University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Blake Anderson Weekly Press Conference – The UConn Game
9/14/2026 2:18:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG -- Southern Miss football coach Blake Anderson addressed the media on Monday, Sept. 14, ahead of the Golden Eagles' game against UConn this Saturday.
Fans can still purchase tickets to the game and secure tickets for the rest of the 2026 season by visiting SouthernMiss.com/Tickets.
Here is what Anderson said to the media:
Anderson on the environment at Auburn:
"Yeah, we failed miserably in that area. Just the environment flustered us. It was loud, which we knew was going to be. We tried to simulate that, but just the sheer anxiety and nerves of it got us. I mean, we had seven false starts. We haven't had that plague us in a practice or a scrimmage or in the first game. But that made it really hard to get started. We busted some protections. The first interception was a completely busted protection. Turned the three-technique loose right to the quarterback had a guy open. We threw that same concept multiple times throughout the day and did a good job of keeping, you know, getting the ball out quick, which was a big part of the game plan early: just get the ball out in space quickly with quickness and not try to go right at them just because of how well they're built up front. But three personal fouls. It was cross-board defensively, busted protection or busted coverage for a touchdown, and then just let the quarterback break contain multiple times. And it's something we talked about all week. We got to keep him in. We got to keep him in, and we just, just so I would just say, in terms of that type of game, you got to play. You've got to play your best ball, and there's just way too many unforced errors to be in a position where we could make the game of it that we'd like. I mean, even then, you don't know how it's going to play out, but you want to be in it, and there are just way too many unforced errors. It's just not something that we've done up to this point. So handled it poorly, and got a result that you would expect when you do."
Anderson on what the team can take from the Auburn game:
No, I mean you got to teach from it. It's still a great opportunity. All those things are fixable. Those are not what Auburn did to us. Like, those are things we did to ourselves, and we have the same mistakes. You know, UConn's going to give us the same result. Like, we're going to play good teams every week, and when you can't get off the line of scrimmage at the same time, when you turn a three-technique loose, when you don't play the coverages. Everybody's on like those things are going to plague you regardless. The environment, obviously and the opponent magnified the problem and obviously exposed the problem, but we didn't have those issues week one. Like, we played very calm, communicated really well, didn't have a lot of unforced errors, and we made some mistakes, but not to the level that we did this week. So it spiraled, and we need to teach from it and make sure that if you lose a game in the future, that you lose it because the opponent outperformed you, was better than you, but not because you gave them opportunities by you know, careless, unforced, undisciplined eras, and that's what that's what everybody saw. So it's frustrating. What kind of game would it have been if we didn't do those things? I mean, you'll never know, but you only get one shot at it. We just didn't handle that well at all. That's the message, and now we're going to watch every snap of this, and we're going to learn from it. Not going to beat them up. Just going to try to fix it.
Anderson on playing Alcorn State and Auburn so far:
Yeah, to go from a very disciplined, very organized game to having one that just seemed like everything went off the rails. But again, you mentioned them, and that's first time, and probably only time, a lot of these guys will be in that environment; they wanted it to go great for a million different reasons and just didn't. But you know, it's a learning experience, just a really crappy one. Nobody likes going through that. But yeah, just night and day different between week one and week two.
Anderson with more on the Auburn game:
I mean, just when we finally calmed down and just did some things that we do routinely well on a daily basis. You know, it was encouraging to see. We stayed ahead of the tracks. Even really overcame a big penalty. We had a penalty down on the goal line that could have derailed the whole drive. And we looked physical at times. We had some hard yards and caught the ball in some tight spaces and stayed away from the, you know false starts and dropped balls and had a good drive, and you get the two-point conversion, and you're like, hey, it's a two-score game. Now, obviously, we can have some things go our way, but it's a two-score game, and we needed to get a stop right there to go into the half. Needed to get a stop coming out of the half. Obviously, we had to put together a drive, and just from that point on, we just never mounted that kind of environment for us. So frustrating there, but you saw some signs at times defensively where we forced them to punt and did some good things. You saw a good drive there, but just nothing at a level that was consistent enough to ever put you in a position to really have the game you wanted to have.
