Southern Miss Football: Golden Eagles to remain steady in 2018
The Southern Miss football program has always been the Rocky of college football. The Golden Eagles will stay steady and punchy in 2018.
Southern Miss football has been a stalwart of Conference USA for the majority of their run. Since joining the conference in 1996, the Golden Eagles have won at least a share of five Conference USA Championships. Former head football coach Jeff Bower took over for the All-American Bowl in 1990 with his first game as a head coach coming at the end of Brett Favre‘s stint in Hattiesburg.
Before retiring, Coach Bower took the Golden Eagles to ten bowl games over eleven seasons in the middle of a string of fourteen consecutive winning seasons. Under Bower, Southern Miss became the punchy squad that could knock out any opponent no matter how out-manned the Eagles seemed. Bower’s retirement made way for another former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator to take over the reigns in Larry Fedora.
The Fedora era was much shorter than Bower’s, however, it brought much success. Coach Fedora finished his four-year run in Hattiesburg with a 34-19 overall record culminating in a 12-2 season in 2011. Fedora left for UNC Chapel Hill and was replaced by former South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson. Johnson only lasted one season at Southern Miss, a true debacle that saw the Golden Eagles fall to a win-less 0-12 record and Johnson’s immediate firing.
Todd Monken was hired to right the ship. As another former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator, Monken was expected to provide a push to the offensive side of the football. Monken’s tenure started off 4-20 but ended with a 9-5 season in 2015 before departing for the NFL’s Buccaneers as offensive coordinator.
Monken’s success paved the road for Jay Hopson, who came to USM from Alcorn State where he posted a 32-17 record as head coach. Hopson has pushed the Golden Eagles up to a 40th ranking in the S&P+ to end the 2017 season and hope for the 2018 season to get back into the Conference USA title hunt.