What We Learned From Southern Miss Football's Final Scrimmage of Fall Camp

From an unresolved quarterback battle to an emerging RB1 candidate, the Golden Eagles provided plenty to digest before turning their attention toward the season opener.

Southern Miss running back Steven Robinson (#14) is making a strong case to be the team's starter for Week 1. | Josh House

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – By the time Southern Miss walked off the field at The Rock on Saturday, fall camp had officially ended, and the experimentation stage started shifting toward regular-season preparation.

The Golden Eagles' second and final scrimmage served as one last extended look at a roster that has spent the last three weeks sorting through several position battles, chemistry and roles on both sides of the ball. Some answers appear to be getting closer. Others may drag into the final days leading up to Sept. 5's season opener against Alcorn State.

Either way, Saturday gave us several things to chew on as these next two weeks progress and Southern Miss moves out of fall camp and into regular-season mode. Here are five observations and additional notes from the Golden Eagles' final scrimmage.

QB Competition Still Unresolved; Hampton Injury Update

Southern Miss QB Ethan Hampton in between drills during Saturday's fall camp practice. | Josh House

If you were hoping for Saturday's scrimmage to finally decide who the Golden Eagles' starting quarterback will be for Week 1, we have some bad news for you: the three-man competition will continue into the next two weeks leading up to the season opener.

Redshirt-senior Landry Lyddy and redshirt-sophomore John White had decent showings on Saturday, but there was nothing that really jumped out to make you think one of them had taken control of the QB1 spot while redshirt-senior Ethan Hampton has been nursing a hand injury.

Hampton, who was taking the first-team reps in practice and last weekend's scrimmage before suffering that hand injury, didn't participate in Saturday's scrimmage. However, Southern Miss head coach Blake Anderson says the veteran quarterback should be 100 percent when the team resumes practice next week.

"He felt the best he's felt since the injury a week ago today. Threw some 20- and 30-yard type stuff in pre[-scrimmage] and didn't have a lot of discomfort," Anderson said. "Wasn't ready to go today. But we've got two days that are super recovery-oriented, the next two days. I would expect on Tuesday he's full go and back to normal operation, which is needed for us. But it was a good sign. I mean, he's right there: day-to-day. I would expect Tuesday."

If Hampton is fully healthy when the season opener gets here in two weeks, we'd expect him to be the starting quarterback due to having more experience and a little more consistency than the other two candidates. If, for some reason, he is not healthy enough to play as Anderson anticipates he will be, we'd expect Lyddy to get the call for Week 1.

"We're getting close to making that decision," Anderson said. "Not sure exactly when it's going to come, but we're approaching it pretty quickly."

Note: I said it last Saturday as well, but true freshman quarterback Hugh Price continues to impress with the limited reps he's gotten in these scrimmages. You can tell he has a natural feel in the pocket and tends to make good decisions more often than not. He still needs to fill out physically a little bit, but based on what I've seen over these last three weeks, I could definitely see the 6-6 Nashville, Tennessee product entering the quarterback competition conversation as early as next year.

Robinson Making Strong Case for RB1

Josh House

The running game was the biggest story of the day for Southern Miss on Saturday, especially when it came to the performance of redshirt-junior running back Steven Robinson, who made his presence felt early and often.

Redshirt-senior Robert Briggs got the start for the first drive of the game, but Robinson came in for the second drive and immediately started producing consistently. Whether it was breaking tackles and fighting for extra yardage or catching passes on swing routes out of the backfield, Robinson showed a lot of versatility.

"I feel like he stood out really since he got here, to be honest. There's never been a day that we've gone out and he hasn't done good things," Anderson said of Robinson. "He kind of brings some thump to the table that we need and can break as much as we need him to. I think he's going to have a great year if he can stay healthy."

Although this year's running back room could go as many as five-deep for Southern Miss, Anderson says Robinson's steadiness has stood out.

"He loves ball. He works hard and he just tends to fall forward. He tends to finish forward. With Briggs and Jarmarice [Wilder] in there, I feel like it's a good one-two-three. And we're getting some really good reps out of Jaylen [Foster] and Robert Henderson right now. So, I think we've got five guys that we can lean on, but Steven is very steady and a guy that we need to really lean on a good bit throughout the season."

