Southern Miss Football at Texas State Notes
9/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Southern Miss Captains: 11 â€" Kalan Reed, 34 â€" Evan Osborne, 83 â€" Casey Martin, 94 â€" Dylan Bradley
Coin Flip: Southern Miss wins toss; elects to receive.
Team Notes: Southern Miss opened up the game by driving down the field and scoring on its opening position. It marked the first time during the 2015 season that the Golden Eagles scored on their opening drive.
Nick Mullens opened the game by connecting on his first four passes of the game. The junior surpassed the century mark on those four passes, notching 101 yards.
The Golden Eagles' second touchdown drive of the first quarter was a minute and 27 seconds, marking the sixth touchdown of the season by Southern Miss that was less than two minutes in duration.
Southern Miss opened the game, scoring on its first three drives. It is the first time during the 2015 season that the Golden Eagles scored on their first three possessions. The 14 points scored in the first quarter is the most the Golden Eagles have scored in the opening quarter since the Black and Gold posted 14 points against No. 23 Marshall in Hattiesburg on Nov. 8, 2014.
Nick Mullens passed for over 300 yards, marking the 17th time in his career he has eclipsed 200 yards. He is now tied for third all-time with Dustin Almond for most 200-yard games in a career. Jeff Kelly is second with 22. The junior finished the game with 333 yards passing. He is now second all-time in school history in 300-yard games. He moves ahead of Brett Favre. Mullens trails Austin Davis who finished his career with 17 games of 300 or more yards passing.
Jalen Richard rushed for four touchdowns in the game. The last time a Southern Miss player rushed for four touchdowns in a game was on Nov. 20, 2010 when quarterback Austin Davis ran it in four times against Houston. It was the first time in Richard's career he ran for four scores. It was the second time in his Southern Miss career to notch at least two rushing touchdowns in a game. Richard last rushed for two scores in a game on the road against UCF on Oct. 13, 2012.
Running back Jalen Richard finished the game with 230 yards. It was the first time in the senior's career to rush for over 100 yards. Richard posted the fourth best rushing performance in a game in school history behind Sam Dejarnette (304 vs. Florida State, Sept. 25, 1982), Damion Fletcher (260 vs. UTEP, Oct. 4, 2008) and Vic Purvis (238 vs. Memphis, Sept. 25, 1965).
Casey Martin caught two touchdown passes in the game for the first time in his Southern Miss career. In addition, the Texas native eclipsed the 100-yard plateau for the second time in a Golden Eagle uniform. Last season, Martin made six catches for 129 yards and a touchdown against UTEP on Nov. 1, 2014. For the second consecutive game, the Golden Eagles had a running back rush for over 100 yards â€" Ito Smith (135 vs. Austin Peay) and Jalen Richard ( vs. Texas State). It was the first time Southern Miss had back-to-back games with a 100-yard rusher since Jamal Woodyard had back-to-back 100-yard games in 2011 against SMU (116) and UTEP (134).
Southern Miss tallied back-to-back 50-point performances for the first time since 2010. The Golden Eagles scored 59 in a win against Houston (W, 59-41 on Nov. 20, 2010) and followed that with 50 in a loss to Tulsa (L, 50-56 on Nov. 26, 2010).
For the first time since 2011, the Golden Eagles have a winning record and have posted back-to-back victories. The win was the first against a non-Conference USA opponent on the road since a 63-35 victory over Navy in Annapolis, Md. on Oct. 8, 2011. The Golden Eagles defeated Nevada in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl that season (W, 24-17) at a neutral site in Honolulu.