By Al Myatt, Special to CNNSI.com
Southern Miss has returned to the form that carried the Golden Eagles to
three C-USA championships. The Golden Eagles clinched their eighth
straight winning season with impressive wins over Tulane and East
Carolina in the last two weeks and don't look like the group that had
five turnovers in a 22-17 loss at Memphis or one that made four
turnovers in a 24-14 setback at Louisville.
Coach Jeff Bower's club is taking care of the football and taking care
of business.
USM didn't have a turnover in its 28-21 win at East Carolina on Friday
while forcing five by the Pirates. The GMAC Bowl is waiting on Southern
Miss' game at Alabama on Thursday night and would likely match the
Golden Eagles against Marshall in Mobile, Alabama on Dec. 19 if the
Eagles can get past the Crimson Tide for the second straight year.
USM fell behind 10-0 in the first quarter to the Pirates, who have
outscored opponents 112-25 in the opening quarter this season. The
Eagles were anticipating a fast start by ECU.
"We kind of halfway expected them to come out and start like they always
do," said Jeff Kelly, who completed 17 of 24 for 166 yards. "We were mentally
prepared to keep fighting no matter what they did."
USM (6-3) battled back with 25 points in the second quarter, 10 of which
followed ECU turnovers.
"The second quarter was a big quarter for us," Bower said. "We had 210
yards of total offense, created some turnovers, and got 22 unanswered
points. ... We got a field goal on the last play of the half, which was
a key in the game. That was big for us to get the momentum back on our side.
"We played solid in the second half. We took care of the football and
were able to stay on the field to run the clock. We had a great fourth
quarter defensively. They didn't have but 18 yards of total offense in
the fourth quarter."
Field position was in USM's favor because of ECU's turnovers, four of
which were in its own territory.
"We had an average starting point at our own 47, and they started at
their own 24," Bower said. "That's a huge difference. We gave them a
long field, and we got some turnovers that gave us a short field."
After averaging 60.4 yards rushing in its first five games, the Eagles
have averaged 151.8 yards the last three, including a 195-yard output at
ECU. Southern Miss has raised its scoring average from 17.2 to 27.9 over
the last month with the help of a 58-14 win over Houston and a 59-6
defeat of Tulane.
Southern Miss has had just one turnover in its last three games and won
for the 12th time in 14 games against ECU on the Pirates' home field.
Home field hasn't been a great asset in the series. ECU has handed Bower
three of his eight home losses in his 11 years as USM head coach.
"We talked about that before the game and the importance of getting the
home field thing turned around, but we didn't get it done," said Pirates
coach Steve Logan.
ECU missed a certain bid to the GMAC Bowl by losing to Southern Miss.
Compounding the agony for the Pirtates was TCU's 37-22 upset of
Louisville that night, meaning ECU would have shared the C-USA
championship with the Cardinals had they beaten the Golden Eagles.
The Eagles move on to play 'Bama with bowl implications, a game that was
originally scheduled for Sept. 15.
"There are two bowls out there, Mobile [GMAC] and Houston
[galleryfurniture.com, Dec. 28], and there have been no invitations
extended," Bower said. "... As far as I am concerned we are still
battling. ... I think that they [Alabama] think this is a real big game.
They are 5-5, and they have to get their sixth win to go to a bowl. This
is major, major big."
The Golden Eagles close the regular season at home against TCU on Dec.
7, a game that was postponed from Nov. 30 to accomodate the USM-Alabama
make-up date.
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Cincinnati true freshman Gino Guidugli engineered his third fourth
quarter game-winning drive in the Bearcats' 36-34 win at Memphis that
made his team bowl eligible at 6-4. Guidugli passed for a career-high
348 yards, including his 13-yard scoring pass to Jon Olinger with four
seconds left at the Liberty Bowl.
Guidugli ranks second among freshmen nationally in completions per game
(18.7), fourth in total offense (254.9 yards per game) and fifth in
passing efficiency (154.9).
"You gotta believe," said Guidugli of the game-winner to the 6-foot-3
Olinger, who had six catches for 144 yards. "Jonnie O's a go-to guy, and
he really came through for us in a big way. He's a big target, it's like
having Randy Moss out there."
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HOT:
TCU's Ricky Madison
Ran for 156 yards on 31 carries against Louisville.
