Fletcher is dealing with a groin strain, Brown a bruised shoulder.  Morris is still recovering from a concussion suffered vs. Virginia via a hit that USM has asked the NCAA to review.

Read more details via the American here.

The team should be OK without the trio, but it’s a shame their injuries will cost Fletcher and Brown some TV time.  Best wishes to Morris as he deals with something that can be especially exasperating.

Hopefully, a positive from this news will be that it will motivate the rest of the team a little more to not take this game for granted since two of its premiere offensive weapons won’t be available.

FWIW, UAB has their own injury problems.

Southern Miss (3-0) at #19/20 Kansas (3-0)

Thursday’s line: Kansas -14

First meeting: this one

Last time out: Southern Miss def. Virginia 37-34, Kansas def. Duke 44-16

Two high-powered offenses collide Saturday as the Golden Eagles travel to Lawrence to take on the Jayhawks. This is obviously a big game for Southern Miss, as it is a chance to add a little meat to its current 8-game winning streak (its longest since the 1958-1959 seasons) and unblemished 2009 record by knocking off a ranked team.

The Kansas offense is captained by senior QB Todd Reesing, who would be a household name if he played in any other conference or at any other time not in the shadow of his counterparts at Oklahoma and Texas. All Reesing has done in his career at KU (what’s up with those Plains state’s reversing the initials like that, anyway?) is lead the Jayhawks to 11 straight wins once he was given the reins, become the schools career passing leader with over 7500 yards in 3 seasons, and consistently provide Kansas with one of the 25 most potent offenses in the country. 23-6 as a starter, Reesing is obviously an excellent passer, but he’s also a capable scrambler/runner, and rarely does anything to hurt his team (32 TDs to 13 INTs in ‘08, 6-to-1 so far in ‘09). Essentially, he’s a super-powered mutant version of our own Austin Davis.

Among Reesing’s favorite targets are senior WR Kerry Meier and junior WR Dezmon Briscoe, who are picking up in ‘09 right where they left off in ‘08, when they both went over 1,000 yards and combined for 23 TDs. In Kansas’ first 3 games this year, the tandem has combined for 465 yards and 2 TDs. Also keep your eye on senior RB Jake Sharp out of the backfield, as he has 3 TD receptions on the year in addition to his 240 yards on 42 carries and 3 TDs on the ground.

If there is a weak link in the Jayhawks’ offensive armor, it is the inexperience of its line. The KU O-line entered 2009 having to replace its default starters at center, right guard, left guard, and right tackle, leaving sophomore center (formerly LT) Jeremiah Hatch and sophomore tackle Jeff Spikes as the only O-linemen with any starts under their belts. While the unit has performed admirably so far, Southern Miss may prove a step up in competition from UTEP and Duke.

On defense, Kansas is more experienced up front, with 3 of 4 on the line being returning starters. Tackles Caleb Blakesley and Jamal Green, and end Jake Laptad were expected to anchor the line, but it is senior end Maxwell Onyegbule who’s been providing most of the hurt in ‘09 with 3 sacks, 4 ½ tackles for loss, and an interception. In ‘08, Kansas was 28^th in the nation in rushing yards allowed per game, but that appears to be skewed by the pass-happiness of the Big 12, as their per-rush allowance ranked 31 spots lower.  That gap has closed in ‘09, however, as Kansas currently ranks 8th in yards allowed per game and only 14th in yards allowed per carry.

Behind the line, Kansas replaced its entire linebacking corp for 2009, but junior Drew Dudley has emerged as a force with 3 sacks and a whopping 5 tackles for loss in the early stages of the season. Also, the Jayhawks are as experienced in the backfield as they are inexperienced in the middle, and per head coach Mark Mangino, the Jayhawks go with an extra safety instead of 3 backers 80% of the time anyway. Senior safety Darrell Stuckey has been dubbed the leader of the DBs by those in the know and is currently tied for 2^nd on the team in tackles, 1 behind Dudley and CB Justin Thorton. Of note to both Eagle fans and the USM running back stable is the fact that 4 out of KU’s 5 leading tacklers at the moment are DBs. I’m sure Damion Fletcher & Co. would be OK with it if the majority of their plays come to an end in the secondary on Saturday.

