C-USA Media Days: Southern Miss Golden Eagles

As Jay Hopson enters his third season as head coach at Southern Miss there’s a developing sense of continuity for the upcoming campaign, but for the second year in a row Coach Hop is also dealing with a pre-season quarterback battle even following the departure of Keon Howard.

That was one of the talking points at today’s Conference USA Media Day session, coming off an 8-5 season in 2017. So, now it’s back to the drawing board in 2018 for a team that’s picked to finish fourth in the west division.

The Golden Eagles boast the special teams pre-season player of the year in Parker Shaunfield, but do not have any representation on the league’s offensive or defensive units.

To an extent, that’s where USM has traditionally thrived as the underdog just patiently waiting to impose its will. “When they sign up with Southern Miss, if you’re going to put the Black and Gold on, that’s a tradition, I always say there’s only two great football traditions that teams have a name. Southern Miss is the Nasty Bunch, Texas A&M is the Wrecking Crew. And those are traditions that have lasted for 50 years, so it’s not like it’s a new wave, we’re making up a tradition as we come in. That’s a tradition that I came into as an assistant and as a head coach, every football player that puts the Black and Gold on has to understand when you sign at Southern Miss you’re signing up to be a part of the Nasty Bunch and that’s just our tradition and that’s who we are,” said Hopson.

That Nasty Bunch showed up in big way last season, ranking second in total defense in C-USA while improving its turnover differential from the year before by a mark of 16.