Virginia at Southern Miss
Thursday’s line: USM -15.5
First meeting: this one
At a particularly embarrassing 0-2, the Cavaliers limp into Hattiesburg as the final opponent in Southern Miss’ 3-game home stand to open the season after being doubled up by TCU last week and stunned by William and Mary the week before by nearly as bad a score. It’s been trying times in Charlottesville as the Cavs, much like USM last year, try to adjust to a wholly re-vamped spread offense with a lot of new personnel. Unfortunately for Virginia, their transition on that side of the ball has not gone as well as the Eagles’ did.
How bad is it for the Wahoos? Try 19 first downs in 2 games. USM had 23 vs. UCF last Saturday. Heck, Liberty High School in Virginia had 19 last Friday night. Things are so bad that 9th-year head coach Al Groh is grumbling about the negative effect home-crowd booing has on his team’s recruiting.
Surely, something must be going right, no? Well, Saturday’s presumptive starting QB Jameel Sewell, filling in for injured Vic Hall vs. TCU, finished hot, completing 4 of his last 5 passes, including 2 TDs. Granted, that was likely against the Horned Frogs’ defensive scrubs as the game was out of hand by that point, and Sewell had an otherwise mediocre day (8-for-18, 120 yards, 1 interception).
Elsewhere on offense, look for rushing and receiving by committee, as aside from Sewell, only one other back on the team–Mikell Simpson, last year’s 2nd-leading rusher–has double digits in carries, and only Simpson has more than 6 catches so far. Sewell has 138 yards rushing on the young season to lead the pack, and the team’s receiving yardage leader is sophomore WR Kris Burd with 54. Furthermore, last week’s 2 TD passes–the ‘Hoos only on the year, by the way–went to yet 2 more WRs, redshirt freshman Javaris Brown and true freshman Tim Smith. As you can tell from some of those stats, the big play threat has eluded U.Va. thus far.
On the other side of the ball, things aren’t going a whole lot better for the Cavaliers, as they currently sit at #91 in the nation in scoring defense and #71 in total defense. This is not aided by the grand total of 3 sacks Virginia has accumulated (2 vs. T.C.U., 1 vs. W. & M.). Those sacks belong to sophomore DE Matt Conrath, senior LB Denzell Burrell, and sophomore NT Nate Collins. Virginia’s lone interception of the season belongs to senior CB Chris Cook.
Even when it comes to USM’s glaring weakness so far, special teams, the Cavs don’t offer a whole lot of hope, as they have not even attempted a FG yet, and their longest kickoff return has been 28 yards (by Cook). Last week, pre-season All-ACC CB Ras-I Dowling did manage to pick up 34 yards on a punt return after a teammate caught the punt and handed it off, so keep an eye out for some trickeration in that phase.
Saturday’s game boils down to two teams headed in opposite directions: Southern Miss, winners of 7 straight, vs. Virginia, losers of 6 straight and for whom little has gone right in recent memory. Barring a complete collapse on the home side and a miraculous turnaround on the visitors’, the Golden Eagles should hit the road next weekend with 8 straight in their pocket.
