USM football seeking 2nd consecutive win Saturday

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) – The University of Southern Mississippi has a chance to do something it hasn’t done during the entire 2021 football season.

With a win over visiting Florida International University Saturday, the Golden Eagles would close the books on a memorable-for-all-the-wrong-reasons season with a winning streak.

And while a two-game run to the good might be overlooked in another time, during a different season, it will be celebrated with utmost gusto by those connected to the program.

“It would just be huge for us,” USM football coach Will Hall said. earlier this week. “When’s the last time we had a win streak here? I don’t know … to finish the year right, you want to finish well. We won a huge rivalry game (at Louisiana Tech University last week) - a game that means so much to so many of our people and then to win another one going down the stretch, finish the year with two straight wins with everything we’ve been through, going into the offseason, I think would just show a lot of naysayers the trajectory of this program.

“I don’t know how much it’ll hurt or affect recruiting. Kids understand the history of this program. They understand this staff and this staff’s history. I think recruiting is solid no matter what, but I think it would be huge to develop a little momentum going into the offseason.”

The game will be streamed via ESPN3 and also be heard on one of the affiliates of the Southern Miss Sports Network by Learfield as well as XM channel 388 and the SiriusXM app on channel 978.

USM (2-9, 1-6 Conference USA) picked up its first Football Bowl Subdivision victory of the season with a 35-19 victory over the Bulldogs in Ruston, La.

FIU (1-10, 0-7) won its season-opening football game with the Long Island University before dropping the next 10 games. The latest loss: 48-7 to visiting University of North Texas.

Heading into this season’s finale, the Golden Eagle defense continues to play well after not giving up a touchdown last week against the Bulldogs. Southern Miss holds the No. 46 ranked total defense in the country, allowing 355.5 yards per contest.

Saturday will mark the second meeting between the two schools in football. The teams first met in 2013 in Hattiesburg. The Panthers tipped a final-second field goal attempt to hold on for a 24-23 triumph in that affair.