• The DeAndre Brown Welcome Back party went well. You could see a little rust, and he and Austin
  

  Photo credit: Tim Isbell, Sun Herald

  Davis missed on what would have been a TD last season and probably will be again in another week or two, but Brown had a good night (7 catches for 75 yards), wasn’t afraid to take or lay a hit (he knocked a UCF safety halfway back to Orlando while blocking for Damion Fletcher late in the game) , and on a couple of occasions reclaimed his role as the 3rd-down go-to guy.

• The offense did not have a great game. The yards were there, but too much of the ball movement was between the 20s. Too many drives stalled and the big play eluded the team most of the night. To get nearly 400 yards against what the preseason mags had dubbed a pretty top-notch defensive front is good, but as was the case last week, far too many opportunities were squandered.

• It’s hard to make a call on Saturday’s defense. UCF couldn’t get much done (held under 200 total yards), but nor did they vs. Samford. The Eagles D-line stuffed the running game, but the backfield performance was more hit-and-miss. A few times, there were flashbacks of recent defenses that allowed nothing on 1^st and 2^nd down, but allowed a conversion on 3^rd. To have zero interceptions was a disappointment. Still, the bottom line was good, and there was a TD scored off of a fumble, so there’s not much room to complain. One just has to wonder what’ll happen when this D faces a more formidable opponent.

• The special teams performance was downright embarrassing. FOUR mishandled punts?!? Even in the rain, that is unacceptable. As is the inability to hit a 26-yard field goal. There was also a bad snap on a PAT (followed by a hell of an effort to run it in by holder Kane Wommack), which is going to happen every now and then, but it looked more like part of a pattern than an aberration Saturday night. In the wake of UCF’s big return game vs. Samford, the Eagles’ kick coverage was fine up until after the presumptive game-icing touchdown, at which point it allowed an 89-yard return to the 5 which allowed the Knights to cut the lead to 7 with under 2 minutes left. Even a perfectly average performance on special teams would’ve made this game a blowout. If this isn’t fixed, it’s going to start costing USM some wins.

• All in all, Coach Fedora put it best on his twitter: “Great to get our 2nd win. Got to play better next week.”

• Saturday’s win was the 7^th straight for USM dating back to the middle of last season. That’s the team’s longest win streak since 1988.

• On a non-football note, during the drive up Hwy. 49, I saw what had to be the most redneck thing this side of the wedding at the Waffle House. Someone just south of Perkinston was holding a yard sale inside a school bus. I regret not stopping to get a photo.

• 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.

• 70 points. Just wow.
• Attendance was better than expected. It wasn’t great, and obviously, there’s a Homecoming boost, but considering the record, I expected a much bigger dropoff since Boise. I really think a) the majority of fans realize this is a building process and b) win or lose, a lot of folks still want to see what Fletcher, Davis, and Brown are going to do next.
• Speaking of Fletcher, another round of congratulations to him for becoming the first 4,000-yard rusher in USM history as well as the first to go three straight years over 1,000.
• Congrats also to Davis, who broke a school record for rushing TDs in one game (previously held by Chris Windsor, Shelton Gandy, and Doyle Orange) as well as Brett Favre’s school record for TD passes in a season by a freshman. The folks who do the media guide are going to be busy this off-season.
• The defense did a great job, but I wouldn’t read too much into it just yet. Their 5 turnovers–UAB coughed up 6, but one was on a kick return–were great (the interception by Andre Watson was phenomenal), but you’re simply not going to get that every week. Whether or not we can stop a team that protects the ball a little better remains to be seen.
• I was seriously digging the gold-on-gold, even though the blogosphere’s most famous USM alum Dr. Saturday (The Artist Formerly Known as the Sunday Morning Quarterback) disagreed. (C’mon Matt. Don’t hate on your own school like that!) Oddly enough, Wyoming also wore gold-on-gold for the first time ever on Saturday, and California broke out the same color scheme. All three schools won. If those three, West Virginia, and Minnesota are ever all at home on the same day, we should coordinate just to try to crash the UniWatch website.

