Southern Miss Football: What Must Improve Against UConn After Auburn Loss

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss has seen two very different versions of itself through the first two weeks of the season. After opening with a 49-3 win over Alcorn State, the Golden Eagles struggled through a 43-8 loss at Auburn that exposed mistakes they cannot afford to carry into Saturday's home game against UConn.

At 1-1, Southern Miss still has its goals in front of it, but this upcoming game feels like an important early checkpoint for a team hoping to reach bowl eligibility and work its way into the Sun Belt title conversation. UConn will test whether the Golden Eagles can correct the communication issues, slow offensive starts and defensive breakdowns that their coaches identified in the film coming out of Auburn.

Southern Miss Football — Southern Miss Golden Eagles quarterback Ethan Hampton (5) holds his helmet to listen for a play call as Auburn Tigers take on Southern Miss Golden Eagles at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala. on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The difference in competition between the first two opponents was substantial, to say the least. Blake Anderson acknowledged that the environment at Auburn presented its own challenge, too. What bothered Southern Miss' head coach, though, was how much of the damage came from things his team could control.

"Oh yeah, to go from a very, very disciplined, very organized game to having one that just seemed like everything went off the rails [was tough]," Anderson said. "But again ... that's the first time and probably the only time a lot of these guys will be in that environment. They wanted it to go great for a million different reasons, and it just didn't, but it's a learning experience. Just a really crappy one. Nobody likes going through that, but yeah, just night and day difference between Week 1 and Week 2."

UConn Won't Be Easy, But Southern Miss Has Some Advantages

Anderson's priorities for UConn begin with the fundamentals that helped Southern Miss handle its opener in dominating fashion. The Golden Eagles showed they could avoid unnecessary penalties and communicate effectively against Alcorn State. In his view, playing a better opponent did not excuse losing those habits a week later.

"Oh, goodness gracious... Really, honestly, it's simple. Just reduce the unforced errors. Like man, just play physically, technically, mentally sound football. We didn't do that in any phase Saturday," Anderson said. "Everybody talked about coming out of the game one, how clean it was, how hard the guys played, how few mistakes we made, and really, you could say, 'Well, it was a bad opponent.' Well, still, you had plenty of opportunity to jump offsides, had plenty of opportunity for miscommunication and dumb penalties, and we avoided that Week 1, regardless of opponent.

"[Week 2], even in spite of the opponent and how athletic they are, those are all unforced errors that really have nothing to do with Auburn. So what I want to see is a team that goes out and plays good, clean football with great effort and attitude. I promise you, if you do that, we're athletically talented enough to be in every game we're going to play. I told them in the locker room after the game, the season really starts right here."

That is what makes this coming Saturday so significant. Southern Miss entered its first two games with very different expectations, at least from a level-of-difficulty standpoint, and neither result alone gives us a complete picture of what this team can be. Now, though, the incoming competition will be more of a true measuring stick.

"We knew what we had in the first two. We knew there was one we should win. We knew there was another one we had to play perfect. We didn't do that," Anderson said. "Every game from this point forward, you can win them all, you can lose them all. It's going to come down to doing what we're supposed to do consistently, week in and week out, and even that is going to put you in some really tough games. [UConn]'s going to be no different.

"Get rid of the unforced errors, man. Don't make mistakes and give people opportunities to beat you. Make them beat you with great football. And if we make the mistakes we made in the first half [of the Auburn game], it's going to be hard to win any game. So we got to clean that up."

Anderson is preparing for a UConn team that's capable of taking full advantage of those mistakes. The Huskies have gone through a similar stretch to the one the Golden Eagles have to start this season, playing a lower-level team first, then playing a tough Power 4 team second, with the same results. Anderson is familiar with UConn head coach Jason Candle and expects to face a team with great discipline.

“I think they've kind of been through the same thing we've been. I don't know a lot about Maryland in terms of what they're capable of, but I know [UConn’s] head coach and have played against him and watched what he did at Toledo, and Jason's a phenomenal ball coach," Anderson said. "They've built, I think, a really, really good roster. What little bit we've watched in the last day and a half, they're well-coached. They're playing extremely hard. He's always had sound football teams, not a lot of crazy mistakes.”

On paper, the Golden Eagles and the Huskies appear to be pretty evenly matched, but Southern Miss has home-field advantage on its side, as well as the fact that this will be UConn's first road game of the season. Still, it won't be easy.

“You got to earn it. You got to beat them. I love that they got to come to us. Don't want to make that trip this week. But he's got a good roster, and [Candle] brought some guys with him, and he inherited some dudes as well. I just expect it to be a hard one," Anderson said.

"They're always big. They've always been. I played UConn twice in the last five years. They're physically very long and big. We've found ways to beat them, through what we do offensively and how we play, and hopefully we can do the same thing. We got to maximize every play. We got to play hard, play fast, play out in space better than they do, make some plays on special teams, and then really just try to mitigate the size. Size is going to be in their favor in most cases, and you got to do that with effort and great detailed execution. We obviously didn't have that [against Auburn], so we got to get back to that.”

Another advantage Southern Miss will have is the South Mississippi heat. The Huskies have been used to practicing and playing in temperatures in the mid-70s, while the Golden Eagles have been practicing and playing well into the 90s.

