Southern Miss may have started the 2011 season with an ugly loss at Marshall in week two, but the Golden Eagles ended the season on an extreme high by thrashing Houston in the Conference USA Championship game and then winning the Hawaii Bowl. <\/p>\n
Conference USA 2012-2013 College Football Previews: Southern Miss Golden Eagles<\/strong>
\n Head Coach: Ellis Johnson<\/strong>
\n 2011 Record: 12-2<\/strong>
\n Southern Miss Gambling Odds from JustBet to win BCS Championship: (Part of Field) +1,800<\/strong>
\n Southern Miss Gambling Odds from 5Dimes to win Conference USA: +450<\/strong>
\nSouthern Miss Team Page \u2013 Players Stats \u2013 Roster \u2013 2012 Schedule \u2013><\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nLarry Fedora did a whole lot for this program, but he has left for North Carolina. It will be up to Ellis Johnson to keep the ball moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Last year was the Golden Eagles first ten-win season since 1988. There are tons of key departures from last year\u2019s squad, so there are many unknowns surrounding this year\u2019s Southern Miss team. Conference USA\u2019s last year should be wide open as there is no clear favorite in the league. Can the Golden Eagles keep their momentum going from last year\u2019s huge successes? It\u2019s a year of transition for Southern Miss.<\/p>\n
Team Strengths:<\/h3>\n
Desmond Johnson and Kendrick Hardy give this team two very solid runners in the backfield. Junior Jeremy Hester should get in on the action as well. There might not be that one huge star here, but this team has tons of depth at the tailback spot.<\/p>\n
Tracey Lampley may be the best wide receiver in the conference. Lampley gets quite a few carries in the team\u2019s unique offense, and he is a game breaker. He is one of the best special teams players you\u2019ll see in the nation as well. Justin Sims and Quentin Pierce should be reliable wideouts as well.<\/p>\n
The defensive front has several to replace, but Jamie Collins is a star on the outside. Collins plays the bandit position for the Golden Eagles, and he can really get after the opposing quarterback. Khyri Thornton is a big strong defensive tackle who can plug the running lanes.<\/p>\n
Team Weaknesses:<\/h3>\n
The quarterback spot has been a major strength in the past few years, but Southern Miss goes into this season with a major question mark here in 2012. Austin Davis knew this offense like a book, and it will be tough to replace him. It\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess who ends up in this spot, but the production from quarterback will certainly be down in 2012.<\/p>\n
Southern Miss lost three starting linebackers from the 2011 season. This has been a position where the team has been able to set themselves apart from the rest of the league in the past, but that won\u2019t be the case this season.<\/p>\n
2012-2013 Southern Miss Golden Eagles Football Prediction: 7-6<\/h3>\n
I think this team is going to come back down to earth quickly in 2012. It won\u2019t be because Johnson does a bad job. This team simply doesn\u2019t have the talent level it had last season, and the record will suffer because of it. The schedule isn\u2019t easy either. Southern Miss starts the season with Nebraska on the road, and they must also play Boise State in the non-conference schedule. Road trips to UCF and SMU will be key in deciding the Conference USA title.<\/p>\n
Southern Miss should become bowl eligible this year, but don\u2019t expect them to get close to the double digit victory total of 2011.<\/p>\n
2012 Southern Miss Schedule<\/h3>\n
9\/1\/12\t 3:30 PM ET\t @NEB
\n9\/15\/12\t TBD\tECAR
\n9\/22\/12\t 7:00 PM ET\t @WKEN
\n9\/29\/12\t TBD\tLOU
\n10\/6\/12\t TBD\tBOIST
\n10\/13\/12\t TBD\t @CENFL
\n10\/20\/12\t TBD\tMARSH
\n10\/27\/12\t TBD\t @RICE
\n11\/3\/12\t TBD\tUAB
\n11\/10\/12\t TBD\t @SMU
\n11\/17\/12\t TBD\tUTEP
\n11\/24\/12\t TBD\t @MEM<\/p>\nGRAB OUR BEST Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2012-13 Football Previews \u2013 (C-USA) \u2013 Southern Miss Southern Miss may have started the 2011 season with an ugly loss at Marshall in week two, but the Golden Eagles ended the season on an extreme high by thrashing Houston in the Conference USA Championship game and then winning the Hawaii Bowl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":24637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[44530,55894,49957,50359,16468,14800,50408,55895,55896,50409,50410,6954,50411],"class_list":["post-53484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2012-bcs-lines","tag-2012-conference-usa-football-previews","tag-bcs-sportsbook-odds","tag-conference-usa-football-predictions","tag-conference-usa-odds","tag-conference-usa-picks","tag-golden-eagles-bcs-futures","tag-golden-eagles-predictions","tag-southern-miss-football","tag-southern-miss-football-predictions","tag-southern-miss-gambling-odds","tag-southern-miss-golden-eagles","tag-southern-miss-schedule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53484"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53521,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53484\/revisions\/53521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}