Southern Miss can take solace in App State performance — but moral victories aren't enough
Considering the dismantling that had occurred the previous week at South Alabama, Southern Miss' 48-38 loss at Appalachian State wasn’t all that bad Saturday.
Of course, that’s relative. Everything with the 2023 Southern Miss football team is relative at this point. It has to be.
It doesn’t get much worse than that beating South Alabama delivered, especially against a nearby conference foe that prompted a private postgame conversation between athletics director Jeremy McClain and Southern Miss coach Will Hall.
That felt like rock bottom, even if Southern Miss (1-7, 0-4 Sun Belt) wouldn’t admit it. To the Golden Eagles’ credit, they responded well Saturday, with the prospect of bowl eligibility already expired.
The offense scored 38 points and produced a season-high 588 yards. Frank Gore Jr. played like the star running back again, rushing for 247 yards and two touchdowns. Ti Mims grabbed a career-high 10 catches for 141 yards, and Billy Wiles, despite a few errant passes, made enough big-time throws.
The defense got off to a fast start, and even forced two turnovers. But again, it’s relative, because it wasn’t enough for a win.
RECAP: Frank Gore Jr. dominates, but Southern Miss blows lead at Appalachian State for brutal loss
Southern Miss made changes and they showed
Hall surrendered his offensive play-calling duties this week to bring a fresh perspective and to focus more of his attention on other areas of the team. Through three quarters against App State, it looked like a brilliant decision. It still might be.
“Schematically, we had some really good things going,” Hall said in his postgame radio interview. “Our whole offensive staff did a great job all week.”
But it all crumbled dramatically in the fourth quarter. The defense, which is still playing with two converted offensive players at cornerback, was grinded to the bone in crunch time.
“They ended up going to 11 personnel,” jack linebacker Averie Habas said, “got some dig routes going and got some momentum going there. It was tough to stop that, so hats off to them.”
Southern Miss has been within one score or in the lead during the fourth quarter in five games this season. It is 1-4 in those games. That can’t happen. Not in a season when Southern Miss wanted to take a step forward. Heck, not even if the Golden Eagles want to win another game this season.
The first three quarters on Saturday were nice. The offense scoring its first touchdown since Sept. 30 was promising. The defense not getting its doors blown off was, too. The Golden Eagles didn’t sleepwalk to another blowout against a quality opponent.
But that's no excuse for a program expecting to be a contender in the Sun Belt.
“We’re gonna keep battling,” Hall said. “These kids are gonna keep fighting. We’ve gone through a lot this year. We’ve been through a lot and we’re gonna play our freaking hearts out at The Rock next Saturday to try get us a win.”
The fight is encouraging, but it won’t matter if Southern Miss doesn’t win another game in 2023.
Sam Sklar is the Southern Miss beat reporter for the Hattiesburg American. Email him at ssklar@hattiesb.gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: For Southern Miss football, moral victories like App State won't cut it
