Austin Davis is out for the remainder of the season with what is presumably some type of Lis-Franc injury going by the few details made public so far.

Read the official release here at SouthernMiss.com.

In Davis’ absence, junior Martevious Young will be the starting quarterback, with true freshman Chris Campbell serving as the back-up according to a statement by Larry Fedora via Patrick Magee’s blog at the American.

• 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.

http://twitter.com/CoachFedora

The NCAA had been weighing whether or not to allow the Alabama DB transfer to play right away since the Crimson Tide had released him from his scholarship.

Once again, not being Notre Dame or Southern Cal comes back to bite us in the butt.

• 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.

For the second year in a row, the Golden Eagle coaching staff reeled in a top-notch group of athletes that Rivals.com tabbed the best in the conference (Scout.com was not as enthused, though I’m not sure

"With each letter, it becomes visibly better...."

how a high school All-American only gets 3 stars and probably even more puzzling, an All-Region guy from one of the toughest JuCo circuts in the county only manages 2 (?!?) stars in their particular system–for the record, Scout has no dedicated Southern Miss affiliate site, whereas Rivals does).

While there is some disappointment at the lack of a DeAndre Brown-like prodigy and USM’s failure to bring in any of the three big names still being courted Wednesday morning, this class is deeper, better off academically, and arguably better on average than last year’s class that got so many people talking, and still blows any class from recent memory out of the water.  That we’ve already reached the point where not getting a consensus 5-star or a possible Pat White-in-waiting from Maryland is a letdown is a testament to just how far things have progressed in Larry Fedora’s brief tenure.  While people “ooh” and “ahh” the most over individual standouts, the most telling fact is how today’s “average” signees are at the same level as the highlights of our past recruiting classes.  Using the Rivals numbers, from 2003-2007, Southern Miss signed a total of one 4-star recruit and an average of six 3-stars per year (never fewer than 3 and never more than 8).  When all the dust settled yesterday, we had signed three 4-stars and 15 3-stars.  That’s a phenomenal leap in talent and depth thereof.

In other signing day news, I attended the Southern Miss party at the Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi.  Since my group sat in the very front and most of the tables were on a stage behind us, I can’t give an accurate attendance estimate.  I will say, however, that the highlight of the evening had to be Reggie Collier interrupting Dick Vogel during his supposedly inspirational speech about how much better things are at Ole Miss in order to salvage the situation.  I guess some things change around here, and some don’t.

• The defense looked unbelievably better in every aspect. Sure, Boise State scored 24 points, but 1) Boise State does that and worse to everyone, and 2) Boise was given too many short fields to work with, which brings us to…
• The 4th-and-1 call early in the 2nd quarter was dumb as a box of rocks on Larry Fedora’s part. Yes, you have to expect to gain one measly yard. Yes, it’s a big boost if you make it. HOWEVER, the coach has to consider the consequences of not making it, which in this case was giving a superior opponent the ball on your own 45 yard line after your defense had put up a yeoman’s effort to kept them off the scoreboard in the opening quarter. That was a game-changing decision, and Fedora blew it, as I’ve seen so many new coaches (including future two-time National Champion coach Steve Campbell back in his first season at Southwest Mississippi CC) do in that situation. The good news is that you never see any of them repeat the mistake.
• The offense was just off. To spend that much time in Boise State territory and only score one TD was awful. How much of that was to Boise’s credit and how much was the proverbial growing pains, who knows? Specifically…
• The game still seems just a little too fast for Austin Davis, which is to be expected when you’re talking about a redshirt freshman (especially one who came to school on a baseball scholarship). His decisions aren’t bad overall, but against a quality team, he has got to make them more quickly. He could potentially become a holy terror for those on our remaining schedule.
• What in the WORLD is up with our FG kicking game? The woes there continued with a block of the potential go-ahead score to start the game.
• All props to the Boise State fans, who may have brought the largest visiting crowd so far this year. The only other possibility is UL-Lafayette. As much as we fuss about CUSA being so spread out as to discourage travel, all those folks in blue and orange Saturday proved its more just a matter of giving a damn.
• Two words on Reggie Collier’s jersey retirement: About time.
• I cried because I had CUSA refs, until I saw the man who had WAC refs.

• 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.

First, let me say that I went back and forth on whether or not to even address this particular topic.

"Should I just ignore him?"

On one hand, what’s done is done, and there’s really not a whole lot of point in harping on it any further, especially in light of all the optimism and excitement that abounds these days. On the other hand, it was/is the biggest athletic story at Southern Miss in nearly 2 decades and as such hard to ignore, especially in the face of the harsh, condescending, and often downright ignorant criticism Golden Eagle fans and shot-callers have endured from the media and others (some of which has already been backtracked upon, by the way). At one point, the Jeff Bower resignation and Larry Fedora hire was even going to be the subject of the first “regular” entry to FTF.

"Blah, blah, blah."

However, throughout all the idea-vetting, drafting, editing, quote-compiling, and analyzing I had sporadically dedicated to this topic in the hopes of creating a satisfying blog entry at some point, I kept gravitating back to a famous and often-paraphrased quote by American writer and craftsman Elbert Hubbard that both summed up the situation better in one sentence than I could in a full page and also offered some great advice:

Never explain–your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

Unfortunately for USM, Hubbard’s literary work came during what is now known as the Arts and Crafts Movement and not the present-day era of finger-wagging sportswriters and pundits, but no matter. As noted above, the ignorant have already begun to become educated. If the past 8 months are any indication, that lesson should only progress over the upcoming season and beyond.