Season spiraling away as Southern Miss suffers first home loss to Louisiana in 35 years

History was not on the side of the Golden Eagles on Saturday.

Louisiana snapped Southern Miss’ 11-game win streak over its Sun Belt rival with a 23-13 win in Hattiesburg. The Ragin’ Cajuns secured their first road win against USM since 1989 after holding USM off the scoreboard in the second half.

Southern Miss trailed 17-13 at halftime after quickly falling behind by two scores in the first quarter. But the Cajuns’ ball control offense kept Golden Eagles quarterback Tate Rodemaker and his offense icing on the sideline for much of the back half of the game.

Two second-half drives by UL ate up over 15 combined minutes of time and added three points apiece while limiting the Golden Eagles to just four third- and fourth-quarter possessions before a fifth in the final minute with the game already decided.

Two of those possessions ended in penalties that reversed a successful fake punt and a converted 3rd-and-long.

Rodemaker threw for 140 yards, but was hampered by constant pressure and a run game that failed to create attack lanes with consistency.

Dreke Clark ran for 61 yards on seven carries, but gained 53 of those yards on two runs during USM’s second scoring drive. Kenyon Clark scored each of the Golden Eagles’ touchdowns, both coming in the second quarter.

Louisiana churned out nearly 200 rushing yards and held the football for a staggering 40 minutes.

“I’m disappointed we weren’t able to make the plays to win the game,” USM coach Will Hall said after the game. “We got behind early and battled back. I thought we played with a lot of energy and passion, defensively. I thought we were right there with them. We make two or three more plays, we got to get to a point where we make those plays.”

The loss dropped the Golden Eagles to 7-2 against opponents from the state of Louisiana under Hall, but USM will have a chance to get back in the win column next week at ULM.

Losing on the line of scrimmage

A worrisome issue continues to linger for USM on both sides of the ball. Louisiana won at the point of attack on a regular basis across both sides of the line of scrimmage.

One game after getting benched following two interceptions on the first two possessions against Jacksonville State, Rodemaker responded by completing his first 11 passes and 14 of his first 16 attempts.

But his front five couldn’t keep him upright against a UL team that entered the contest last in the Sun Belt in tackles for loss and last nationally in sacks with zero. The Cajuns brought Rodemaker down five times — four courtesy of Cameron Whitfield — and registered another four hurries.

Louisiana racked up more than double its season average in tackles for loss with eight stops in the backfield. Outside of Clark’s two runs of 26 and 27 yards, USM is credited with 15 sack-adjusted rushing yards on 12 carries.

That led to the continuation of the 3rd down woes, where the Eagles converted just once in eight attempts and are now 21.7 percent on the year, and only picked up eight first downs total.

“At the end of the day, every play comes down to execution,” Clay said. “The O-line, receivers, everybody has to be on the same page. Execution got us in the end zone.”

On the other side, Hall was pleased with his defense’s overall performance in holding the Cajuns to well below their season average of 36 points per game.

That was largely thanks to holding UL to field goals on three of its five trips to the red zone.

“They’re a really good offense, the No. 1 offense in this league, and we held them to 23 points,” Hall said. “We’ll take that. I was pleased with that effort.”

Bend-but-don’t-break defense kept USM in the game, but Cajun running backs averaged five yards per carry and Ben Wooldridge was an efficient 22-for-30 through the air.

Louisiana was able to consume eight minutes of clock on its first possession of the second half and another seven minutes two drives later with a steady dose of runs that the Golden Eagle front seven had difficulty disrupting.

Missed opportunities negate positives

A common theme resurfaced for Hall’s team. What areas USM was able to improve in had their impacts minimized by critical and game-altering moments.

Facing a 4th-and-9 from midfield, punter Bryce Lofton pulled the football and raced 28 yards and out of bounds just outside the red zone. The play would have set USM with a chance to take the lead, but it was brought back due to a holding call.

On the next possession, still down one score, Rodemaker fired a dart through a small window to Kyirin Heath to convert a third and long, but the play was called back due to an illegal formation.

In a short game where the opponent was burning clock, the flags proved fatal. Hall acknowledges the individual moments keeping USM from its goal and still hopes to find a solution.

“If we don’t turn the football over and we play defense like that, we’re going to be in every game this year,” Hall said. “We’ve got some things we can fix. We’ve got to do a better job of execution and coaching and all those things and we will.”

What’s next?

Southern Miss is 1-4 for the second straight year and has lost 13 of its last 16 games. The Golden Eagles are now 8-17 in conference play during the Hall tenure and 2-7 since last season.

Though Louisiana was a 17-point favorite and USM covered the spread as a home underdog for just the fourth time in 11 tries since 2021, the time for moral victories as long passed for Hall and his program.

Instead, he’s hoping the positives will finally stack in favor of the Golden Eagles.

“I think we’re at the top of the hump,” Hall said. “I think getting over the hump is the hardest step because you pulled that weight all the way up the hill and now you’re at the top. I think we’re going to get over that hump. I think we’re going to get over that hump very soon.”

Southern Miss will face the Warhawks next week at 4 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.