Southern Miss at UTEP Postgame Notes

Nov. 1, 2014

Southern Miss Captains: 17- David Bertucci, 23 - Markese Triplett, 45 - Dasman McCullum, 97 - Rakeem Nunez-Roches

Coin Flip: Southern Miss wins the toss and defers to second half; the Golden Eagles will defend the south goal.

Attendance: 24,673

Team Notes:

The Golden Eagles made their second of three-straight road trips to the state of Texas. The Golden Eagles finish the road portion of their schedule Nov. 13, at UTSA.
Southern Miss turned the ball over a season-high five times.
The loss was the first of three games against UTEP in El Paso since joining C-USA. The Golden Eagles won at the Sun Bowl in 2007 and 2011.

Offensive Notes:

Redshirt senior Cole Weeks made his first career start at quarterback for the Golden Eagles in the contest.
Weeks threw for over 300 yards for the second consecutive game, finish with 309 on 20-of-46 attempts.
The Golden Eagles registered its longest play of the season of 55 yards when Weeks hit Casey Martin for a touchdown early in the third quarter. It was Martin's second career TD reception. The throw was Weeks' career long. The previous high was 54 against Rice in 2012.
Martin finished the game with a season-best 129 yards on six catches as it was his first career 100-yard game for Southern Miss.
The Golden Eagles threw for over 200 yards for the 11th consecutive game.
George Payne had a string of five games with a rushing touchdown snapped.
Michael Thomas had a string of four games with a receiving touchdown broken.

Defensive Notes:

Dasman McCullum forced his fourth fumble of the season (and his career) on UTEP's first series of the game and Cornell Armstrong registered his first career recovery. McCullum's four forced fumbles is tied for third on the Golden Eagle single season chart.
Elijah Parker registered a season-high tackles with 11 stops, including three solos.
Rakeem Nunez-Roches recorded 10 tackles.
The Golden Eagles gave up its fewest defensive yards of the season of 243 yards (116 rush, 127 pass).

Special Team Notes:

Corey Acosta registered one touchback on his only kickoff of the night, giving him 10 in his last four games and 16 for the season.
Acosta missed a 41-yard attempt in the third quarter to snap a string of eight field goals made dating back to the Rice game (9/27).
Rakeem Nunez-Roches collected his second career block and Cornell Armstrong returned it 78 yards for his first career touchdowns. It was the first blocked field goal return for the Golden Eagles since Marquese Wheaton notched a 79-yard return against Navy Oct. 8, 2011. It was the first non-offensive touchdown for Southern Miss this season.
The Golden Eagles surrendered a 98-yard kickoff return to Autrey Golden in the third quarter. It was the first kickoff return surrendered by Southern Miss since Golden took one 98 yards against the Eagles on Nov. 17, 2012.

University of Southern Mississippi Athletics