• Legit record crowd of 36,232 on hand yesterday. Even the drive up was encouraging for attendance, as there were quite a few Eagle fans headed up Highways 67 & 49 in the early afternoon. When I really knew something was up, though, was when I headed to the stadium and hour before kickoff thinking I was “beating the rush.” Think again:

This is the line at Gate 2 an hour before kickoff. An hour before kickoff. What you can’t even see in this pic is how far the line bends back around the corner of the ramp. Yes, Alcorn brought a nice crowd, probably nicer than we can expect from any visiting team the rest of the way, but to that same end, the combination of Labor Day weekend and a glorified scrimmage kept some of our own students and alumni away. Whether or not Larry Fedora’s prediction of a new record being set next week comes true or not will have to be seen, but it’s certainly possible.

• Stats and competition level aside, the offense looked particularly sharp for its first outing. Austin Davis’ accuracy was particularly impressive, as was the stable of running backs. Fletch was his usual self, racking up 126 rushing yards by early in the 3rd quarter en route to becoming USM’s all-time all-purpose yardage leader. V.J. Floyd displayed a nice power-running game, and Tracey Lampley was quite Fletcher-like in his ability to shoot through a hole and juke tackles in more open field.

• The secondary is much improved. While Alcorn did gain over 100 yards through the air, the Braves receivers made a few great plays, and some catches came after what looked to be a sure sack. Getting the QB down when the chance is there is something that will have to be addressed in practice the next few weeks.

• As expected, the growth of the defense overall since last season was quite apparent. While last year’s rookie-loaded D ran vanilla–practically middle-schoolish–schemes, there was a lot of shifting and re-aligning going on last night throughout the game, and one can safely assume we weren’t letting it all hang out against Alcorn. Having the basics under the players’ collective belt now and being able to mix things up and be more complex this season is going to be a huge help in slowing down opposing offenses.

• Kudos to both schools on the pre-game Steve McNair tribute. I was concerned USM officials would forget that he actually played elsewhere and go overboard with it, but it was very nicely done. Not too much, and not too little.

• Even though it may have been because Alcorn left us little choice, it was nice to see the black jerseys/white pants combo I’d been championing on the message board for a while now.

• For those of you fortunate enough to miss it, during the pregame coin toss, referee Steve LaMantia of Laredo, Texas, like the 2007 PapaJohns.com Bowl official before him, referred to the Golden Eagles as “Mississippi State” and got himself vociferously booed for it. Unlike the bowl official, though, LaMantia did it twice: once to being with, and then again when trying to correct himself. I hope the coaches scratched him from covering a game in Hattiesburg again based upon that alone. The next time a ref goofs up the name, I won’t be upset if one of our players “accidentally” “bumps” into him as a reminder on the next play. Yeah, that’s an ugly thing to say, but as the saying goes, I’ll try to be nicer if you try to be smarter.

Just as I was putting the finishing touches on what was to be the first football entry for 2009, the local high school football wrap-up show on WLOX-TV showed and mentioned DeAndre Brown on the sidelines of Ocean Spring’s High’s game tonight.  Brown told WLOX’s Jeff Shepard that he won’t play vs. Alcorn (thus his being in O.S. instead of in Hattiesburg tonight) but will be back next week vs. UCF.

Brown had recently been cleared by his doctor to participate in full-contact practice.