Davis Dalton Proved He Can Be a Difference Maker for Southern Miss in Sun Belt Play

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Despite dropping a heartbreaking 24-21 loss to Tulane and falling to 1-3 on the season after non-conference play, Southern Miss arguably played its best football on Saturday at Yulman Stadium. The Golden Eagles took a 21-14 lead into the fourth quarter and had several opportunities to add to it, but ultimately, the Green Wave were able to scrape by with the win. Even former Southern Miss and current Tulane head coach Will Hall said the Golden Eagles outplayed his team overall.

"I tip my hat to Coach Anderson and Southern Miss," Hall said. "I thought they played incredible. I thought they fought. I thought they were coached well. I thought that they probably deserved to win this game."

Southern Miss Football — Southern Miss fell to Tulane 24-21 on Saturday night in New Orleans. | Josh House

Although it hurts to lose a rivalry game on the road in the way Southern Miss did, the sky certainly isn't falling. Not yet, at least.

Sun Belt play is officially on deck, as the Golden Eagles will get a little extra time to rest and prepare for a big road matchup at Troy next Tuesday, Oct. 6. There are several encouraging things head coach Blake Anderson and his team can take from the Tulane loss and apply to this upcoming Troy game, including the incredible play of new starting quarterback Landry Lyddy and the defense finding ways to force some punts and create turnovers.

But one aspect of Saturday night in New Orleans that might have been overlooked a little bit was the performance of redshirt-senior wide receiver Davis Dalton.

Dalton, who had been battling a hamstring injury in fall camp and the start of this season, had had just two catches for 17 yards coming into the game against Tulane. Before that game was over, he had added three more catches for 75 yards, including an outstanding 32-yard touchdown with a Green Wave defender draped on him. With fellow redshirt senior Grant Page out for a while with a dislocated elbow, it was important to have Dalton back in the mix due to his size.

"Not a surprise," Southern Miss head coach Blake Anderson said of Dalton's performance. "We need him to play big. He's finally healthy. Has not been. We'll see more of it, I think. He's always a steady guy."

At 6-3 and 207 pounds with long arms, he gives Lyddy a bigger target area to throw to. Even if Dalton isn't wide open, that size allows him to catch balls over the top of the defense at times, as we saw in New Orleans. He has always had that ability when able to stay healthy. Lyddy is happy to have that kind of weapon ready to roll for Sun Belt play.

"It's great to see him out there," Lyddy said. "It's great to not see him come up and have a knee or something after he catches the ball. So, he's a great dude off the field, and I could not be more happy for him. ... We needed some size out there."

As great a first start of the season as Lyddy had, having Dalton in the mix with other key playmakers like Mario Sanders and AJ Little certainly made life a lot easier for the signal-caller. That game didn't go the Golden Eagles' way, but it gave a glimpse of what could be on the horizon, starting with next Tuesday's game at Troy.

Anderson has been in this situation before, earlier in his career, where he's been through a rough non-conference stretch to start a season, but he's also overcome that to win a conference championship. That's the hope for this Golden Eagles team going into this next stretch of the schedule: that enduring these last three painful weekends has them well battle-tested for the Sun Belt slate.

"We're going to be back to 0 and 0 regardless," Anderson said. "We've got Troy here in about 10 days, and we need to be able to find a way to win games in our league one week at a time."

If the offense and defense can apply the lessons learned in New Orleans and bring that same level of energy on both sides of the ball to Troy, Southern Miss will be able to start changing the overall narrative surrounding this season.

Add us as a preferred source on Google