Third in a four-part series previewing Arkansas’ nonconference opponents.
FAYETTEVILLE - Southern Miss has maintained a reputation for decades as one of the feistiest mid-major football programs in the Deep South.
That’s what made last year’s 0-12 season, when the Golden Eagles were the first winless team in the FBS since Eastern Michigan and Western Kentucky in 2009, such a surprise.
A streak of 18 consecutivewinning seasons ended with a thud, costing Ellis Johnson his job in his first season as head coach and opened the door for Todd Monken. Johnson is now running the defense for Gus Malzahn at Auburn.
Monken, who is going into his first season as a head coach, is charged with picking up the pieces.
“If the answers were simple, they wouldn’t have had the year they had,” said Monken, who coordinated Oklahoma State’s high-powered offense the past two seasons. “There’s a numberof things that didn’t go right, starting with, obviously, they lost a lot of good players from the year before and had a change in staff and philosophy.
“It just didn’t go early like they hoped, then it kind of went downhill from there.”
A Southern Miss team reconfigured for the second consecutive year will visit Fayetteville on Sept. 14. The Golden Eagles look to be one of the few respites on an Arkansas schedule that shapes up as perhaps the most difficult in the nation. Take away Southern Miss’ 0-12 record, and the rest of the Hogs’ opponents went 99-42 (.702) last season.
Yet at least one preseason media outlet, USA Today, projects Southern Miss ahead of Arkansas this fall, ranking the Golden Eagles No. 82 and the Hogs No. 83.
Southern Miss’ fall under Johnson was a dramatic bolt out of the blue after a run of winning seasons that ranked four-best nationally. The Golden Eagles had gone 12-2 in 2011, ranking 17th in total offense and 29th in total defense under Larry Fedora, but sustained personnel losses and lacked a competitive fire last year.
“One of the things I told the players when I took over was, I think, in order for this thing to get back on track, the players have to take some sort of ownership in the year they had,” Monken said. “If they just think a new staff comes in and all of a sudden, ‘They’re gone, we’re back,’ it’s a loser’s mentality. They have to take ownership in they didn’t play well enough last year and prepare well enough, and I think they’ve done that.”
A punchless offense and shoddy ball security were the Golden Eagles’ biggest problems in 2012, though thedefense was also lacking. The offense ranked No. 106 in total yardage (322.8 per game), and the team’s minus 1.33 turnover margin ranked No. 115 in the country, though ahead of Arkansas’ minus-1.6 turnover margin.
Four different quarterbacks started at least one game, and five played, as injuries plagued the position. The best of the lot was true freshman Anthony Alford, who battled through knee and ankle injuries and was given his release to transfer in January to Ole Miss. He was followed out the door shortly by Arsenio Favors, who told the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser that Monken told him to move to tight end or transfer out, which led to him enrolling at Alabama State.
Senior Chris Campbell, who sustained a series of injuries in 2012, and sophomore Ricky Lloyd (knee) are back to compete with redshirt freshman Kyle Sloter and junior Cole Weeks, who split contact work in the spring. Transfer Allan Bridgford, who started three games at California the past two seasons, intends to arrive late this summer to join the mix.
Bridgford, 6-3, 210 pounds, played for new Southern Miss offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo in 2011-2012 at Cal.
“We’re going to try to get him up to speed,” Monken said. “It’s a developmental position right now.”
The top returning rusher is sophomore Jalen Richard (426 yards), although he was surpassed on the depth chart by senior Kendrick Hardy and sophomore Tyre Bracken in the spring.
“We’ll be fine there,” Monken said. “We lost a number of offensive linemen we’ve got to replace.”
The Golden Eagles ranked No. 110 in scoring offense (19.7 ppg) and No. 113 in scoring defense (37.8 ppg), a combination that helps explain the winless season.
There is hope for a rapid defensive turnaround under coordinator David Duggan, who left Southern Miss for North Carolina with Fedora after 2011. He has familiarity with some of the personnel, which includes seven seniors with significant experience.
Three seniors are back in the secondary in cornerback Deron Wilson, strong safety Jacorious Cotton and Jerrion Johnson, who plays the hybrid spot called spur.
Alan Howze and Dylan Reda are senior linebackers, while Khyri Thornton is a returning senior at defensive tackle. Octavius Thomas andAnthony Wilson are senior rush ends with marginal experience and are joined by Michael Smith and Rakeem Nunez-Roches on the line.
Monken said his measure for 2013 will be in fielding a team that competes hard and plays for each other each week.
The Golden Eagles’ tradition speaks to returning to relevance soon.
“Any coach wants to be somewhere where they have a history and tradition of winning, where you can get good players within a five-hour radius and you’ve got a good fan base, facilities to recruit to,” Monken said. “We had 18 straight winning seasons and one - now, mind you, it was a bad season, a really bad season. You’ll still be hardpressed to find 18 of the last 19 winning seasons.
“You’ll be hard-pressed to find any programs with that record. I like to be at a place where that’s the norm.”Southern Miss SCHEDULE Aug. 31 Texas State, 6 p.m.
Sept. 7 at Nebraska, 5 p.m. (Big Ten Network) Sept. 14 at Arkansas, TBA Sept. 28 at Boise State, TBA (ESPN Networks) Oct. 5 Florida International, TBA (CSS) Oct. 19 at East Carolina, TBA (Fox Sports Net) Oct. 26 North Texas, 6 p.m. (FCS) Nov. 2 at Marshall, 11:30 a.m. (CBS SN) Nov. 9 at Louisiana Tech, 6 p.m. (CBS SN) Nov. 16 Florida Atlantic, TBA (CSS) Nov. 23 Middle Tennessee, TBA (CSS) Nov. 30 at UAB, TBA Conference USA game
Sports, Pages 19 on 07/13/2013