• Congratulations to Damion Fletcher, the new all-time rushing leader at Southern Miss.
• The box score won’t show it, and there’s still plenty of work to do, but the offensive line probably played its best game yet, and the coverage on defense was much improved. The weak link is still the defensive line. It’s awfully difficult to cover guys when the opposing QB has all night to decide what he wants to do. Overall, the biggest problem is trying to play defense with smoke and mirrors.
• Heartbreaking near-misses are certainly nothing new for USM, but it’s doubly frustrating from the perspective of building as opposed to an individual game here and there.
• I just can’t help but get the feeling that once this worm turns, we’re going to get hot.
• Was I the only one having Louisville 2002 flashbacks with that kicking performance?
• Man, it sure is tough to leave campus when everybody stays until the end of the game. Here’s hoping it only gets tougher.

[P.S. Apologies to both of my fans for there not being a Know Thy Enemy last week. Real life reared its ugly head and interfered with my writing time.]

Marshall (2-1, 0-0) at Southern Miss (2-1, 0-0)

Thursday’s line: Southern Miss -7

First meeting: 2005 in Huntington

Last meeting: 2007 in Huntington (USM won 33-24)

Southern Miss leads the series 3-0

Last week: USM def. Arkansas St. 27-24; MU def. Memphis 17-16

With Marshall falling on hard times right around the time they joined Conference USA, and Southern Miss suffering something of a slide of its own in recent years, some of the anticipated luster has faded on this young conference rivalry between two of the more respected programs outside of the BCS automatic qualifier conference pool. The games themselves, however, have lived up the billing for the most part, as the first meeting resulted in USM hanging on for an overtime win, and last year’s contest featured a furious Marshall comeback that put a scare into the hearts of Golden Eagle fans everywhere. Only the 2006 meeting, a 42-7 thumping of the Herd in Hattiesburg featured a runaway. Will the 2008 edition be another tight one, or will one of these programs—both seemingly on the rise—make a statement? As the teams mirror each other in a lot of ways, it could go any number of directions.

Marshall’s offense, much like Southern Miss’, features a workhorse running back in Darius Marshall, and a go-to tight end in Cody Slate. Marshall (the player), made the CUSA All-Freshman team in 2007 after posting 631 yards and an average of 5.1 per carry. In 2008, he’s picked up right where he left off, currently ranking 23rd in the FBS and 2nd in CUSA (only to Southern Miss’ own Damion Fletcher) in rushing yards per game at a hair under 102. In Slate, Marshall (the school) has a counterpart to Southern Miss’ Shawn Nelson: a tall tight end with speed and good hands. Slate has missed the past two games to a knee injury but will play Saturday. The two players’ stats over the past few years are eerily similar, but it’s worth noting—as Marshall Coach Mark Snyder recently did—that Nelson is a considerably bigger factor in USM’s offense these days than has been in the past.

The pilot of Marshall offense is redshirt freshman quarterback Mark Cann, who delivered an otherwise pretty good effort (20 for 39, 211 yards) marred by 2 interceptions in his second game, a blowout at the hands of Wisconsin and a cleaner one (14 for 28, 224 yards, 1 TD, no INTs) in a close win vs. Memphis. Cann and the rest of the backfield operate behind a fairly experienced (3 returning starters out of 5) but not wholly aged (2 seniors and a sophomore among those 3) line that amazingly has yet to allow a sack in 2008.

