Southern Miss did something last year no one else in college football could do- beat Houston and Case Keenum. Although it ended up being more of a morale boost than anything else (despite a school record 12 wins they still ended up in the Hawaii Bowl), the Conference USA Championship game win was still very impressive, as it shut out UH from any remote chance of the BCS.
Such are the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles, who are becoming one of the more important college football programs in C-USA. They are the alma mater of Brett Favre after all.
2011 was: one of the better years in school history; producing one of the most exciting to watch offenses in the country. They finished 12-2, and won their conference. Conference USA is weak enough this year that they will win some games, but they will certainly not duplicate that 6-2 conference mark this year
2012 will go smoothly if: The defense handles the transition on breaking in 7 new starters and finds a way to improve the 62nd ranked pass defense. Even more important will be how new starting QB Chris Campbell steps in for Austin Davis and runs the offense. Oh, and there’s a new starter at tailback to think about too.
2012 will be rough if: There’s turnover all over the depth chart, and that much turnover could lead to turnovers on the field; which will equal a lot of losses. New Coach Ellis Johnson has to deal with QBs with zero experience, and his first choice at running back will miss the year with a knee injury. And he’s got to break in new blood all over the defensive front seven. That’s a lot to deal with all at the same time.
BMOCs: The extremely versatile WR/KR Tracey Lampley, a dual threat on offense, and an overall threat in two phases, RB Kendrick Hardy, DE/OLB Jamie Collins, OL Joe Duh
All-name team: Austin Quatrocchi, Dasman McCullum
Bottom Line: There are a ton of question marks on both sides of the ball, but I don’t think the problems are severe enough to keep this team from possibly achieving a winning season. They’ll probably finish in the 5-7 to 7-5 range as a weak Conference USA helps them out quite a bit in padding their record.
Rankings: Athlon- 82 Lindy’s- 70
All the 77s
#73 Kansas
#76 Minnesota
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Chicago Tribune.com, Fox Sports, MSN, Walter Football and Yardbarker
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too