SOUTHERN MISS FOOTBALL 2011 GAME NOTES #24 Southern Miss #6 Houston GOLDEN EAGLES COUGARS 10-2 (6-2 C-USA) VS 12-0 (8-0 C-USA) At A Glance Radio: Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (John Cox, 34th season, play-by- Date ....................................................... Dec. 3, 2011 play; Vic Purvis, 38th season, analyst; Bo Morgan, sideline coordinator, 2nd Time ........................................................11 A.M. (CT) season; Joe Bryant, spotter/statistician, 4th season) Location .............................................Houston, Texas Television: ABC - Mike Patrick, play-by-play; Craig James, color analyst; Lisa Stadium .....................................................Robertson Salters, sidelines. Capacity ..........................................................32,000 Gametracker: www.SouthernMiss.com Surface ..............................................................Grass Websites: SouthernMiss.com; UHCougars.com; ConferenceUSA.com TV ......................................................................... ABC Series .................................................USM leads 8-5 Notes Heading into the C-USA Championship Game Streak...............................................................USM 1 • After a week hiatus, the Golden Eagles returned to the BCS Rankings at No. 24, On Road .............................................................UH 3 as well as the two national polls - No. 23 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll and No. Last ..................................... USM 59-41 (10/20/10) 24 by the Associated Press. 2011 Southern Miss Schedule • Senior QB Austin Davis needs 77 yards to eclipse the school-record for single- season passing. He holds the current mark of 3,128 in which he set when he was a Sept. 3 Louisiana Tech (FSN) ............... W, 19-17 freshman in 2008. Sept. 10 at Marshall* (CSS) .................... L, 26-20 • The defense now has seven interception returns for touchdowns, which is a Sept. 17 Southeastern Louisiana ..............W, 52-6 school record (previous best – 5 in 1992), and also is tied at the top of the FBS with Sept. 24 at Virginia (Raycom) ................. W, 30-24 Louisiana-Lafayette. The total is also tied for an FBS record with Tennessee, who set Oct. 1 Rice* (CSS) ............................... W, 48-24 that mark in 1971. Oct. 8 at Navy (CBSSN) ....................... W, 63-35 • With Kendrick Presley’s 100-yard interception return for a touchdown, he became Oct. 22 SMU* (HC/CBSSN) .....................W, 27-3 the 22nd different Southern Miss player to score a touchdown and 25th player to Oct. 29 at UTEP* (CBSSN) .................... W, 31-13 accumulate points during the season. Nov. 5 at East Carolina* (CSS) ........... W, 48-24 • Southern Miss held Memphis to seven yards rushing on 22 carries in the win. It Nov. 12 UCF* (CBSSN) .......................... W, 30-29 was the second fewest rushing yards allowed under Larry Fedora (4 yards, SMU on Nov. 17 at UAB* (CBSSN) ........................L, 34-31 11/29/08). The 181 total yards is the third-lowest allowed under Fedora. Nov. 26 Memphis* (CSS) ........................ W, 44-7 Dec. 3 at Houston$ (ABC).........................11 am * C-USA contest; $ C-USA Title Game; All Times CT The Houston Series • The Golden Eagles are 8-5 all-time against Houston, but look to snap a three-game 2011 Houston Schedule losing streak at Robertson Stadium this week. (see pages five of the notes for the Sept. 3 UCLA .......................................... W, 38-34 breakdown of the series) Sept. 10 at North Texas .......................... W, 48-23 • Southern Miss captured last year’s contest 59-41 as it was the most points ever Sept. 17 at Louisiana Tech ..................... W, 35-34 scored by a winning team in a somewhat offensive series. Sept. 24 Georgia State ...............................W, 56-0 • The two teams have combined for 58.8 per game over the 13 games in the series, Sept. 29 at UTEP* ................................... W, 49-42 with the winning team scoring at least 30 points nine times. Oct. 8 East Carolina* .............................W, 56-3 • In the Golden Eagles’ last meeting in Houston, USM dropped a 50-43 decision Oct. 22 Marshall*.................................. W, 63-28 on Oct. 31, 2009. QB Martevious Young hit Gerald Baptiste for two of his three TD Oct. 27 Rice* ......................................... W, 73-17 catches in the final quarter to tie the score at 43, but Case Keenum connected with Nov. 5 at UAB* ..................................... W, 56-13 Patrick Edwards for a 28-yard scoring strike with 28 seconds