The Herd’s defense is centered around junior outside linebacker Albert McClellan, who was named CUSA Defensive Player of the Year in 2006, and is back in ’08 after missing ’07 due to injury. McClellan has 2 sacks in the young season. Other players to watch include senior inside linebacker Maurice Kitchens, who leads the team in total tackles with 26 including 1 sack, and senior free safety C.J. Spillman, who leads the team in solo tackles with 11. As a unit, Marshall’s defense is pretty average (55th in the FBS) against the run, yielding 117 yards per game, but rather atrocious (112th) against the pass, allowing nearly 309 yards per game (and that’s not skewed by the Wisconsin blowout; they gave up a whopping 368 to Memphis). As with most units at this point in the season, it’s tough to read a pattern from the game-by-game sample since, as was alluded to previously, the schedule so far has included not only a 51-14 blowout at the hands of a Top 15 Wisconsin and a low-scoring 17-16 squeaker over Memphis, but also an obligatory alumni-assuring home pounding of a lower-division opponent.

On paper (or an electronic analog thereof), this should be a good one. You’ve got two teams with similar offenses still in the early stages of finding themselves, and on top of that, in many places on the roster, each team has a counterpart to the other’s key player. In the end, though, Southern Miss’ multiple offensive weapons will probably prove too much for Marshall’s heretofore generous defense. The only question is how much can the Golden Eagles’ young defense slow down Marshall (currently the winningest FBS team in West Virginia, by the way, much to the chagrin of my WVU-alum spouse) when they have the ball? There will probably be some scary moments in this one, but I doubt it’ll be quite the nail-biter we saw (or heard, no thanks to our supposed “play-by-play” announcer) last week at Arkansas State.

• We beat a solid and significantly more experienced team at their place.
• We did it in only the 3rd game of the season.
• There’s some deserved concern in regard to the defense after once again giving up a ton of yards. Unfortunately, it’s probably not wise to expect a whole lot better any time soon considering our youth on the line. This is a problem area everyone knew about going into the season, and you can’t just magically turn a freshman or sophomore into a grizzled, 30-lbs-heavier senior. Hopefully, the lack of tackling on initial contact can be improved upon, but mostly, it just goes with the territory.
• Far too many dropped passes tonight. I’m more forgiving to DeAndre Brown since he was in high school just a few months ago, but when the ball hits somebody’s hands, a play has to be made
• Is Fletch versatile, or what? 91 yards rushing and 61 passing, including a 24-yard TD.
• Also, another great game from Shawn Nelson (7 receptions for 110).
• All of the good football coaches I’ve ever been around had certain things in common, and Larry Fedora has displayed every one of them so far:
  • they stay positive
  • they don’t just direct players, they teach the game
  • they preach the fact that the outcome of every game comes down to just a handful of plays, and there’s no way of knowing which plays those will be, so you’d better bust your ass on every one just in case
  • While they obviously care about wins and losses, their larger concern–win or lose–is always their own team’s performance and improvement.
• With the first of our “toss-up” games in the books on the good side of the ledger, there is no way in Hades we’re going to lose 6 or more games this year as some have predicted.

Southern Miss (1-0, 0-0) at Auburn (1-0, 0-0)

Monday’s line: Auburn –17

First meeting: 1946 in Montgomery

Last meeting: 1993 in Auburn

Auburn leads the series 16-5

Last week: USM def. La-Lafayette 51-21; Auburn def. La-Monroe 34-0

The Golden Eagles get little time to celebrate their wildly successful season opener as Week 2 brings them to the Alabama plain to face Auburn. The Tigers represent Southern Miss’ only game in 2008 vs. a BCS-auto-qualifier conference as well as their first tilt against an SEC team in 2 days short of a year.