"Well, I think this week we're going to deal with some heat there," Candle said in his press conference on Monday. "It's going to be a little bit different temperature-wise than maybe what it was here this morning. ... We're getting close to frost on the windshield here in the morning."

Kyle Cefalo Wants the Offense Ready from the First Snap

For offensive coordinator Kyle Cefalo, one needed correction applies to both games Southern Miss has played. Regardless of the opponent or final score, he wants his offense to begin executing sooner, and he included his own preparation of the players in that assessment.

“I don't think you ever know where the team's at within two weeks. … There's plenty of positives to take away, but there's plenty of things to fix. Whether it's Alcorn or Auburn from an offensive standpoint, we need to start faster. We need to come out of the gates, and there's no settling into football games. We need to be ready to roll, and that's something that hopefully I can do a better job of as a coach and get these guys ready to go," Cefalo said on Monday.

“Whether that's, like I said, Alcorn, Auburn, or UConn. As soon as the first play goes, it's time to execute, it's time to communicate, it's time to do our job. … We’ve learned a ton these first couple of weeks, and we've been able to have enough positives to build confidence, and we've had enough mistakes to make sure that we are constantly staying hungry and humble.

"This will be a great test this weekend. It'll be good to be back home. But starting fast, right from our first play of the football game, we need to be ready to execute and communicate and get the job done.”

Communication will be especially important against a UConn defense that Cefalo expects to challenge Southern Miss at the line of scrimmage. Getting the ball out quickly and handling pressure must also work alongside a productive running game. The Golden Eagles have some things to sort out there before Saturday.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play UConn a few times, so I have some familiarity with what they do. And I say lucky, I don't know if it's lucky or not, because they're always built really well. They're always built very big. They're physical. Their box constantly applies pressure. They play downhill in the run game. They make it really difficult to run the ball. And obviously, their scheme… they have a new head coach now, and they have a new coordinator than they've had in the past, the last time I played them," Cefalo said.

"But you're still seeing kind of those big bodies from UConn, and they're going to make things difficult for us to get downhill. They're going to bring pressure, something that we have to be ready for. We have to be ready to get the ball out of our hand, be ready to communicate up front, and still be able to run the ball as well. So, obviously it's still early in the day, but we've put some good time into them already, and starting to figure out what we're going to see.

“It’s going to be physical. They're going to play violent on defense. They got a couple of really good edge rushers. So, we got a great task in front of us. It's exciting, but we got a lot of work to do this week.”

Joe Bolden Emphasizes Containment and Finishing Tackles

Southern Miss' defense faces a different version of the same challenge this week, which is carrying out its assignments well enough to make the opponent work for yards. Defensive coordinator Joe Bolden watched his guys take poor pursuit angles and not finish tackles at Auburn, particularly when the quarterback escaped the pocket. Against another quarterback capable of extending plays with his legs in UConn's Kalieb Osborne, the Golden Eagles will be challenged in that area once again.

“I think you'll see some similarities with this guy we play this week from UConn, just in regards to the same skill set and being able to beat you with his legs and stuff like that. Just like [Alcorn State's Jaylon] Tolbert was week one, you let him out of the pocket and he's going to make you pay. Really, they're a big chunk play offense. Auburn was big-chunk play offense. We gave up way too many explosives," Bolden said on Monday.

"And those explosives primarily came from when we allowed him to get out of the pocket. … To me, I think we took way too many poor angles, and we didn't run our feet through contact. So that ultimately bit us in the rear end, in regards to him getting out of the pocket and running a little bit."

Simply reaching the quarterback is not enough. Defenders have to approach under control, finish through contact and understand where their teammates are positioned to help them. The Golden Eagles will try to fine-tune those things before Saturday to have more success against a mobile quarterback.

Like Anderson and Cefalo, Bolden is also familiar with Coach Candle. He believes UConn's offense will be ready to counter every defensive set it sees on Saturday. Southern Miss will have to do a good job predicting what those counters are.

“[I’m] pretty familiar actually with Jason Candle. ... Kind of his style, his mindset. He's really good in regards to having answers and forcing guys into fits. If you sit in cover one, he's got cover one beaters. You sit in cover four, he's got four beaters. You sit in three, he's got three beaters. Does a great job maneuvering your defense into what he wants. Much of like you saw Auburn do," Bolden said.

“So having the ability to change the picture again, I thought we did that decently the other night: changing the picture on a guy. You saw him kind of hold the ball a little bit longer than they probably wanted him to. But UConn, they got skill at those positions [too]. Running back's a really good player. Quarterback's a really, really good player. Like I said, you can compare him to what we just played. [He] has the ability to beat you with his feet. I think he throws the ball pretty well. So they got some playmakers. They're very well-coached. They have some answers to the structure that you're in. And when you watch them this year, they're going to play hard.”

Saturday gives Southern Miss a chance to show that those hard lessons learned at Auburn can translate into a more complete performance. A win would move the Golden Eagles to 2-1 and provide a big step forward toward bowl eligibility well before getting into conference play. If Southern Miss wants to build toward something bigger than many expected going into this season, taking care of an important opportunity at The Rock against UConn on Saturday is where it all starts.

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