That is the question...
The Eagles had an incredible run in the 90s and 2000s... So, incredible they fired their winning coach for not winning enough...
What I wonder is whether Southern Miss was a victim of their own success. Bower built that program in his own image, by blending work ethic and under recruited gems. I think one year their center was a former cheerleader...
My point is, when you fire the guy who was so responsible for the culture of Southern Miss football, can you come back from that? Especially when that success was predicated on doing more with less. White collar teams can just get away with writing checks to stay relevant. Southern Miss is too blue collar to expect to go back to being our superiors.
Don't get me wrong. CUSA needs a good Southern Miss. But, I'm not sure that - now that we're in CUSA Version 3 - Southern Miss will be the same Southern Miss that they were in Version 1 & 2.
Teams like F_U, ODU, UTSA, etc, have now become their equals. The landscape has changed. Not to mention that Mississippi State and Ole Miss aren't exactly terrible anymore.
In MLB they have the curse of the Bambino. In CUSA, we have the curse of Bower (and his hot daughter) How do you come back from that?