University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Rice Comes to The Rock This Weekend for Halloween Game
10/30/2020 8:10:00 AM | Football
Game 6
Southern Miss (1-4, 1-1) vs. Rice (0-1, 0-1)
Hattiesburg, Miss. |The Rock (36,000/9,000 in 2020)
Oct. 31, 2020 | 2 pm CT | ESPN3
TV - ESPN3
Play-By-Play - Jason Baker
Analyst - Dustin Almond
Radio - Southern Miss IMG Sports Network
Play-By-Play John Cox (43rd season)
Analyst Lee Roberts (6th season)
Sidelines Dr. Bo Morgan (11th season)
Live Stats - www.SouthernMiss.com
Series Record - Southern Miss leads 6-4 (Won 5 straight)
Last Meeting - W, 20-6 at Houston (10/26/19)
Golden Eagle Overview
• Southern Miss continues its 104th football season this week, having first fielded a team in 1912. The Golden Eagles are 602-435-27, which is 37th best among FBS teams by winning percentage (.578).
• Southern Miss has captured five-straight winning seasons and 23 over the last 26. The school established its record for seasonal wins in 2011 with 12.
• The Golden Eagles are slated to play seven home games this fall, marking only the second time that they have done that in their history. The only other time came in 1920.
• Southern Miss will have its third head coach this season, after Jay Hopson resigned after the opening game and Scotty Walden was named football coach earlier this week at Austin Peay. Tim Billings, who is in his 41st-year as a coach, will serve as the interim coach from the remainder of the year.
• This will be the fourth time in seven scheduled games (two have been postponed) that the Golden Eagles have prepared for a team that has played one or fewer games.
Notes from Liberty Contest
• The 91 total points was the most combined by two teams in a Southern Miss game since a 106-point total in a 56-50 victory at Texas State (9/19/15).
• The Golden Eagle scored a season-high 21 points in the third quarter.
• The 94-yard drive for the Golden Eagles’ final score in the third quarter was the longest of the year for the squad.
• Tate Whatley posted his fourth career start at quarterback and scored on the Golden Eagles’ opening drive with a 10-yard rush. Whatley added three more rushing scores – from 16, 1 and 4 yards – to become the first Golden Eagle to rush for four scores since Jalen Richard did it against Old Dominion (11/21/15). Whatley now has seven career rushing TDs.
• Brownlee registered his third-straight 100-yard game with 114 receiving yards on five catches and a touchdown, including an acrobatic catch on the sideline for 29 yards in the first quarter. The Golden Eagles have had a 100-yard receiver in all five games this season.
• Santrell Latham forced his first fumble of his career that Hayes Maples covered for the first recovery of his career. The Golden Eagles went on to score off that turnover. Latham also added another sack in the fourth quarter, posting a season high.
• Southern Miss has forced a turnover in every game this season.
• The defense registered their season high for number of sacks with four.
• The Golden Eagles recovered their second pooch kick in as many games and scored after the kick.
The Rice Series
• This will be the 11th meeting between the two schools in football, with Southern Miss holding a 6-4 advantage in a series dating back to the 2007 season. (for a complete breakdown of the series go to page 3 of the notes)
• The Golden Eagles are 3-2 against the Owls in Hattiesburg, having won its last two games here.
• The Golden Eagles look for their sixth-straight victory in the series this week.
• The team has averaged 42.4 points per game over this five-game winning streak, while limiting the Owls to 20.0 points per contest.
• In the 2016 meeting, Nick Mullens threw for a school-record 591 yards and Allenzae Staggers collected a school-best 292 receiving yards in a 44-28 win. Staggers caught touchdown passes that day of 75, 81 and 83 yards.
• Of the eight 400-yard passing games in school history, three have come against Rice, including Mullens (591/1st in 2016), Austin Davis (461/3rd in 2008) and Jack Abraham (428/5th in 2018).
• Kevin Perkins rushed for two touchdowns (2, 38) as the Golden Eagles defeated Rice 20-6 last year in Houston. (See page 3 of the notes for a recap of this game)
Halloween Games
The Golden Eagles are 4-7 all-time in games played on Halloween, but are 2-0 at home when they play on this day. The last time the Golden Eagles played on Halloween was in 2015, in which they defeated the UTEP Miners. In celebration of that day, the Golden Eagles wore all black and the Miners wore all orange.
| Year | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1914 | at Gulf Coast Military Academy | L, 19-0 |
| 1942 | at Mobile Shipbuilders | W, 26-7 |
| 1953 | at Memphis | L, 27-13 |
| 1959 | at Memphis | L, 21-6 |
| 1964 | at Florida State | L, 34-0 |
| 1970 | at Memphis | L, 33-0 |
| 1981 | at North Texas | W, 22-0 |
| 1987 | Jackson State | W, 17-7 |
| 1998 | at Alabama | L, 30-20 |
| 2009 | at Houston | L, 50-43 |
| 2015 | UTEP | W, 34-13 |
