NEW ORLEANS
The Bell returns to Hattiesburg.
Facing his old team and the quarterback he recruited, Will Hall led the Golden Eagles into Yulman Stadium on Saturday and humbled the previously undefeated Tulane Green Wave with a 27-24 win.
Southern Miss (2-2) earned back the trophy the two former conference mates play for, a large bell with the the teams’ logos painted on each side.
It wasn’t easy taken, though, and the Golden Eagles needed to grow up fast to reclaim it.
Tulane (3-1) jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first half and was dominating both sides of the football for the first 20 minutes of the game. Green Wave quarterback Michael Pratt found success both through the air and the ground, while Zach Wilcke and the USM offense struggled to reach midfield.
Slowly, the gears began to turn. Pinpoint punting led to a timely defensive stand. That led to improved field position, which led Wilcke to breaking the game open for the Black and Gold with a 23-yard touchdown strike to Jason Brownlee midway through the second.
Wilcke found Jakarius Caston over the middle for a 37-yard score in the second half before Eric Scott Jr. buried Tulane with a 35-yard pick-six in the fourth quarter.
“I’d say it’s a really big win for our program and our fans,” Wilcke said. “It’s a testament to Coach Hall and the staff — they push us every day to be better. ... It was just a big win.”
Southern Miss outscored Tulane 27-3 following the Green Wave’s two-touchdown jump on the game.
It was USM’s first win against a non-conference FBS opponent in the Hall era, and it came against an old rival.
“The road had no pavement on it. It was gravel; there was a lot of holes,” Hall said. “There were some trees knocked down in it. It’s been a really, really tough road. But the road is starting to get clear; it’s starting to get better. We’re a much more talented team. We’ve got a young quarterback that’s got a chance to be a really good player.
“We’ve got a lot of talent around him and we’re recruiting at a really high level. So the road is starting to get where we can drive a little bit faster on it.”
Proof of progress
Winning isn’t easy, as USM learned against both Liberty and Miami. Even with a revamped roster, the Golden Eagles balked at numerous opportunities in both contests to show true headway in their rebuild.
That wasn’t the case against Tulane. Coming off a confidence-boosting win over Northwestern State, USM found the recipe for true progression in one of the bigger non-conference games in recent memory.
“I thought we grew up a lot,” Hall said. “I thought our defense played phenomenal. I thought our kicking game played phenomenal. We grew there, offensively, in the second half.”
Special teams and defense were the catalysts for the Golden Eagles’ sharp turnaround, but it was the offense that had to come through.
A unit that had not beaten an FBS opponent with an actual quarterback on the field at any point in the Hall era finally found the switch in front of a large road contingency of USM fans.
Wilcke completed 68 percent of his passes and threw two touchdowns without turning the ball over in his third career start.
“I felt good in the second half,” Wilcke said. “I felt calm, I felt relaxed. The O-line was giving me time. Defense did a really good job.”
Caston caught eight passes for 91 yards, while Brownlee was on the receiving end of three passes for 61 yards. According to Hall, the night Wilcke and his targets had was a sign of things to come.
“We’re going to be an explosive offense before this year is over with,” Hall said. “I had hoped we would be better tonight than what we were. I hoped we could put two halves together, we didn’t. We’re going to continue to improve.”
Familiar sparks
Southern Miss got a lift from its sharp-shooting punter Mason Hunt, but found ways to change the course of the game with the rest of the special teams unit.
Following USM’s first score of the game, Jay Jones blocked a Tulane punt and it set up a field goal from Briggs Bourgeois.
Later in the game, Natrone Brooks blocked a field goal attempt and it directly led to another Golden Eagle score on the other side of the field.
“We’re doing a great job right there in the kicking game,” Hall said. “We blocked a punt, we blocked a kick. ... It was an awesome night in the kicking game, it really was. And then we made our field goals.”
The Nasty Bunch defense allowed over 450 yards of offense, but allowed only 10 points on Tulane’s three trips to the red zone. It also registered four sacks and the fourth quarter pick-six.
“Great effort and hustle by Kristin Booth to knock it up into the air,” Scott Jr. said of his game-sealing interception. “And then for Jay Stanley to lead me into the end zone, I was just so happy. Lot of emotions.”
Southern Miss gets a week off to recover before conference play. The Golden Eagles enter the bye week bruised up, after both quarterback Ty Keyes and linebacker Swayze Bozeman had to leave Saturday’s game with injuries.
The Golden Eagles open Sun Belt Conference play at Troy on Oct. 8.
This story was originally published September 24, 2022 9:18 PM.
