How many games will USM win this year, after those 2 miserable seasons of 2012' & 2013 ?


SMTTT

I re-watched the Tech / USM game the other night. I was surprised. USM has a good foundation. Those Freshmen will be Sophomores this year. I think USM will be back very soon. I'm going with 6 wins this year... and more than that next year. Chin up.

(08-14-2014 06:04 PM)Jayesseagle Wrote:  How many games will USM win this year, after those 2 miserable seasons of 2012' & 2013 ?


SMTTT

I'm REALLY hoping 13..

But my optimistic expectation is 7.

Reality is probably 4.

Anything less than 4 will be a major disappointment.

More than we'll win in basketball. We'll be lucky to have any players left for Doc's first game. TTT

(08-14-2014 06:18 PM)T_Won1 Wrote:  I re-watched the Tech / USM game the other night. I was surprised. USM has a good foundation. Those Freshmen will be Sophomores this year. I think USM will be back very soon. I'm going with 6 wins this year... and more than that next year. Chin up.

I thinking 5 maybe 6


SMTTT

4-5

Wins: acorn st, app st, utep, uab

Just a guess, I do hope you guys rebound this year.

(08-14-2014 07:51 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  4-5

Wins: acorn st, app st, utep, uab

Just a guess, I do hope you guys rebound this year.

That's a good prediction.


SMTTT

(08-14-2014 07:28 PM)Jayesseagle Wrote:  

(08-14-2014 06:18 PM)T_Won1 Wrote:  I re-watched the Tech / USM game the other night. I was surprised. USM has a good foundation. Those Freshmen will be Sophomores this year. I think USM will be back very soon. I'm going with 6 wins this year... and more than that next year. Chin up.

I thinking 5 maybe 6


SMTTT

I was going to go with these choices as well. The more I see this situation discussed, the more I am reminded of what we went through under "he who must not be named"!

2003: 1–11 (1–7 C-USA)
2004: 2–9 (2–6 C-USA)
2005: 5–6 (4–4 C-USA) *beginning of the Holtz era
2006: 7–6 (5–3 C-USA)
2007: 8–5 (6–3 C-USA)
2008: 9–5 (6–2 C-USA)
2009: 9–5 (7–1 C-USA)

I could see USM taking a similar path to what ECU went through, and I am hoping they start the climb this season!

The game in Hattiesburg scares the crap out of me. At least 5 wins, likely more. jmo.

4 wins this year.

(08-14-2014 07:51 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  4-5

Wins: acorn st, app st, utep, uab

Just a guess, I do hope you guys rebound this year.

Don't forget that last year LaTech beat USM 36-13, and with the Bulldogs at home at a likely 2-5 record at that point, I think there is some possibility that the Golden Eagles kick it up a notch and soar at that point and beat LaTech AND UTEP to get to 4-5 with Marshall coming in the following week. If that happens, 5-7 is not out of the realm of real possibilities.

Actually, I agree with the 4 you have above and think 4-8 is the most likely outcome...a solid turnaround, imo. But I do think that USM has a chance (albeit a small one) to pull one astounding upset of LaTech, Rice or Marshall, if those three teams are not very, very careful in Hattiesburg, particularly if USM gets its mojo back on their home turf.

At some point,the USM of old is going to get back to regularly kicking C-USA butt. It will happen. The only question is when. And one of the three teams I mentioned is a potential catalyst to USM's resurgence.

USM wins the conference.

Ace...

not as many as you would have if you had not run off jeff bower

(08-15-2014 07:21 PM)bladhmadh Wrote:  not as many as you would have if you had not run off jeff bower

ah, crap. see, that's exactly what we didn't need.

(08-15-2014 07:21 PM)bladhmadh Wrote:  not as many as you would have if you had not run off jeff bower

I liked Bower..but it was time for him to go. If you liked bower so much, the why hasn't UAB hired him ?


SMTTT

Jeff Bower did an unbelievable job from about 1995-2000. I think some of those teams we had were actually better than the ones Boise had when they were so good. We always had a top 15 defense, and a couple times our D may have been the best in the country. Those were fun times. I wish we would have played State or Ole Miss, because they were both decent around that time. But we would have beat the hell out of them.

I know a lot of the new schools fans in this conference read this post and think "there's no way Southern Miss was ever at that level, this guy is full of it". I don't blame them if they think that, I would. But just ask any knowledgeable ECU or Tulane fan. Ask a true Alabama fan that was around back then. We were that good. And it wasn't all Bower. We had SEC athletes everywhere on defense. That's where we were better than what Boise was. Boise had great coaching and good players. We had great players and good coaching.