Defense Shows High Intensity Overall; DBs Respond to Challenge

Southern Miss cornerback Champ Lewis (#1) is looking to have a big season for the Golden Eagles. | Josh House

Last weekend, one of the biggest areas we felt the Golden Eagles needed some improvement involved tackling in the secondary. Anderson thought the same and challenged his defensive backs to be better heading into this week, and they responded the way he wanted.

Redshirt-junior Champ Lewis, who is arguably the Golden Eagles' toughest cornerback to play against, says it was good to see that progress from last week to this week, but he also believes there's still room to grow.

"We worked on it in practice. As soon as Coach Anderson said something about it, we got back to the drawing board," Lewis said. "I feel like, me personally, I still could do better at tackling, but just as far as the ball getting outside, just making sure that we get the man on the ground. Because we're sort of the last line of defense once the ball gets past the interior. So as long as we do that, we're doing our job."

Overall, Anderson was happy with how his secondary performed with 50/50 balls today as well.

“In terms of 50/50 balls, the defense played them way better than the offense did today,” Anderson said. “We've had some success in practice, but today [the offense] didn't compete as well as [the defense] did, with the exception of the one catch down here by AJ [Little].”

Another group that had a solid scrimmage was the defensive line. Overall, the defense finished with eight sacks on the day, including ones from emerging leader Nasim Cairo, Jameer Lewis, Kameron Cyprien, Jeffery Rush Jr. and Josh Johnson.

Note: Despite the NCAA's recent court win that has put Southern Miss returnees Lewis, Aloali'i Maui and Greg Nunnery Jr.'s eligibility in limbo, those three players are still allowed to practice with the team while state court injunctions are pursued.

O-Line Trying to Find Consistency Amid Injuries, Eligibility Uncertainty

Josh House

Unlike last weekend, the offensive line stayed the same within the first-team group on Saturday. The five guys up front included Dante Devine at right tackle, Luke Rogers at right guard, Joe Rounds at center, Zerian Hudson at left guard and Braden Cain at left tackle. However, that doesn't mean the starting five will be that same group on opening night.

Amid all the eligibility uncertainty and injuries throughout fall camp, competition on the offensive line has remained wide-open, for the most part. Offensive line coach Sean Coughlin says that's a credit to the team's depth in that department this year.

"Moving forward, we've had a lot of guys that are continuing to compete. And we brought all these guys in and told them, 'Look, you got an opportunity to compete and take the job.' And so what I've tried to do is show these guys that they've got competition galore, that they can have an opportunity to take the job," Coughlin said. "The thing that's really good, I feel like right now, is that we have more depth than we did a season ago."

We'll have more from Coughlin on the offensive linemen situation on Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI in the coming days.

Note: Although that first unit looked the same during Saturday's scrimmage, don't be surprised if it changes again between now and the season opener. Not only do the Golden Eagles have to figure out Maui and Nunnery's eligibility situation, but Toby Mealer (projected starting guard), Larry Edwards and a few others could factor in as potential starters as well. Coughlin said he could see the team using 10-12 offensive linemen throughout the season.

Most Explosive Plays of the Day

Southern Miss wide receiver Eelijah Singleton breaks loose for a big reception during the Golden Eagles' first fall camp scrimmage on Aug. 15, 2026. | Southern Miss Athletics

There weren't as many offensive fireworks this Saturday as we saw from Eelijah Singleton and Jaylen Himes last weekend, but there were still a few plays that stood out from the rest.

The first one that got fans on their feet was a 38-yard run from Robinson while the offense snapped the ball from the one-yard line. As mentioned earlier, Robinson has shown how versatile he can be. He can be a bruiser, catch passes out of the backfield, or, as we saw with this particular play, hit that next gear and break off a big run.

The other play that stood out involved Singleton for a second consecutive week, but this time as a passer. Offensive coordinator Kyle Cefalo broke out some trickery and called a play where Singleton got to the perimeter and then launched a near-40-yard pass to AJ Little, who jumped up to win the 50/50 ball and complete the catch and make it first-and-goal for the offense. Running back Robert Henderson then finished off that drive by punching in a touchdown.

Fall camp is officially over. Many evaluations have been made, the reps have been logged and although a few questions remain, we have a much clearer picture of what this team is going to look like this season than we did three weeks ago. Southern Miss now has to try to turn all the lessons it has learned into on-field results.

Next up: the real thing, as the Golden Eagles will open the season two weeks from now against Alcorn State at The Rock. Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more football coverage leading up to that highly anticipated season opener.