– Last Updated on June 8, 2018 7:51 am
2017 Football Preview – C-USA – Golden Eagles
Looking for 2017 Southern Miss Golden Eagles predictions? The Golden Eagles had a decent season in 2016 season. They finished with a 7-6 record which put them in third place in the Conference USA-West division. After a strong start they had a disappointing finish to their season however. They finished off last season losing five of their last seven games. To have a successful season this year they are going to need to have a stronger finish to the season.
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- 2017-18 College Football Preview – Southern Miss Golden Eagles
- Head Coach: Jay Hopson
- 2016 Record: 7-6
- Southern Miss Golden Eagles Odds to win the 2017 FBS Championship: +50000
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So will the Golden Eagles take another step forward this year?
2017 Southern Miss Golden Eagles Predictions: Team Strengths
Star in the Backfield: The bread and butter of this team is running the ball and that should be the case again this year.
They have a very deep running back field this year, but their is a clear leader in the running back by committee, Ito Smith.
He is a an explosive back that can run and catch the ball.
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Last year he rushed for 1459 yards and 17 touchdowns and also had 459 receiving yards and two touchdowns. For Southern Miss to have another successful season, he needs to have around 2000 total yards again this year.
Solid Defense: The defense was very solid last year, and the same is expected out of this years squad.
The defense was 10th in the league in pass defense, and they only allowed 150 yards for other teams rushing the ball.
If they can cut down on the big plays this year, they should be the heart and soul of this team, and that will lead to a lot of success.
2017 Southern Miss Golden Eagles Predictions: Team Weaknesses
Quarterback battle: This quarterback position very well could turn out to be a strength for this team, but coming into the season it is a point of weakness.
Gone from last years team is Nick Mullens who brought the Golden Eagles to new heights. He averaged over 300 yards a game last year, and that is a lot to replace.
Coming into the fall season two guys are still battling for the jobs, Keon Howard and Kwadra Griggs who both are good options, but one of them needs to step up and take that big step forward.
Most of the time a quarterback by committee doesn’t work, so they need to try and stay away from that this year.
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Turnover differential: The one thing the defense didn’t do great last year was force turnovers, and with a young inexperienced quarterback under center, they need to do a better job of that.
Nick Mullens bailed them out of a lot of games last year, and they can’t expect the new quarterback to do the same this year.
The defense needs to really get after the quarterback early in games and try to force them to make poor decisions with the football. If they are able to do that the turnover differential should be better then the -17 they were greeted with last year.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles Prediction: 8-4
I think the defense will do a good job of not blowing leads this year, and I think that the schedule is very favorable for Southern Miss.
Even with a new quarterback this team is going to turn into more of a running team this year, and that isn’t a bad thing at all.
I think they will have all sorts of success running the ball and that will put them into a position to win a lot of football games this year.
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I think they will finish with an 8-4 record and get to an even nicer bowl game, and start to really build something special down at Southern Miss.
2017 Southern Miss Golden Eagles Football Schedule
- 9/2/17 4:00 PM ET UK
- 9/9/17 7:00 PM ET SOUTH
- 9/16/17 7:00 PM ET @ULM
- 9/30/17 TBD UNT
- 10/7/17 TBD @UTSA
- 10/14/17 TBD UTEP
- 10/21/17 TBD @LT
- 10/28/17 TBD UAB
- 11/4/17 TBD @TENN
- 11/11/17 TBD @RICE
- 11/18/17 TBD CHAR
- 11/25/17 TBD @MRSH
What do you think about our 2017 Southern Miss Golden Eagles predictions? Please leave us a comment below telling us how you think they’ll do in 2017!
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