Then the 2000s came and everything changed. It started when we played Louisville on November 4, 2000. We were heavy favorites. We were 6-1 and ranked #11. We had beaten #15 Bama 21-0 earlier that year. We had also beaten Oklahoma State 21-0. Our only loss at that point was a 3 point loss at Tennessee the first game of the year. If we beat Louisville we would have had a chance to finish in the top 5. Louisville blew us out. We went on to lose 2 more C-USA games that year. We rebounded by beating Ladanian Tomlinson and #16 TCU in our bowl. But things started slipping that night Louisville beat us.

We kept the winning seasons streak going, But instead of 9-3 with 3 close losses to SEC schools, It started to look more like 7-5 with 2 or 3 C-USA losses every year. I can remember Rice beating us and we thought the world had ended. We started getting blown out almost every time we played an SEC powerhouse. That's because we weren't getting the SEC caliber athletes anymore. Bower basically gave up trying to recruit guys if any SEC school wanted them. I realize we weren't going to win most of those battles, but one or 2 a year can be the difference. We had lost our edge and had to make a change. We signed a 5 star recruit not even 2 months after we fired Bower.

What is the point of this post you might ask ? Ironically, To put the Bower debate to rest. I realize that from the outside it looked like a bad decision. But we had to have new blood. Our program was on the decline. People criticize us for firing him by saying if we had kept him, we wouldn't be in our current situation. Maybe not, but we wouldn't have had the 12-2 season 3 years ago either. It was the right decision to let him go. I don't regret it at all.

(08-17-2014 01:40 AM)Eaglefan9 Wrote:  Jeff Bower did an unbelievable job from about 1995-2000. I think some of those teams we had were actually better than the ones Boise had when they were so good. We always had a top 15 defense, and a couple times our D may have been the best in the country. Those were fun times. I wish we would have played State or Ole Miss, because they were both decent around that time. But we would have beat the hell out of them.

I know a lot of the new schools fans in this conference read this post and think "there's no way Southern Miss was ever at that level, this guy is full of it". I don't blame them if they think that, I would. But just ask any knowledgeable ECU or Tulane fan. Ask a true Alabama fan that was around back then. We were that good. And it wasn't all Bower. We had SEC athletes everywhere on defense. That's where we were better than what Boise was. Boise had great coaching and good players. We had great players and good coaching.

Then the 2000s came and everything changed. It started when we played Louisville on November 4, 2000. We were heavy favorites. We were 6-1 and ranked #11. We had beaten #15 Bama 21-0 earlier that year. We had also beaten Oklahoma State 21-0. Our only loss at that point was a 3 point loss at Tennessee the first game of the year. If we beat Louisville we would have had a chance to finish in the top 5. Louisville blew us out. We went on to lose 2 more C-USA games that year. We rebounded by beating Ladanian Tomlinson and #16 TCU in our bowl. But things started slipping that night Louisville beat us.

We kept the winning seasons streak going, But instead of 9-3 with 3 close losses to SEC schools, It started to look more like 7-5 with 2 or 3 C-USA losses every year. I can remember Rice beating us and we thought the world had ended. We started getting blown out almost every time we played an SEC powerhouse. That's because we weren't getting the SEC caliber athletes anymore. Bower basically gave up trying to recruit guys if any SEC school wanted them. I realize we weren't going to win most of those battles, but one or 2 a year can be the difference. We had lost our edge and had to make a change. We signed a 5 star recruit not even 2 months after we fired Bower.

What is the point of this post you might ask ? Ironically, To put the Bower debate to rest. I realize that from the outside it looked like a bad decision. But we had to have new blood. Our program was on the decline. People criticize us for firing him by saying if we had kept him, we wouldn't be in our current situation. Maybe not, but we wouldn't have had the 12-2 season 3 years ago either. It was the right decision to let him go. I don't regret it at all.

Seriously? over his last five years bower won the conference championship outright before Cinci, Louisville, and TCU left. The year before you fired him he won the east. the other three years he won 7. the last two years you went 1-23 hell even gerrick McGee managed to win five during that time.

Karma is a b#tch. After firing Jeff Bower, USM football got what it deserved.

(08-17-2014 08:17 AM)bladhmadh Wrote:  

(08-17-2014 01:40 AM)Eaglefan9 Wrote:  Jeff Bower did an unbelievable job from about 1995-2000. I think some of those teams we had were actually better than the ones Boise had when they were so good. We always had a top 15 defense, and a couple times our D may have been the best in the country. Those were fun times. I wish we would have played State or Ole Miss, because they were both decent around that time. But we would have beat the hell out of them.

