The Will Hall era at Southern Miss gets underway with six home games, a trip to the reigning national champion and its first trek to Mobile in 15 seasons as the 2021 football schedule was unveiled Wednesday afternoon by Conference USA.
The Golden Eagles kick off their 105th season by traveling to South Alabama (Sept. 4), marking the first time Southern Miss has opened the year on the road since 2016 and the first time the program has played in the city of Mobile since the 2007 GMAC Bowl. The team then enjoys back-to-back home games against Grambling State (Sept. 11) – who they will meet for the first time in their football playing history – and regional rival, Troy (Sept. 18).
The non-conference portion of the schedule concludes the following week with a trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and a meeting with defending national champion Alabama (Sept. 25). It will be the second time in the last three seasons the two teams will meet in football.
Following its trip to Alabama, the Golden Eagles begin October by transitioning into their 26th Conference USA slate with a road trip to Rice (Oct. 2), before returning home to face UTEP (Oct. 9) and UAB (Oct. 16) on consecutive weekends.
After an open date, Southern Miss travels to Middle Tennessee (Oct. 30) to end the month.
The November portion of the schedule shows the Golden Eagles starting with a home date against North Texas (Nov. 6), before enjoying road games at both UTSA (Nov. 13) and Louisiana Tech (Nov. 20). Southern Miss then completes the regular season with FIU (Nov. 27) as the Panthers visit The Rock for the second time in their history.
The 2021 C-USA alignment features seven teams in the East Division and seven teams in the West Division. Charlotte, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion and WKU comprise the East Division, while Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, UAB, UTEP and UTSA make up the West Division.
The 2021 schedule complies with C-USA scheduling policies as approved by the Board of Directors. In addition, the schedule provides the following:
·All teams finish their Conference schedule with two games of one at home and one away.
·All 14 teams have two home games and two away games in the first half of the Conference schedule as well as the second half of the Conference schedule; and
·There is at least one conference game in 11 of the 13 playing weeks.
·Each school has one bye week during the 13-week playing season with the exception of UTEP, which has two byes due to playing a non-conference game in week zero that has NCAA exemption.
It is important to note that all games are subject to date changes and some dates are expected to move in the coming weeks in order to accommodate national television. A schedule of televised games will be released at a later date.
Conference USA’s 17th annual Championship Game, pitting the champions of the East and West Divisions, is scheduled for Saturday, December 4.
