Marshall v Southern Miss Marshalls opponent this Saturday (Southern Mississippi) is on a 19-game losing streak. The Herd (4-3 overall , 2-1 C-USA) has a dual mission. Number one....Marshall wants to rebound from a disappointing loss that dredged up bad memories of 2012, and number two....avoid being the victim in the Golden Eagles (0-7 overall, 0-3 C-USA) quest to win their first game since Christmas Eve 2011. Theyre trying to find the answers to be more successful, Marshall defensive coordinator Chuck Heater said. Theyre moving personnel around to get that done. You hope they just dont get it done on your day. Whatever discovery they make, it isnt on your time. Southern Misss losing streak isnt for lack of talent. They have good players, and they still have great players from when they won the Conference USA championship two years ago. Yet things are vastly different at Hattiesburg than they were in the 2011 season, when the Golden Eagles stunned then undefeated Houston in the C-USA title game and went on to win the Hawaii Bowl over Nevada. Coach Larry Fedora left for North Carolina, and Southern Miss hired South Carolina assistant Ellis Johnson. Johnson used five quarterbacks, including freshman and four-star recruit Anthony Alford. Johnson also hired Alfords high school coach, Steve Buckley, and named him offensive coordinator. The offense was one of the worst in college football and the Golden Eagles went 0-12. Johnson was fired, Alford transferred to Ole Miss and Buckley moved into a player personnel position. Southern Miss then hired Todd Monken, the former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator, and tasked him with turning around their program. In this season (as of now a winless campaign) Monken has turned to true freshman Nick Mullens as his starting quarterback. Mullens first start was in a 55-14 loss to North Texas, where he completed just 12-of-31 passes for 210 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. He also lost two fumbles while being sacked. Their team plays hard, Southern Miss coach Todd Monken said. You can see it on both sides of the ball. Really, theyre three tough losses away from being 7-0 and being in a conversation as a BCS buster. Weve got a real challenge ahead of us, a really good football team with a really good quarterback and a group of good coaches. Its going to be a real challenge for us. You watch them on film, thats a good football team. Should Southern Miss lose Saturday, the Golden Eagles would become the 17th NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision team to drop 20 in a row. Duke was the last, losing 22 consecutively from 2005-07. The Herd enters the game licking its wounds as well. It could have moved to 3-0 in C-USA for the first time since joining the conference, but fell in the final seconds to Middle Tennessee, 51-49, allowing a game-winning touchdown pass as time ran out. That conference loss was costly, but the Herd remains in a dead heat with East Carolina for the East Division lead. If nothing changes, the two teams (Marshall and East Carolina) will face each other in Huntington in their respective regular season finales. The key now is to stay at least neck-and-neck with the Pirates until that showdown. Marshall must recover from last weeks loss to Middle Tennessee State to beat Southern Miss, and this will keep the Herd on track. If we do anything but focus on Southern Miss, then the rest of it isnt going to matter, said Marshall Coach Doc Holliday, We have to find a way to win this game against Southern Miss and then well look at who we have down the road. If we look further than that and are not focused on Southern Miss, then well be sitting here next week having a conversation about no longer controlling our own destiny. As well as a conversation about being the Golden Eagles streak-breaker. Date: Saturday Nov. 01, 2013 Location: Joan C. Edwards Stadium, Huntington, West Virginia Time: 12:00 p.m. ET Coverage: CBS-Sports
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 20:48:05 +0000
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