I know a lot of the new schools fans in this conference read this post and think "there's no way Southern Miss was ever at that level, this guy is full of it". I don't blame them if they think that, I would. But just ask any knowledgeable ECU or Tulane fan. Ask a true Alabama fan that was around back then. We were that good. And it wasn't all Bower. We had SEC athletes everywhere on defense. That's where we were better than what Boise was. Boise had great coaching and good players. We had great players and good coaching.

Then the 2000s came and everything changed. It started when we played Louisville on November 4, 2000. We were heavy favorites. We were 6-1 and ranked #11. We had beaten #15 Bama 21-0 earlier that year. We had also beaten Oklahoma State 21-0. Our only loss at that point was a 3 point loss at Tennessee the first game of the year. If we beat Louisville we would have had a chance to finish in the top 5. Louisville blew us out. We went on to lose 2 more C-USA games that year. We rebounded by beating Ladanian Tomlinson and #16 TCU in our bowl. But things started slipping that night Louisville beat us.

We kept the winning seasons streak going, But instead of 9-3 with 3 close losses to SEC schools, It started to look more like 7-5 with 2 or 3 C-USA losses every year. I can remember Rice beating us and we thought the world had ended. We started getting blown out almost every time we played an SEC powerhouse. That's because we weren't getting the SEC caliber athletes anymore. Bower basically gave up trying to recruit guys if any SEC school wanted them. I realize we weren't going to win most of those battles, but one or 2 a year can be the difference. We had lost our edge and had to make a change. We signed a 5 star recruit not even 2 months after we fired Bower.

What is the point of this post you might ask ? Ironically, To put the Bower debate to rest. I realize that from the outside it looked like a bad decision. But we had to have new blood. Our program was on the decline. People criticize us for firing him by saying if we had kept him, we wouldn't be in our current situation. Maybe not, but we wouldn't have had the 12-2 season 3 years ago either. It was the right decision to let him go. I don't regret it at all.

Seriously? over his last five years bower won the conference championship outright before Cinci, Louisville, and TCU left. The year before you fired him he won the east. the other three years he won 7. the last two years you went 1-23 hell even gerrick McGee managed to win five during that time.

He's exactly right, though. Love Bower, but it was time. We won't be down forever.

(08-17-2014 01:40 AM)Eaglefan9 Wrote:  Jeff Bower did an unbelievable job from about 1995-2000. I think some of those teams we had were actually better than the ones Boise had when they were so good. We always had a top 15 defense, and a couple times our D may have been the best in the country. Those were fun times. I wish we would have played State or Ole Miss, because they were both decent around that time. But we would have beat the hell out of them.

I know a lot of the new schools fans in this conference read this post and think "there's no way Southern Miss was ever at that level, this guy is full of it". I don't blame them if they think that, I would. But just ask any knowledgeable ECU or Tulane fan. Ask a true Alabama fan that was around back then. We were that good. And it wasn't all Bower. We had SEC athletes everywhere on defense. That's where we were better than what Boise was. Boise had great coaching and good players. We had great players and good coaching.

Then the 2000s came and everything changed. It started when we played Louisville on November 4, 2000. We were heavy favorites. We were 6-1 and ranked #11. We had beaten #15 Bama 21-0 earlier that year. We had also beaten Oklahoma State 21-0. Our only loss at that point was a 3 point loss at Tennessee the first game of the year. If we beat Louisville we would have had a chance to finish in the top 5. Louisville blew us out. We went on to lose 2 more C-USA games that year. We rebounded by beating Ladanian Tomlinson and #16 TCU in our bowl. But things started slipping that night Louisville beat us.

We kept the winning seasons streak going, But instead of 9-3 with 3 close losses to SEC schools, It started to look more like 7-5 with 2 or 3 C-USA losses every year. I can remember Rice beating us and we thought the world had ended. We started getting blown out almost every time we played an SEC powerhouse. That's because we weren't getting the SEC caliber athletes anymore. Bower basically gave up trying to recruit guys if any SEC school wanted them. I realize we weren't going to win most of those battles, but one or 2 a year can be the difference. We had lost our edge and had to make a change. We signed a 5 star recruit not even 2 months after we fired Bower.

What is the point of this post you might ask ? Ironically, To put the Bower debate to rest. I realize that from the outside it looked like a bad decision. But we had to have new blood. Our program was on the decline. People criticize us for firing him by saying if we had kept him, we wouldn't be in our current situation. Maybe not, but we wouldn't have had the 12-2 season 3 years ago either. It was the right decision to let him go. I don't regret it at all.

EagleFan9 is correct. For any young fans and/or uninformed fans of other CUSA schools there was a time (and we ain't talking Dark Ages here) when USM was a STRONG & DANGEROUS opponent for other CUSA brethren and for the so-called Power schools as well. Despite the Golden Eagles recent woes; I think that time will come again. I look forward to it; except when Southern Miss plays MT!