HATTIESBURG, MS - Austin Davis directed the Southern Miss offense with efficiency Saturday night against Alcorn State, finding everyone of his playmakers with ease in the first game of the season. With his biggest target, DeAndre Brown, standing on the sideline in jeans, Davis picked apart the Alcorn State defense as every key player on the Golden Eagles offense had several opportunities with the ball in their hands.
"What Austin has done is he's doing a better job of managing the offense," coach Larry Fedora said. "He's got a fresh understanding of what we want him to accomplish. He's going to take the open receiver because he's reading the coverage to see where it should go." Southern Miss cruised to a 52-0 victory over the SWAC team from Lorman before a record crowd of 36,232 at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
Collins: character will show on filmFirst-year Alcorn State head football coach Earnest Collins Jr. has much better memories from his first visit to Roberts Stadium than the ones he and his Braves carried back to Lorman on Saturday night. In 2007, Collins was defensive backs coach for Central Florida when the Knights left Hattiesburg with a Conference USA victory over Southern Miss. Saturday night was a completely different story, as the Golden Eagles struck early and often, handing the Braves a 52-0 thumping before the largest crowd in stadium history - 36,232 - in the season opener for both teams.
"I'm a realist," said Collins, who was associate head coach/defensive coordinator for the Braves last season. "The first part is, we didn't execute like we should have. The second part is, to put it bluntly, we were outmanned." Collins paused, offering a possible third part.
Photo Gallery: USM-Alcorn
Schools, fans honor McNair
Roars reverberated at Roberts Stadium Saturday well before the University of Southern Mississippi and Alcorn State University lined up in the historic first meeting between the intrastate rivals. Damion Fletcher’s picture, looming from the big board over the south end of the stadium, revved up the Black and Gold faithful every time. The U.S. Army’s parachutist team turned the crowd into children, with eyes turned to the sky and fingers pointing at the smoky, red swirls following the Black Daggers descent into the stadium.
But the most poignant applause came during a video tribute to the late Steve McNair, the Mount Olive native who rose to national prominence while quarterbacking the Braves and whose summer football camp was an annual fixture on the USM campus. McNair, who went on to become a standout in the National Football League with the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens during a 13-year career, was shot and killed on July 4 in Nashville. Thousands attended a memorial service a week later at USM’s basketball arena, Green Coliseum.
CONTINUE READING, CLICK BLOG TITLE.
READ RELATED ARTICLES:
Big crowd sets Roberts Stadium record
Southern Miss Blanks Braves
YS - MSU/JSU and USM/ASU - It's a good thing
USM rolls up 631 yards of offense
Eagles soar by Alcorn
Golden Eagles rout Alcorn in opener
Southern Miss sets attendance record in season-opening win
No comments:
Post a Comment