Coming off of a disappointing 5-3 conference record in 2007 due in large part to offensive struggles, head coach Tommy Tuberville decided to try something different and brought in a new offensive coordinator in Tony Franklin, formerly the guiding force behind Troy’s spread offense. Franklin was unhappy with his offensive unit’s performance—as well as his own—this past Saturday vs. Louisiana-Monroe, going as far as to say, “We stink and it’s my fault.” In terms of the passing game, the stench was unavoidable as starting QB Kodi Burns completed a disappointing 4 of 9 passes for 15 yards before leaving the game with a lacerated leg mid-way through the 3rd quarter. Auburn’s other QB, Chris Todd, who battled neck-and-neck with Burns for the starting nod and shared playing time before taking over for good after Burns’ injury, finished 9-for-18 for 70 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The running game, however, was a completely different story, racking up 321 yards. Junior Ben Tate accounted for 115 of those yards, including a 49-yarder; Burns rushed for 69; freshman Eric Smith rushed for 66; and senior Brad Lester gained 52 yards and accounted for Auburn’s other (yes, there were only 2) offensive TD.

The Plainsmen also have a new coordinator on defense, with Paul Rhoads replacing the departed Will “BOOM, M*+#@^-F^@%er!” Muschamp, who left for the same position at Texas and incidentally was on the short list of potential replacements for Jeff Bower. Rhoads’ weapons include junior end Antonio Coleman, who led the team in sacks (8.5) in 2007 and newly relocated tackle Sen’Derick Marks who led the line in tackles (43) in 2007 from the end position. Auburn also features a solid rotation of linebackers in Tray Blackmon (45 tackles in an injury-plagued ’07, 2 vs. UL-M), Courtney Harden (4 tackles vs. UL-M), Merrill Johnson (3 solo tackles vs. UL-M), Craig Stevens, and Chris Evans (3 tackles each vs. UL-M). The Tigers were especially effective vs. the pass in 2007, ranking 6th in the nation in yards against, and picked up right where they left off vs. UL-M by allowing only 136 yards and no TDs via the air. The Tigers were no slouch vs. the run, either, ranking 28th in the nation in ’07, and allowing only 84 yards on 30 carries this past Saturday. In what may be a ray of hope for Southern Miss, Auburn did only manage two sacks vs. an inexperienced (1 returning starter) and presumably overmatched Warhawk O-line.

Last week, Auburn had to rely on defense and special teams to separate themselves out of the gate from a .500 Sun Belt opponent (albeit one who beat Auburn’s own in-state rival last year), managing only a field goal on offense in the first half. However, after going run-heavy in the second half, they more than proved they could move the ball on the ground. That does not bode well for the Golden Eagles, who gave up 263 yards rushing to the other UL this past Saturday. Expect Auburn to put that equation to the test early and often on Saturday. If USM can somehow slow AU’s ground game, it’ll go quite a long way in improving the Golden Eagles’ chances for a win. Auburn’s QB situation is still somewhat up in the air (no pun intended), with Franklin expecting to play both Burns and Todd, though the latter may be slowed by the aforementioned gash on his leg and the multiple stitches required to close it [UPDATE: Todd has been named the starter.]

When Southern Miss has the ball, Auburn will have to remain effective against the run (especially Damion Fletcher, who put up 222 yards in the opener) and produce more pressure on the quarterback in order to slow down a Golden Eagle offense already (and surprisingly) practically firing on all cylinders with Austin Davis under center (633 yards vs. UL-L, good for the week’s 3rd-best outing in the nation). While it obviously shouldn’t be as easy for the Southern Miss “O” vs. Auburn as it was vs. UL-L, the combination of talent and the law of averages should still result in some opportunities, and a big play here and there could make a huge difference in the final outcome.

The last time Southern Miss entered Jordan-Hare stadium with a new head coach–a long, long time ago–the Golden Eagles stunned the Tigers 10-9. Expect the opposite in terms of scoring this time around, with neither team really stopping the other, and the one who only best slows the other’s game plan coming out on top. The last 4 games between USM and AU have been decided by a mere 5.5 point average, and based on the first week’s work from both teams, this one may not be any different. Expect Auburn’s advantage in defensive experience and depth to prove the difference.