Southern Miss finally found needed momentum with a conference road win over North Texas last Saturday.
The Golden Eagles came away with the win after several players were sidelined due to COVID-19 protocols. Southern Miss had 53 scholarship players suit up for the game. North Texas, notably, was without several starters because of COVID-19 as well.
“I’m not going to give you a number,” USM interim coach Scotty Walden said. “I’ve got to be careful with confidentiality and things like that. With COVID, we had numerous players that were not available for the game. Everybody is battling it. Keep in mind this doesn’t mean everybody is a positive test. You’ve got contact tracing, things of that nature. Our training staff has done an amazing job getting that under control. We had enough (depth) to play the game. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have played.”
Southern Miss found much needed offensive success with its run game between Frank Gore Jr. and Darius Maberry. Gore collected his first 100-yard game and touchdown of the season and was the first running back to do so since DeMichael Harris in last season’s game against Louisiana Tech. Gore and Maberry combined for 185 of the offense’s 202 rushing yards.
The Golden Eagles will now turn their attention to reigning C-USA champs Florida Atlantic. The Owls were forced to delay the first four games of the season due to COVID-19. Last week, the Owls opened former Florida State coach Willie Taggert’s debut with a 21-19 win over Charlotte.
“This will be Game 5 for us, and this will be Game 2 for them,” Walden said. “They have a lot of tape on us, and we don’t have a lot of tape on them. It’s that kind of year, and we aren’t going to make any excuses.
“They are talented and athletic. They fly to the ball well. They are good on offense and mix it up on offense with a quarterback run game. They give you a lot of areas to have a concern.”
Offensively, Florida Atlantic relied heavily on its dual-threat quarterback Nick Tronti. Tronti was named the 2016 Florida Mr. Football in high school and is a transfer from Indiana. Last week, Tronti was 11-of-22 and passed for 98 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for a team high of 94 yards and a touchdown. Tronti notably connected with seven different wide receivers last week.
On defense, the Owls came up with six total sacks and forced a fumble against Charlotte. Notably, defensive end/outside linebacker Leighton McCarthy came up with three sacks and 10 tackles in the Owls’ win.
This week’s game could face a time change due to Hurricane Delta. In a statement released by USM Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain explained that the storm would remain closely monitored.
“We continue to closely monitor the weather situation in the Gulf of Mexico and remain in constant contact with the state and local emergency officials,” McClain said in the statement. “While it remains too early to make any decision regarding our 3 p.m. home game this Saturday, our staff will continue to evaluate and work through possible scenarios. Our decision-making progress will be on the safety of not only our players, staff, and fans but Florida Atlantic as well.”
