Southern Miss head coach Charles Huff knew midway through last week that his team wasn’t preparing well enough to beat Louisiana Tech.
Huff addressed media on Tuesday afternoon noting that he could sense that something was off as early as Wednesday’s practice before last weekend’s 30-20 loss in Ruston.
“You can tell,” Huff said. “I’ve been blessed to do this 22 years. I can go stand in the middle of practice and feel the energy. Last week, we were just practicing. Not bad, but we were just practicing. There wasn’t a lot of intent, there wasn’t a lot of energy, there wasn’t a lot of emphasis on things. And they knew it.”
Huff proceeded to compare preparation for a football game to baking a cake – all the details have to be right.
“Preparation is something that you really don’t know,” Huff said. “It’s kind of like baking a cake. You can just put the cake in the oven, or you can make sure it’s preheated, make sure it goes in for 18 minutes, make sure you do all the little things. I think that is what we learned the most from last week. Everything matters.”
The Golden Eagles were sluggish right out of the gate against Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs notched two quick scoring drives to start the game, both being aided by long passes to the tight ends.
Huff said the defense was in base man, and that it was a simple failed assignment that gave the Bulldogs a steam of momentum early.
“There's one player that has a tight end in man, and he's looking in the backfield,” Huff said. “Tight End runs by. So, we say, okay, let's put another guy on the tight end to make it a little bit easier. Another player has that tight end in man, and he's looking in the backfield, he runs by.”
This led to the Golden Eagles trailing 30-10 at halftime which caused them to press on offense in the second half to try and get back in the game.
Huff said it reinforced how much Tuesday and Wednesday practices carry into Saturday.
“You can’t start slow in college football and think you’re going to be able to get it going,” Huff said. “By the time you get to Wednesday, you can’t go back to Monday and start over.”
Interestingly enough, wide receiver Elijah Metcalf said that Huff told the team they had not prepared well enough. Even right before kickoff Metcalf recalls Huff telling the team they were walking into a trap.
“One thing I can say about Coach Huff is he has great discernment,” Metcalf said. “He told us before the game we were walking into a trap. We had an okay week of practice, and sometimes the Lord blesses you with learning how to just respond, but sometimes He just doesn’t reward not-hard work. We got what we asked for.”
Metcalf noted that the key now is that they learn from their mistake and respond this week against Jacksonville State.
“Football is one of the craziest sports in the world, because it takes everybody,” he said. “If everybody doesn’t come out there and play, that can hurt somebody. So this week, if we can hone in on making sure we play together as a team — offense, defense, and special teams — we’ll be where we’re supposed to be.”
Huff pointed to this week’s opening practice as proof his players took the message seriously.
“Probably we had the best Monday practice we’ve ever had,” Huff said. “That’s a start. You’ve got to string it together, and you’ve got to carry it into the arena. But they definitely had the right mentality. Our players responded the right way, and our coaches responded the right way. No one was satisfied with the result, but it was a great learning lesson.”
Southern Miss (2-2) close non-conference play by hosting Jacksonville State (2-2) this weekend at the Rock. The Gamecocks, last season’s Conference USA champions, are coming off a 41-34 loss at Georgia Southern.
Last season, the two teams met for the first time since 1946. Jacksonville State blew out Southern Miss 44-7, a loss that marked the final weeks of the Will Hall era.
Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at M.M. Roberts Stadium. The game will stream on ESPN+.