Fans can still purchase tickets to the game and secure tickets for the rest of the 2026 season by visiting SouthernMiss.com/Tickets.
Here is what Anderson said to the media:
Anderson on the environment at Auburn:
"Yeah, we failed miserably in that area. Just the environment flustered us. It was loud, which we knew was going to be. We tried to simulate that, but just the sheer anxiety and nerves of it got us. I mean, we had seven false starts. We haven't had that plague us in a practice or a scrimmage or in the first game. But that made it really hard to get started. We busted some protections. The first interception was a completely busted protection. Turned the three-technique loose right to the quarterback had a guy open. We threw that same concept multiple times throughout the day and did a good job of keeping, you know, getting the ball out quick, which was a big part of the game plan early: just get the ball out in space quickly with quickness and not try to go right at them just because of how well they're built up front. But three personal fouls. It was cross-board defensively, busted protection or busted coverage for a touchdown, and then just let the quarterback break contain multiple times. And it's something we talked about all week. We got to keep him in. We got to keep him in, and we just, just so I would just say, in terms of that type of game, you got to play. You've got to play your best ball, and there's just way too many unforced errors to be in a position where we could make the game of it that we'd like. I mean, even then, you don't know how it's going to play out, but you want to be in it, and there are just way too many unforced errors. It's just not something that we've done up to this point. So handled it poorly, and got a result that you would expect when you do."
Anderson on what the team can take from the Auburn game:
No, I mean you got to teach from it. It's still a great opportunity. All those things are fixable. Those are not what Auburn did to us. Like, those are things we did to ourselves, and we have the same mistakes. You know, UConn's going to give us the same result. Like, we're going to play good teams every week, and when you can't get off the line of scrimmage at the same time, when you turn a three-technique loose, when you don't play the coverages. Everybody's on like those things are going to plague you regardless. The environment, obviously and the opponent magnified the problem and obviously exposed the problem, but we didn't have those issues week one. Like, we played very calm, communicated really well, didn't have a lot of unforced errors, and we made some mistakes, but not to the level that we did this week. So it spiraled, and we need to teach from it and make sure that if you lose a game in the future, that you lose it because the opponent outperformed you, was better than you, but not because you gave them opportunities by you know, careless, unforced, undisciplined eras, and that's what that's what everybody saw. So it's frustrating. What kind of game would it have been if we didn't do those things? I mean, you'll never know, but you only get one shot at it. We just didn't handle that well at all. That's the message, and now we're going to watch every snap of this, and we're going to learn from it. Not going to beat them up. Just going to try to fix it.
Anderson on playing Alcorn State and Auburn so far:
Yeah, to go from a very disciplined, very organized game to having one that just seemed like everything went off the rails. But again, you mentioned them, and that's first time, and probably only time, a lot of these guys will be in that environment; they wanted it to go great for a million different reasons and just didn't. But you know, it's a learning experience, just a really crappy one. Nobody likes going through that. But yeah, just night and day different between week one and week two.
Anderson with more on the Auburn game:
I mean, just when we finally calmed down and just did some things that we do routinely well on a daily basis. You know, it was encouraging to see. We stayed ahead of the tracks. Even really overcame a big penalty. We had a penalty down on the goal line that could have derailed the whole drive. And we looked physical at times. We had some hard yards and caught the ball in some tight spaces and stayed away from the, you know false starts and dropped balls and had a good drive, and you get the two-point conversion, and you're like, hey, it's a two-score game. Now, obviously, we can have some things go our way, but it's a two-score game, and we needed to get a stop right there to go into the half. Needed to get a stop coming out of the half. Obviously, we had to put together a drive, and just from that point on, we just never mounted that kind of environment for us. So frustrating there, but you saw some signs at times defensively where we forced them to punt and did some good things. You saw a good drive there, but just nothing at a level that was consistent enough to ever put you in a position to really have the game you wanted to have.
Monday, September 14
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Sunday, September 06
Sunday, September 06