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Can anybody give me their impression of Southern Miss' offense? I haven't seen any of their games this year. I already know about the smallish, quick back-up rb's. Their 'big' o-line isn't any bigger than some we have already faced. Their qb is seasoned, with 4 years in the system. But, what do they look like as a unit? Does it appear that our defense remains stout against them (my guess is 'yes', but that rests more on my faith in our D than knowing anything about their O)?

yeah, I also realize they demolished Navy and beat up Rice, but just like the pre-game hype of UCF's defense, I'd appreciate perspectives based upon realistic appraisals of opponent's defenses playing against USM's O.

thanks.



ps sorry to take away from all the conference chatter.

They run a very similar offensive scheme to OU (i.e. the NASCAR offense) where the hurry up is employed for the duration of the game. I think Mason said they average a play every 18 seconds. This concerns me b/c we've struggled w/ hurry up teams like Houston and in the 4th quarter of the TCU game b/c we weren't able to rotate guys in. Hopefully we are ready to roll and can match their pace.

i guess we'll see a few more "injuries" than normal this week

Good. Just need to get them off the field one way or another and get our offense back on the field. They have to slow us down as well.

Junior wrote:i guess we'll see a few more "injuries" than normal this week

Can't stand the fake injuries

Best I can tell, our front 7 will be a huge impact on the game. We are big and strong with very active backers. I doubt they have seen that level of athlete in the last two games. They O line struggled against Marshall so we shall see what they do with our front 7. They have thrown for a lot of yards but don’t seem to have the big play receivers we are used to seeing at SMU. I do worry about our pass coverage agsint a team like this.

They are balanced and have put up a lot of points and yards in the last two games. Navy is usually undersized and not as fast as other defenses but they seem to cause us problems. USM blow them up. Rice isn’t a powerhouse either so hard to judge just how good this offense is.

Quick strikes are great but we could use some time consuming drives this week with scores. Just to upset their rhythm.

smupony94 wrote:

Junior wrote:i guess we'll see a few more "injuries" than normal this week

Can't stand the fake injuries

probably won't be as bad as it has beed at times in the past now that we have a little more depth along the dline.

smupony94 wrote:

Junior wrote:i guess we'll see a few more "injuries" than normal this week

Can't stand the fake injuries

me, too. except when our D is gassed and we're being run over -- then, I just close my eyes until the next play.
but, I agree that our increased depth should help in this area.

A couple of articles:

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20111017/SOUTHERNMISS/111016019/What-will-key-Saturday-s-USM-SMU-football-game-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/10/streaking_southern_miss_smu_re.html

Southern Miss pretty beat up-Best Defensive Player a LB out for season, top 2 RBs out and perhaps Free Safety out. From what I saw in Navy game their backup runners are at least adequate though and performed very well against a slow defense

we have a good run defense, but we suck at covering underneath crossing routes.

thanks for the input, guys.

I poked around a little and here is USM's record with opponents' Total Defense rankings to date:

Louisiana Tech (2-4) #72 W 19-17
@Marshall (3-4) #63 L 26-20
Southeastern Louisiana (1-5)-D2 W 52-6
@Virginia (4-2) #21 W 30-24
Rice (2-4) #115 W 48-24
@Navy (2-4) #87 W 63-35

we are currently ranked #24 in total defense.
I was too lazy to look at passing D and running D numbers. but, overall I feel better that our D will indeed be able to keep them somewhat in check.

Home crowd, sold out, pissed off about big east snub

they still hung 30 on Virginia

2ndandlong wrote:they still hung 30 on Virginia

UVa threw 3 picks in a close game.