Southern Miss deep at skill positions

What the Golden Eagles lack in experience at quarterback they make up for it at the skill positions. The Southern Miss football team enters fall camp with a lot of weapons and plenty of depth.
Primarily at running back and wide receiver where USM returns a staggering amount of playmakers at both spots. Allenzae Staggers led the Black and Gold as the only 1,000 yard receiver a season ago. Overall, he’s part of a unit that brings back more than 75 percent of its pass catching production from 2016.
Scary to think the backfield retained even more of its juice with 98 percent of last year’s rushing yards still on the roster. Leading the charge is senior half back Ito Smith who is the only player to score more points than the kicker last season with 19 total touchdowns.
The beauty of it is, game planning to stop both the run and pass is nearly impossible for the opposition. Southern Miss Head Coach Jay Hopson said, “We have experience at running back and receiver. Those are probably our two experienced positions.”
Smith said, “You just don’t want to have a one man show or you want to spread the ball out, get other guys involved because that’s going to make it easier on everybody.”
Staggers said, “If we’re running good routes, that way the defense has to set up to stop the pass. That way it leaves Ito and Tez open, and therefore, once they try to stop the run that leaves the pass game open. So, it’s good to switch it up and have them unbalanced.”
In terms of balance, USM had 307 first downs last year: 121 rushing, 157 passing, and 29 as a result of penalties.