Southern Miss Falls to UConn, Slips to 1-2 Ahead of Tulane Road Trip

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss came home Saturday with an opportunity to move past a difficult result at Auburn and give its fans a reason to feel better about the road ahead. Instead, a 48-20 loss to UConn at Renasant Stadium left the Golden Eagles at 1-2 and still searching for their next step forward under first-year head coach Blake Anderson.

Three games won't tell the whole story of this Southern Miss season, especially with conference play still ahead. But this one mattered. After a lopsided win over Alcorn State and an equally decisive loss at Auburn, Saturday was a chance to re-establish some footing before another road trip. Letting that opportunity slip away makes the coming week about more than just turning the page. The Golden Eagles must show that they can take the corrections Anderson and his staff are asking for and turn them into actual results.

Eagles Haunted By Same Mistakes They Made at Auburn

Southern Miss Football — Southern Miss quarterback Ethan Hampton (5) throws a pass against UConn. | Josh House

Leading up to this game, we talked about how Southern Miss would have to find a way to get off to a faster start on offense and get off the field on defense if it wanted to bounce back with a win after what happened at Auburn last week. Neither of those things happened, though.

The Golden Eagles won the toss and deferred to the second half, giving the Huskies the ball first. Despite forcing UConn into a handful of third-down situations on that opening drive, the Southern Miss defense just couldn't get the stop it needed, ultimately giving up a 38-yard touchdown pass to fall behind 7-0 early. Then, on the first offensive possession of the game, the Golden Eagles started off with three consecutive plays of six or more yards before Ethan Hampton had a pass tipped, resulting in an interception. It was the second consecutive week that the Golden Eagles had an interception on their opening drive.

The Huskies went up 14-0 soon after that and never looked back. The Golden Eagles tried to get something going on their second drive of the game, but it was cut short by an illegal chop block. At that point, it kind of felt like that's what kind of night it was going to be for the Black and Gold, and sure enough, it was.

Saturday's loss had a lot of similarities to the Auburn loss last weekend, including some untimely turnovers, penalties and busted coverages on third down. The biggest similarity came at the end of the second quarter, though. Down 24-3, Southern Miss drove down the field and reached scoring position, thanks to a well-executed fake-punt pass by punter Dusty Zimmer. The Golden Eagles had to ultimately settle for a second field goal, making the score 24-6.

When Southern Miss scored its only touchdown of the game at the end of the first half at Auburn, it gave up a last-second field goal to swing momentum back in the Tigers' favor. That happened again on Saturday, as UConn drove down the field, picking up chunk yardage with ease, and got a last-second field goal to take a 27-6 lead into halftime.

Coming out of the half, the Golden Eagles made a quarterback change, inserting redshirt-senior Landry Lyddy into the starting role in place of Hampton, who appeared to bang up his hand in the second quarter. Lyddy's first pass of the game was a 33-yard beauty to Grant Page that put the Golden Eagles at the Huskies' 40-yard line. However, miscommunications between Lyddy and the other receivers ultimately led to a turnover on downs.

Lyddy threw a 24-yard pick-six on his second drive of the game, then bounced back with a 56-yard pass to Mario Sanders on his third drive, which led to a Steven Robinson touchdown. By that point, though, it was too little too late, with Southern Miss trailing 41-13.

"Obviously, very disappointed in the outcome," Anderson said. "Thought this was going to be a fourth-quarter game, but we didn't play well enough at all. ... We got manhandled all night. We knew that was a possibility. [We] thought we could mitigate that by getting it to the outside. We just didn't do that enough."

As for Hampton's hand, it's the same one he suffered a bone bruise on in fall camp that kept him out for nearly two full weeks. Anderson said nothing is broken, but he's unsure how much time the redshirt-senior quarterback might miss.

"He is not ok right now," Anderson said of Hampton. "He hit that same hand on a helmet and was unable to squeeze the ball. The question is: how long is that going to linger?"

A Look at the Offensive and Defensive Stats

If Hampton does have to miss some time, Lyddy has shown that he can be a suitable fill-in. Despite having the pick-six, Lyddy more than doubled Hampton's production through the air on Saturday night on the exact same number of pass completions and attempts.

Hampton completed 14 of 25 passes for 93 yards and one interception. Lyddy completed 14 of 25 passes for 194 yards, one touchdown and one interception. UConn quarterback Kalieb Osborne completed 16 of 22 passes for 214 yards and two touchdowns. He also added 32 yards on the ground with two touchdowns.

Steven Robinson, as he's done every week this season so far, led the Golden Eagles in rushing yards and touchdowns. He finished with 72 yards on 18 carries and one touchdown. Southern Miss racked up 102 rushing yards on the night, while UConn more than doubled that with 213 yards on the ground.

There was a major disparity in total offense during the Golden Eagles' blowout loss at Auburn, but that wasn't the case during Saturday's similar result against UConn. The Huskies put up 436 total yards of offense to the Golden Eagles' 401, yet Southern Miss still ended up losing by four touchdowns. Part of that is coming from what Anderson called "careless" turnovers.

"We had two pretty careless [turnovers], and they didn't give us anything," Anderson said. "We have got to protect the football. We are very prone to that right now."

Defensively, defensive back Michael Robinson III led the Golden Eagles with 10 tackles. Defensive back Landon Sylvie and linebacker Mathis Haygood each added eight tackles apiece. Defensive linemen Nasim Cairo and JR Stegall each recorded a sack on the night. Darrell Gross, Ishmael Ibraheem, A'mari Wilson and MaLik Caswell each recorded a half-sack. Overall, the Golden Eagles finished with five sacks on the night, but couldn't force a turnover.

Before Saturday night, UConn hadn't forced any turnovers, but it ended up forcing two against Southern Miss.

Next Up: Will Hall and Tulane

The schedule now takes Southern Miss to New Orleans, where former Golden Eagles head coach Will Hall awaits with a Tulane team that also dropped to 1-2 after Saturday's 31-20 loss to Kansas State. The familiar face adds another layer to the matchup, and for good reason, given how Hall's tenure in Hattiesburg ended, but Southern Miss has enough to sort through on its own sideline.

As disappointing as Saturday's loss to UConn was, there is still time for this team to give its fans the kind of season they hoped for. Finding a way to leave New Orleans with a win in the "Battle for the Bell" would be a welcome place to start.

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