remaining to lift the Nov. 10 at Tulane* ................................. W, 73-17 Cougars to the victory. The game saw 1,358 yards of total offense (USM - 608, UH- Nov. 19 SMU* ...........................................W, 37-7 750). Nov. 25 at Tulsa* ................................... W, 48-16 • Two of the games have been decided in overtime with each team winning once. Dec. 3 Southern Miss$ (ABC) ...................11 am * C-USA contest; $ C-USA Title Game; All Times CT Southern Miss Football Page 1 Game 13 - Houston Southern Miss Football Golden Eagles Under Fedora 2011 Overall Larry Fedora Record 10-2 32-19 Head Football Coach C-USA 6-2 20-12 Fourth Season - 32-19 (.627), USM and Overall Record Non-Conference 4-0 12-7 Atlantic Coast 1-0 2-0 Big 12 0-0 1-1 When Larry Fedora accepted the job to become the 18th head coach at the University Big East 0-0 0-2 of Southern Mississippi, he promised that his football team would “attack” in all phases Independent 1-0 1-0 of the game. Southeastern 0-0 0-2 Southland 1-0 1-0 Southwestern Athletic 0-0 2-0 That is exactly what the Golden Eagles have done during his four seasons as the Sun Belt 0-0 3-1 program’s mentor. Western Athletic 1-0 2-1 Home 6-0 19-5 In his first year in Hattiesburg, Fedora’s squad broke 36 school records on the way Away 4-2 12-12 Neutral 0-0 1-2 to ending the season with a five-game winning streak to reach a bowl game. The Golden Day Games 4-1 12-8 Eagles extended that streak in 2009 to eight games - the longest consecutive winning Night Games 6-1 20-11 streak for the program since the 1958-59 seasons. Working with a program with a rich TV Games 9-2 19-18 tradition, through Fedora’s leadership, Southern Miss has been able to keep several CBS SN 4-1 8-6 CSS 3-1 6-5 streaks alive during his tenure as head coach including: Cox Sports TV 0-0 1-0 ESPN 0-0 2-3 • 18th straight current winning season, which trails only Florida, Florida State and ESPN U 0-0 0-1 Virginia Tech FSN 1-0 1-1 Raycom 1-0 1-1 • 10th straight bowl appearance WITN (NC Only) 0-0 1-0 • at least seven wins in 15 of the past 16 seasons through 2011 Time Warner-El Paso 0-0 0-1 • appearing in the 14th bowl game in the last 15 seasons (counting a bowl this season) When Scoring First 8-1 23-8 When Foe Scores First 2-1 9-11 When Leading at Half 9-1 27-4 The 2011 season has been Fedora’s most successful as the program concluded their When Trailing at Half 0-1 1-13 first 10-win regular season since 1952 and only the third time in school history to reach When Tied at Half 1-0 4-2 that mark. The Golden Eagles also rose to as high as No. 20 in the BCS rankings and re- In Overtime Games 0-0 1-2 appeared in the national polls for the first time since 2004. Fedora’s squad also locked Scoring Less than 20 points 1-0 3-4 Scoring 20+ points 9-2 28-15 up their first C-USA division title since 2006 when the Golden Eagles also faced Houston Scoring 30+ points 8-1 24-9 in the C-USA Championship game. Foe Scoring Less than 20 points 5-0 18-0 Foe Scoring 20+ points 5-2 14-19 Fedora success has made Southern Miss fans come in record crowds. The 2009 Foe Scoring 30+ points 1-1 5-14 Rushing for less than 100 yards 1-1 1-4 opener against Alcorn State set a stadium record for attendance with 36,232 and the Rushing for more than 100 yards 9-1 31-15 school saw more fans through the turnstiles at home, 184,178, than any other season. Rushing for more than 200 yards 5-1 17-4 The Golden Eagles averaged over 30,000 fans for the second straight year with 30,696 in Rushing for more than 300 yards 2-0 6-0 2009 after breaking the previous best mark of 30,079 set in 2008. In 2010, the Golden Passing for less than 100 yards 0-0 0-0 Passing for more than 100 yards 10-2 32-19 Eagles averaged just under the 30,000-fan plateau by seeing 29,400 spectators per game. Passing for more than 200 yards 7-2 20-17 Passing for more than 300 yards 3-1 3-8 The Golden Eagles have become an offensive juggernaut during Fedora’s tenure and Less than 300 Yards Total Offense 1-0 2-1 again did not disappoint in 2010. In 2008, one of the school records they established was More than 300 Yards Total Offense 9-2 30-18 Allowing Less than 100 yards rush 6-0 21-1 most total offensive yards with 5,636. They came close to breaking that record again in Allowing More than 100 yards rush 4-2 11-18 2009 with 5,413 yards of total offense and then succeeded in accomplishing that goal in Allowing 200 yards passing 3-2 14-16 2010, by gaining 5,894 total yards and went on to break 35 school records during the year. Allowing 300 yards passing 2-0 6-5 Allowing less than 300 yards total off. 5-0 16-2 Allowing more than 300 yards total off.