HATTIESBURG – Sometimes in life, bad days happen. It’s that way for football, too, and Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson is using that mantra after Saturday’s 30-12 loss to UAB.
“It’s just like life,” Hopson said. “Sometimes you have those bad days and you have to get over them and move on. That’s kind of what we have to do now.”
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Southern Miss’ first play of the game didn’t translate into success for the rest of night. Sophomore quarterback Keon Howard moved perfectly around in the pocket on the game’s first offensive play then hit a wide-open Ito Smith behind the defense for an 84-yard score. After a blocked point-after-attempt, USM led 6-0 quickly.
After that play, Southern Miss only gained 263 yards, but even 41 of those came on a desperation play with less than a minute to go in the game. The Golden Eagles couldn’t get anything going, and a 5-for-17 third-down percentage was a major reason why they couldn’t sustain drives.
Southern Miss only gained 128 total yards in the second half, too.
“Yeah we struggled in the second half,” Hopson said. “We really did. It was evident. Anytime you score zero in the second half and throw a pick-6, it’s not a good day at the office, for sure.”
Howard looked impressive early, completing 5-of-7 passes for 147 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter, and he led his team on two scoring drives during that time to take a 9-7 lead after the opening frame.
It was also Howard’s first game where he didn’t throw an interception or fumble.
“I thought there were some good plays there, but offensively as a whole, we just didn’t have a great day,” Hopson said. “That’s evident. We just have to be better. That’s just part of that journey.”
Howard was replaced with injured redshirt junior Kwadra Griggs trailing 20-12 with 11:34 left in the game. Griggs has been out with a hand injury since late September, and he sported a smaller cast around his non-throwing hand Saturday.
He was 5-of-13 with 59 passing yards, 41 on one play, with an interception. The interception came 35 seconds to play, as D.A. Williams stepped in front of a pass then scored on a pick-6 to push the UAB lead to 30-12.
“Yeah, put him in the fourth just to get a (spark),” Hopson said. “Knocking off a little rust. He certainly competed hard.”
Besides the long touchdown reception, Smith was held in check on the ground, too. He rushed for 36 yards on 12 attempts, and his longest run, a 12-yard rush, was 33 percent of his production.
“You know, not really,” Hopson said when asked if UAB did anything specific to stop Smith. “That’s something I’ll look more at film, but not really. They’ve done what they’ve done the previous weeks. We just didn’t run the ball very well and we didn’t throw the ball very well today. We just struggled offensively.”
The Golden Eagles dropped to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in Conference USA. With North Texas’ win Saturday, Southern Miss is now a game back, two counting the tiebreaker the Mean Green has over USM.
Southern Miss steps out of conference play next week with a road game to Tennessee Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and it’ll be televised on SEC Network.
