 2000. Collins was a starting quarterback for Mississippi State.

• Southern Miss’ current streak of 13 consecutive winning seasons trails only Florida State (30), Michigan (22), Florida (19) and Virginia Tech (14).