It’s no secret that Southern Miss has yet to put together a complete game this season, but the Golden Eagles will have to rectify them soon if the team hopes to end its three-game losing streak against Texas State.
“A lot of guys are improving and getting better, and I’m proud of our kids and proud of how they continue to work,” Southern Miss coach Will Hall said. “We know we’ve got some things to fix, and we’re addressing and fixing them, and we’ll continue to improve and get better.”
Habas Returns
In a favorable turn of events Southern Miss linebacker Averie Habas will be stepping onto the field this season after it was announced that the he would miss the season due to a heart issue. Habas will suit up this weekend.
“To come back out here and play is special to me,” Habas told reporters on Wednesday. “My emotions are definitely high. I’d like to thank Todd (McCall) our trainer. When this situation came about back in May when I first told him about the situation with my heart he dropped everything for me.
“(I want to thank) the coaches for putting my health first and not pushing me to be out here. This is my decision to be out here right now. I’m thankful for them and my family, mom and dad for helping me with the transition of being a captain, a starter and all-conference guys and all of sudden it’s done. They told me my season was over. To have that come upon me was hard.”
Last season, Habas accounted for 49 tackles and had a team-leading 12 tackles for loss, along with three sacks. Habas had surgery on July 14, and slowly progressed to getting back to being physically fit.
“I went to the doctor on Monday, and he said that he had to go back and look at my old heart monitor and see if there was actually anything going on," Habas said. "He didn’t see anything in this whole time that I had it on.
"To me that was nothing to do with me or nothing to do with anybody else, but the Lord. I got the heart monitor off on Friday. I had it on for 46 days and my number is 46 so I believe that this was all a plan to have me comeback out here on this Wednesday and get a shot to play this Saturday and the rest of the year. Emotions are high but I’m grateful."
Southern Miss will also return tight end Cole Cavallo and linebacker Swayze Bozeman this week. Bozeman missed the last two games, while Caballo went down with a calf injury in pregame warmups against Alcorn State.
“It’s immeasurable,” Hall said. “Injuries are a part of football, and it is what it is, but Cole is a team leader. Swayze Bozeman and Averie Habas are team leaders. So getting Swayze and Cole back, not only do you get a good football player, but you get leadership back as well.”
Cornerback Shortage
Southern Miss lost another cornerback in its 44-37 loss to Arkansas State after Elijah Sabatini tore his ACL. This comes after corners Brendan Toles and Sentario Willis tore their ACLs.
“It happened on the big kickoff. He was the contain guy and tore his ACL running down the field, so we didn’t have any contain, and they popped a 50-yard kickoff return,” Hall said.
As a result, the Golden Eagles will be moving wide receiver Zay Franks to the corner.
“Franks is moving to corner this week,” Hall said. “We had to; we’ve lost three defensive backs to ACLs in two weeks and two corners. So we’re obviously very thin at that position. Zay went over there with a great attitude and made some plays today. It’s a position he’s played before in high school, and we think he can be a good player there.”
Texas State's Transfer QB
In the offseason, newly hired Texas State coach G.K. Kinne, who was previously at Incarnate Ward, brought in 49 new players, which included 35 transfer players from the FBS or FCS level and seven new junior college players. So far, the Bobcats, who come off a 35-24 win over Nevada, are off to a 3-1 start.
“They are a good football team,” Hall said. “They were a good football team last year, too. They lost three close games. They lost one score to us on basically a Hail Mary, lost one score to a great Troy team, and lost one score to Monroe [ULM]. If you flip those games, they are in a bowl game, and so they had a lot of good players from last year. They made a change very similar to us. Coach Kinne’s dad was a high school coach in Texas, and he knows Texas, and he’s been able to come in and get some portal guys from Texas like we have done here. So it’s very similar, and they’ve come out, and they are 3-1 right now. They are playing well, and it’s a tremendous challenge for us this year.”
One of the most notable transfers thus far has been quarterback TJ Finley, who was a starter at both Auburn and LSU. This season, Finley has thrown for 1,055 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception. He has also run for 55 yards and three touchdowns.
“He’s a good player,” Hall said. “He was a highly recruited guy and a five-star out of Ponchatoula. I remember him out of high school. He played with Tyjae Spears, who we coached at Tulane. He will be the biggest kid on the field and has a great, strong arm that he can throw from here to Columbia, Mississippi. Coach Kinne has done a good job of getting him playing well, and he’s had a good year so far.”
Southern Miss will kickoff against Texas State at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be shown on ESPN+.
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