NOT:
ECU's Leonard Henry
Has averaged 7.8 yards per carry, but was
limited to 3.3 by Southern Miss.
HOT:
Louisville's Dave Ragone
Completed 32 of 50 passes at TCU for 359
yards and three touchdowns.
NOT:
Houston
Takes a 14-game losing streak into its season finale at No.
16 Georgia.
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GMAC bowl scout Murray Cape came to Greenville, N.C. for last Friday's
11 a.m. kickoff between Southern Miss and East Carolina poised to
present a bid to ECU. The ceremony was to take place on Bagwell
Field at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, similar to the announcement when ECU
went to the inaugural Mobile Alabama Bowl in 1999 after topping N.C.
State.
But the Golden Eagles spoiled that scenario with a 28-21 win, and Cape
visited the Southern Miss locker room after the game. GMAC Bowl officials decided at a meeting on Sunday night to wait until
after Southern Miss played Alabama on Thursday night before making its
C-USA choice. ECU becomes a viable option with an Alabama win.
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TCU kicker Nick Browne
Scored 13 points in the upset of Louisville,
including a career-longest 50-yard field goal.
Southern Miss RB Dawayne Woods
Ran 23 times for 106 yards at ECU.
TCU LB LaMarcus McDonald
Had eight tackles, five solo and 3.5 sacks in
the Louisville game.
Southern Miss defensive lineman Rayshun Jones
Had four tackles for
loss at ECU.
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It's generally conceded that there is no other rivalry like the
Army-Navy game, which will be played for the 102nd time in Philadelphia
on Saturday at noon (CBS).
"I've had a coach tell me who was involved in a Super Bowl and an
Army-Navy game that Army-Navy was more intense," said Cadets coach Todd
Berry, who lost 30-28 in his initial encounter with the Midshipmen last
season in Baltimore.
Although numerous games have been postponed to this Saturday, crowding
the focus on the showdown between the academies, the military
involvement in Afghanistan may heighten interest in the game this year.
Army has won 10 of the last 15 meetings, and six of the last nine, to
lead the series 48-46-7. Navy has outscored the Cadets by 101 points
over the course of the 101 games, an average point differential of one
point per game. Army won seven of 10 games in the 1990s by a total of 24
points.
Navy is 0-9 and Army is 2-8 but despite the records, the series remains
a treasured tradition. Army is 1-2 in the series with losses the last
two years since joining C-USA as a football member in 1998.
Bowl wise, Cincinnati, which hosts Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday, looks
like the opponent for Toledo in the Motor City Bowl on Dec. 29. UAB
visits Pittsburgh with the Blazers hoping to become more attractive to
bowl interests. The Panthers are playing for bowl eligibility.
The GMAC appears set on Southern Miss if it beats Alabama although it
may turn to ECU if the Crimson Tide wins. The Galleryfurniture.com Bowl
might take the team left out of the Mobile scenario although it could
wait and see if homestate TCU becomes bowl eligible at Southern Miss on
Dec. 7.
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A Southern Miss win over TCU would mean a four-way tie for second in the
league standings between Cincinnati, UAB, ECU and USM -- all with 5-2
league records. ... League champ Louisville, 6-1 in C-USA, is ranked No.
24 by the Associated Press and No. 23 by the coaches. ... UAB's Bryan
Thomas needs one sack at Pitt to become C-USA's career leader. ... ECU
coach Steve Logan missed out on contract bonuses totaling $50,000 with
the loss to Louisville on Nov. 15. ... Cincinnati's DeMarco McCleskey
and Ray Jackson each ran for over 100 yards at Memphis. ... Louisville
is going for a school season record of 11 wins in the Liberty Bowl on
Dec. 31. ... Memphis freshman Danny Wimprine passed for 295 yards (16
for 33) and three touchdowns against Cincinnati. ... Tigers kicker Ryan
White closed his career with a league record 49 field goals. Memphis'
294 points this season were the most for the Tigers since they scored
312 in 1992. ... TCU limited Louisville to minus-47 yards rushing. ...
Houston leads the series with Georgia 2-0-1 although the teams haven't
played since a 31-24 Cougars win in 1974. The Cougars are trying to
avoid the first winless season by a team in C-USA. ... South Florida,
scheduled to join the league in 2003, went 8-3 this year with a 35-26
win over Pitt.
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