Independence Bowl loss to Florida State marks third straight bowl game for USM

After scoring the first touchdown of yesterday’s Independence Bowl, Southern Miss was simply overwhelmed by Florida State and never recovered. Quite a different feeling than last year’s New Orleans Bowl victory, but still an experience worth having for the Golden Eagles.
It’s not the way Southern Miss wanted to end its’ season nor Ito Smith, his career ending with the Black and Gold in Shreveport at the Independence Bowl with a 42-13 loss to Florida State.
For the second time in three years, USM comes up on the wrong side of a bowl game loss to a power five opponent, but even in defeat these losses are still better than the alternative which was not going to a bowl game at all from 2012 to 2014 and that growth of his program is something Head Coach Jay Hopson can certainly appreciate from year one to year two. “I just loved the way we continued to fight. We fought that thing down to the bitter end. And our guys kept plugging on that sideline, just the spirit that’s one thing I love about our guys. I just don’t see any way to defeat them as far as they’re going to keep fighting.”
USM Running back Ito Smith said, “It hasn’t really sunk in yet, but I’m going to miss my teammates, miss all of the coaches. I’m going to miss going to war with my brothers every Saturday, and all of the hard work in the off-season we put in. So just got to keep working.”
“Ito, he is a special, special football player. I always say it is kind of Barry Sanders-ish, I guess. He finds ways to make plays that aren’t even there. He’s a guy that you don’t have to worry about him, he’s coming to war,” said Coach Hopson.
Safety Tarvarius Moore said, “They go to war with me every day, every game, every practice. And I’m just going to miss those times, just to compete and just be with my teammates, my friends.”
“We’re going to still fight and that’s the reality of it. I just like the spirit of our players and our coaches and we’ve just got to keep building,” said Coach Hopson.
Now on the other side of this matchup, Mississippi high school football legend Cam Akers had a showing out party close to his old stomping grounds of Clinton High School by breaking Florida State’s single-season freshman rushing record in the Independence Bowl. That is a huge reason why Southern Miss still hasn’t beaten the Seminoles since 1989 when Brett Favre was still the quarterback for the Golden Eagles.
Southern Miss wraps up 2017 with an overall record of 8-5, good for its third-straight winning season.