Heartbreak in New Orleans: Despite Valiant Effort, Southern Miss Falls to Tulane in Final Moments

NEW ORLEANS – On a pleasant, full-moon, clear-skies night in New Orleans, Southern Miss was hoping to put the last two weeks of disappointments behind them in the Battle for the Bell against Tulane at Yulman Stadium.

Despite a slow start on offense, the Golden Eagles' defense held the rope and set the tone in the first half, and that carried over into the third quarter. When the dust settled, though, the Golden Eagles left six points on the board late with two missed field goals and ultimately lost the Battle of the Bell, 24-21. With the loss, Southern Miss drops to 1-3, while Will Hall's Tulane improves to 2-2.

Southern Miss Football — Southern Miss takes the field at Tulane on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. | Josh House

"Obviously gutted, disappointed for the guys to get that close and not get it done," head coach Blake Anderson said. "They played their hearts out, played with their hair on fire. We challenged them all week, and they gave me everything they had. We just made some mistakes. You got to give credit to Tulane. They made some plays that they had to make to win it.

"We'll learn a lot from tonight, but I think it's a glimpse for our guys and our fans and everybody involved ... what this team's capable of, and we just got to take the next step."

As mentioned, Joe Bolden's defense provided some early life, finishing tackles and creating turnovers, and new starting quarterback Landry Lyddy eventually came through with two touchdown passes in the first half, one for 32 yards to Davis Dalton and another for 14 yards to Mario Sanders, to help Southern Miss knot things up at 14-14 going into halftime.

Lyddy found Sanders yet again on a 22-yard touchdown pass early in the third to give the Golden Eagles a 21-14 lead.

Both defenses played well in the third quarter, as neither team was able to put up any points. The Golden Eagles took that 21-14 lead into the fourth quarter with the Green Wave facing a critical fourth-and-one from the Southern Miss 11-yard line. Tulane converted that first down, but then threw a massive interception to Southern Miss defensive back Landon Sylvie on the following play. Once again, Bolden's defense came up big in a big moment as "USM" chants rained down from the stands at Yulman Stadium.

After not getting the call on what appeared to be a Tulane pass interference on Golden Eagles' Davis Dalton on a big third down, Southern Miss had to punt the ball. The Golden Eagles' defense appeared to get another big stop, but a couple of late penalties allowed the Green Wave a first-and-goal opportunity. The Southern Miss defense held strong, though, forcing Tulane to settle for a field goal, making it 21-17 Golden Eagles with 8:35 remaining in the fourth.

As they did all night, a healthy amount of Southern Miss fans, plus The Pride of Mississippi band, got rowdy again, starting a loud "Black! Gold!" chant with Southern Miss set to receive the ball again.

After Southern Miss kicker Creighton Wilbanks was just left on a 43-yard field goal attempt, Tulane broke of a 75-yard touchdown run to take a late 24-21 lead.

On the ensuing offensive possession for Southern Miss, Lyddy and running backs Steven Robinson and Jamarice Wilder led the march all the way down the field to give the Golden Eagles a first-and-goal with a little more than two minutes remaining in the game.

On a critical third-and-goal from the Tulane three-yard line, Lyddy's pass to Dalton was incomplete in the back corner of the end zone, and Wilbanks' 20-yard field-goal attempt of the night was blocked. Tulane took over from its own 20-yard line and proceeded to run the clock out from there. Despite a valiant effort, the Golden Eagles lost a heartbreaker in the Battle for the Bell.

Lyddy finished with 243 passing yards on 18-of-29 completions and three touchdowns. He did not turn the ball over on Saturday night and gave his team several opportunities to win. That's all you can ask for if you're Anderson or offensive coordinator Kyle Cefalo.

"There's no doubt that we were a completely different team today than we were last week," Lyddy said. "And it's about the urgency now, and we can't wait anymore. We have to make a change right now, and we did that, and you could definitely tell that it just didn't come as easy off the bat."

No matter how this game ultimately ended up, Anderson and his staff had to love seeing the response from their team after being embarrassed the previous two weekends. The Golden Eagles showed on Saturday that they can be competitive with anyone by bringing the right level of energy and attention to detail on both sides of the ball. However... you can bet Anderson's crew isn't happy leaving New Orleans with just a moral victory.

And with that, the Golden Eagles' non-conference slate is history. Next up, Southern Miss will begin Sun Belt Conference play on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at Troy. It will be an extremely tough road test against last year's Sun Belt runners-up, but it's officially a new part of the season with a 0-0 conference record for Anderson and his team to work with.

"That was the message in the locker room, Coach Anderson said to us," Lyddy said of the 0-0 Sun Belt record. "That win or loss does not affect any of our hopes and dreams in the future. So, as long as we can hold onto that and look at this as a lesson and not as a loss, we're going to be just fine."

Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more football coverage going into Sunday.

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