Through five games of season, Southern Miss still hasn’t broken the 500-yard mark for rushing yards. It sits at 493 yards and only two rushing touchdowns on 159 carries, which is good for 124th in the country.
That means only five teams in Division I football have performed worse than the Golden Eagles at running the ball. Southern Miss offensive coordinator said Monday there isn’t just one area that needs to get better. There are multiple.
“We have to coach better, we have to plan better and we have to demand better,” Dawson said. “That’s really where running the football comes in. There isn’t a magic formula; there aren’t magic plays in the run game. It’s about simple execution, simple effort and human beings doing their job.”
To top it all off, only one running back has recorded a touchdown. Redshirt freshman Steven Anderson has the lone running back score, and that came in the 40-22 win over Rice when he had eight carries for 52 yards. He hasn’t had more than 1 rushing yards since. Backup quarterback Tate Whatley has the other, which came against Jackson State in the season opener.
Southern Miss has used the same starting five on the offensive line all season, and Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson said the coaches will look at everything to make sure the running game gets better. Whether that’s play calling or personnel
“We’re going to do what we can do to make sure we’re in the right situation with the right guys doing the right thing,” he said. “I think that’s what this journey is all about with coaching.”
Hopson acknowledge using multiple fullbacks in Saturday’s game to try and spark the run offense, and Dawson said the misdirection run plays are some of the team’s best plays to turn to in a game.
“When you feel good about something you’re going to do it,” Hopson said. “Actually, we probably got more out of those run plays than most we ran Saturday. So, we have to pinpoint which plays are the ones that are good and rep them more.”
Freshman Trivenskey Mosley has been a bright spot for the Golden Eagles, though, and he had his best performance of the season last week in the loss to North Texas. He led the team with 73 yards on 11 carries – both personal bests – while the offense only totaled 50 rushing yards. Jack Abraham’s -37 yards made for that bizarre statistic.
Dawson said North Texas didn’t do anything to take away the run. “It was 100 percent us,” he said.
Senior T-Rod Daniels transferred, Anderson hasn’t seen much action and senior Tez Parks hasn’t found his groove, so expect more from Mosley as the season progress because he leads the team with 189 rushing yards on 36 carries. Parks only has 127 yards on 47 attempts – a 3.3-yard average.
In Hopson’s eyes, Parks and Mosley are both starters, but Mosley has received more carries in two of the last three games.
“I thought Trivenskey, when he had his opportunities, he ran the ball well,” Hopson said of Mosley’s effort at North Texas. “I thought he made some plays. We have to establish the run. I think that’s something we’re capable of doing and we have to do.
“I think at running back, I consider both Tez and (Mosley) starters. You have to a couple of running backs. I don’t think it really matters which one is one or two.”
Even with the struggles running the ball, Southern Miss is ranked 12th in the nation in passing offense. With an average of 318.6 yards through the air per game, Southern Miss ranks higher than teams like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Missouri. West Virginia, Northwestern, Boise State and North Texas rank in the four spots ahead of the Golden Eagles.
Griggs’ tough season continues
Redshirt senior has already been through a lot this season, and all of it has come off the field. Hours before Southern Miss’ 1:30 p.m. kickoff against North Texas, Griggs found out his mother had passed away, Hopson told the local media at Monday’s weekly press conference.
“Kwadra has been through a lot,” Hopson said. “Before we played, his mother passed away Saturday morning and that's tough on a young man. I wanted to give the young man an opportunity to get in and play. He's been battling and I'm praying daily for him, but he's a young man that went in there and he competed hard.”
With the offense struggling to put up points, Hopson thought Griggs could give the team a spark.
“Right now Jack [Abraham] is our starting quarterback, as of today and as of that game, but I felt like I wanted to give him an opportunity to get in there,” Hopson said. “I felt like he deserved that opportunity and it's been a tough week. It's a double tough day for Kwadra Griggs on Saturday. A lot of times kids have to battle through a lot of things, but that's the great thing about football and that's what it teaches us -- to keep battling and keep pressing on.”
Hopson said Griggs’ mother was in the hospital prior to learning of the news Saturday morning.
“You don’t know if you want to say too much to him or be there for him,” Southern Miss offensive lineman Ty Pollard said of learning the news. “You just have to feel off him and see how he’s going about it. Just be the teammate you can be for him.”
