Week 8 Preview: Southern Miss at Louisiana

The Southern Miss Golden Eagles travel to Lafayette, Louisiana to take on the Ragin’ Cajuns. Southern Miss enters the game on a two game win-streak, putting them 4-2 overall. On the other hand, Louisiana looks to bounce back after a loss that made them 2-4.

Southern Miss has dominated the all-time series against Louisiana with a 42-12-1 record. The Golden Eagles have gone 2-1 against the Cajuns since joining the conference, with the one loss coming last season. Louisiana went into Hattiesburg and won 23-13.

Southern Miss

After a dominating first half, Southern Miss scraped by Georgia Southern with a 38-35 win on national television. This win bumped the Golden Eagles up to 2-0 in the conference and first in the west division.

“Obviously, great team win last Thursday in a tough environment,” said Southern Miss head coach Charles Huff. “For us to go down there and battle out a tough win against a really good team was really good.”

Running back Jeffery Pittman had a massive game against the Eagles, rushing for 140 yards and two touchdowns on 31 attempts, his first 100-yard game of his career. Pittman now has 346 yards and six touchdowns on the season, and is now the clear lead back.

Braylon Braxton had another solid game last week, throwing for 237 yards and two touchdowns. Braxton is tied for first in the Sun Belt in touchdowns (13), second in passing yards (1,473), and fifth in rating (147.3). If the Golden Eagles continue to win and Braxton keeps putting up these numbers, he will once again be in the Player of the Year conversations.

On the defensive line, J’Mond Tapp has been a breakout player for the Golden Eagles. Tapp began his career at Texas, never recorded a sack. This season Tapp has already taken the quarterback down four times, a conference lead. Huff has obviously been impressed with Tapp, but also shouted out many players along the d-line.

“Jameer Lewis has done a phenomenal job. JJ Hawkins has done a phenomenal job,” Huff said. “The unsung heroes of that group are probably Brodarius Lewis and Isaiah Gibson.”

Linebackers Chris Jones and Michael Montgomery continue to be two of the best tacklers in the country. Jones is first in the conference, and tied for sixth nationally, with 64 total tackles. Montgomery is fourth in the conference, and tied for 16th nationally, with 57 total tackles. Montgomery also has two interceptions, which is tied for the team lead with Josh Moten and Ian Foster.

Louisiana

The Ragin’ Cajuns come into this game off of a 24-14 loss to James Madison, which was also on national television. That loss dropped Louisiana to 2-4 overall, 1-1 in conference play.

Following their win against Marshall, Lunch Winfield seemed to be the next star quarterback in the Sun Belt. His ability through the air, but more importantly on the ground, was extremely impressive, but the Dukes made Winfield look like a quarterback in his second career start. He was solid, but inconsistent, throwing for 243 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception on 50 percent completion percentage.

“It wasn’t as consistent as it could be, and we still have room to improve in the passing game,” Louisiana head coach Michael Desormeaux noted. “Execution in the passing game needs improvement.”

The running game was more concerning for Louisiana, as Winfield was the leading rusher, rushing 15 times for 23 yards. Team’s second-leading running back Bill Davis only ran for 21 yards.

“The run game felt feast or famine. We struggled early, then put some drives together in the second quarter. But in the third, several big runs were slowed by tackles” said Desormeaux.

Luckily, Louisiana’s leading-rusher Zylan Perry is expected to play against the Golden Eagles after missing the James Madison game. Perry has rushed for 411 yards and five touchdowns so far this season, including an impressive seven yards per carry.

Wide receiver Robert Williams had the best game of his Louisiana career against the Dukes, catching five passes for 134 yards. This performance has made Williams the top receiver on the season with 223 receiving yards.

Defensively, the Cajuns are led by linebacker Jaden Dugger who has 52 total tackles this season. In terms of getting to the quarterback, Louisiana is a lot more spread out, as 10 defenders have recorded at least half a sack.

“I got an appropriate fear for them,” Huff emphasized. “We talked about in the team meeting, probably one of the most dangerous teams that we’ll play all year.”