2011-2012 Football Previews – Conference USA – Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles
Did you know that the Southern Miss Golden Eagles have strung together 17 consecutive winning seasons?
Conference USA 2011-2012 Football Previews: Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Head Coach: Larry Fedora
2010 Record: 8-5
Southern Miss Gambling Odds from 5Dimes to win BCS: +30,000
Southern Miss Odds from 5Dimes to win Conference USA Championship: +325
Southern Miss Odds from 5Dimes to win Conference USA East Division: +140
Southern Miss Team Page – Players Stats – Roster – 2011 Schedule –>
**BETONLINE – THE BEST SPORTSBOOK FOR NCAA FOOTBALL BETTING! – CLICK HERE NOW + BET TODAY!**
It’s an extremely impressive feat, but it is also surprising that the team hasn’t won 10 games in a single season since 1988. It’s been the same story for the last few years. Larry Fedora’s team has been one of the best in Conference USA, but they just can’t quite get over the hump.
The Golden Eagles appear ready to make another run at breaking out in 2011. There are plenty of highly-skilled returning starters on both sides of the ball.
Expectations are high in Hattiesburg this season.
Team Strengths:
Austin Davis is rewriting the record books at the quarterback position for Southern Mississippi. Davis has already surpassed Brett Favre’s touchdown passes total, and he is just 299 yards away from breaking the school record for passing yards in a career. Davis is an accurate thrower who makes good decisions with the ball.
He is also a formidable runner, which makes him especially dangerous in the team’s spread offense.
Davis is probably the team’s best player, but the Golden Eagles are stacked at the running back position as well. Kendrick Hardy was a highly touted recruit coming out of high school, and he ran for over 900 yards in his freshman campaign last year. How explosive is Hardy? He averaged 6.5 yards per carry as a freshman.
Desmond Johnson is a very talented runner as well, and he should get plenty of carries.
Southern Mississippi is very athletic on the defensive side of the ball. The Golden Eagles have a great group of linebackers. Korey Williams is the best of the bunch, and he will be one of the best in the conference. There is plenty of depth in the front seven, and this will likely be the fastest defensive front inside Conference USA.
Team Weaknesses:
The single biggest weakness for Southern Miss is clearly their secondary. This is a unit that was shredded up by opponents in Conference USA last year. Despite having a terrific rushing defense, the Golden Eagles allowed 34.6 points per game in conference play last year. The safeties must do a better job keeping the play in front of them. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Southern Mississippi had a huge problem in the red zone last year. The Golden Eagles allowed a touchdown nearly 75 percent of the time when their opponents were inside the red zone. On the other hand, the offense ranked just 70th in the country in scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
This is a team that is losing the battle in the red zone, which costs them a lot of close games.
2011-2012 Southern Miss Football Prediction: 10-3
The story of this program is its inability to get over the hump and get ten wins, but I think they’ll do it this year. I see this team as much more talented and deep than most of the teams they will be playing against in Conference USA. The schedule is very kind to the Golden Eagles as well.
Southern Miss will avoid both Houston and Tulsa, and they get SMU and UCF at home. Davis should have another great year, and I fully expect Hardy to have a breakout season in the backfield. At +325 to win the Conference USA Championship, I really like the value on this team.
I expect the Golden Eagles to be the class of Conference USA in 2011.
2011 Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles Schedule
9/3/11 12:00 PM ET LTECH
9/10/11 12:00 PM ET @MARSH
9/17/11 12:00 PM ET SOLOU
9/24/11 12:00 PM ET @VIRG
10/1/11 12:00 PM ET RICE
10/8/11 3:30 PM ET @NAVY
10/22/11 12:00 PM ET SMU
10/29/11 8:00 PM ET @UTEP
11/5/11 12:00 PM ET @ECAR
11/12/11 8:00 PM ET CENFL
11/17/11 8:00 PM ET @UAB
11/26/11 12:00 PM ET MEM
One reply on “2011 Southern Miss Golden Eagles Gambling Odds | Predictions”
Will Southern Miss have more or less than 9 wins in 2011?