The Southern Miss football team played a fairly solid 60 minutes in a 51-21 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette in the first game of the season, but the last two games have been split up into very different halves.Against Auburn, the Golden Eagles were shut out in the first half before putting together a solid second half against the highly-ranked Tigers. But coach Larry Fedora's squad fell short in a 27-14 defeat on the road.
Southern Miss dominated the first half of Saturday's game at Arkansas State before the Eagles struggled to barely hang on for a 27-24 victory.
USM coach Larry Fedora is hoping for a full four quarters at 2:30 p.m. this Saturday in the Conference USA opener against Marshall at Roberts Stadium.
"I'm doing everything possible, I promise you," Fedora said. "I think a lot of it has to do with a team that has a new system in every phase of the game - offense, defense and special teams. They continuously have to focus all the time. They never get to relax because they're never going to be totally comfortable. I don't think this season they'll ever feel totally comfortable because it's the first year in the system. It will be a never-ending growing process for them."
When his defense was struggling to stop the Arkansas State offense as the Red Wolves amassed 341 total yards in the second half, Fedora became very involved with his defensive players. He showed his emotions as much as he had all season as he was bumping into his players and grabbing them in an effort to motivated his beleaguered group of defenders.
"I was giving them everything I had and I wanted them to respond and to continue to play hard," Fedora said. "And that is one thing we have preached, that we are going to continue to play hard all the way to the end. Even if we are not making some plays, and it is not going our way, we can still play hard. I believe that if you play hard that good things will happen to you eventually.
"We made the play. The kid (ASU quarterback Corey Leonard) made one bad throw - well, I don't even know if it was a bad throw - and we took advantage of the opportunity."
Senior cornerback Eddie Willingham saved the day in a tight win against the Sun Belt opponent, but Fedora and his staff are pleased with what they are seeing from their young Eagles.
"As coaches, as we evaluated, we feel we're getting better each week," Fedora said. "It may not show on the field in a lot of areas, but we're getting better every week. The experience we're getting is very good.
"I think we're growing as a football team. We're getting better in a lot of areas and hopefully we can come home this weekend and put this whole thing together and play that whole game."
Southern Miss dominated the first half of Saturday's game at Arkansas State before the Eagles struggled to barely hang on for a 27-24 victory.
USM coach Larry Fedora is hoping for a full four quarters at 2:30 p.m. this Saturday in the Conference USA opener against Marshall at Roberts Stadium.
"I'm doing everything possible, I promise you," Fedora said. "I think a lot of it has to do with a team that has a new system in every phase of the game - offense, defense and special teams. They continuously have to focus all the time. They never get to relax because they're never going to be totally comfortable. I don't think this season they'll ever feel totally comfortable because it's the first year in the system. It will be a never-ending growing process for them."
When his defense was struggling to stop the Arkansas State offense as the Red Wolves amassed 341 total yards in the second half, Fedora became very involved with his defensive players. He showed his emotions as much as he had all season as he was bumping into his players and grabbing them in an effort to motivated his beleaguered group of defenders.
"I was giving them everything I had and I wanted them to respond and to continue to play hard," Fedora said. "And that is one thing we have preached, that we are going to continue to play hard all the way to the end. Even if we are not making some plays, and it is not going our way, we can still play hard. I believe that if you play hard that good things will happen to you eventually.
"We made the play. The kid (ASU quarterback Corey Leonard) made one bad throw - well, I don't even know if it was a bad throw - and we took advantage of the opportunity."
Senior cornerback Eddie Willingham saved the day in a tight win against the Sun Belt opponent, but Fedora and his staff are pleased with what they are seeing from their young Eagles.
"As coaches, as we evaluated, we feel we're getting better each week," Fedora said. "It may not show on the field in a lot of areas, but we're getting better every week. The experience we're getting is very good.
"I think we're growing as a football team. We're getting better in a lot of areas and hopefully we can come home this weekend and put this whole thing together and play that whole game."
