Southern Miss’ last football victory without Nick Mullens starting at quarterback came in the 2011 season.
Six years later, at 6 p.m. this Saturday against Southern (La.), the Golden Eagles try to change that as well as get into the win column this season with another starting quarterback, this one named Kwadra Griggs.
“He’s a young man who earned the opportunity to get to start this week so we’re going to give it to him,” Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson said.
Last week, in a 24-17 season-opening loss to Kentucky, sophomore Keon Howard started at quarterback. Howard completed 7 of 14 passes for 87 yards while running 10 times for 18 yards. Near halftime, when Howard left the game, Southern Miss trailed 14-3.
Griggs, a junior college transfer who redshirted last season, came into the game late in the second half and finished 15 of 26 for 222 yards passing. He fumbled twice, with Kentucky scoring on one of them.
“He really had an outstanding half,” Hopson said. “He did a great job running our offense and getting the ball to the right people. I thought he threw the ball well. He did a good job of running the ball, directing our team. The biggest thing is that we were a little bit more consistent on his reads.”
Southern (La.) defeated South Carolina State 14-8 in its season opener.
Whereas Southern Miss committed three turnovers last week, Southern (La.) committed none.
“Southern is always consistently a nine, 10-win football team,” Hopson said. “I think (Dawson Odums) does an outstanding job coaching their football team and it has our football team’s utmost respect. They’ve always had a lot of playmakers. They’re a physical football team and we know we have a good football team coming to town.”
In their opener, Jaguars quarterback Austin Howard passed for 198 yards while Herbert Edwards ran for 64 yards. Montavious Gaines made two tackles for loss.
But probably the statistic of that game was South Carolina State going 0-for-10 on third-down conversions.
As for the offense, Odums said after the game, “We’ll evaluate and get better.”
Against Kentucky, USM running back Ito Smith caught nine passes for 78 yards, wide receiver Korey Robertson caught seven for 11 and receiver Quez Watkins caught four for 103 yards.
Kentucky kept an extra defensive player near the line to stop USM’s running back — Smith gained 37 yards on 16 carries — and the Golden Eagles may see more of that out of opponents.
“What we’re finding is that you can’t be a good football team if there’s just one guy that’s the guy,” Hopson said. “What we’re establishing is that it’s fine if you’re going to load the box and take away Ito and you’re going to try and take away (receiver Allenzae) Staggers, but we’ll get the ball to Quez Watkins. We’ll get the ball to Korey Robertson. We have T-Rod (Daniels). The one thing we have here is that we have a lot of speed and guys that can make plays. That’s the one thing we saw with those guys like Quez and Korey. They’re phenomenal athletes, too.
“The one good thing that we’re going to have moving forward is we are not a one dimensional football team. That was the great thing about the second half. Kwadra threw for about 222 yards in the second half. There are guys out there that can make plays.”
