Saw this on Ivan Maisel's column today:
2. Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi used to exist on the same plane. When they played the last of 15 consecutive seasons, in 1989, the Golden Eagles led the series 14-12-1. Davis-Wade Stadium in Starkville seated 40,656. M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg seated 33,000. Three years later, the SEC expanded and began revving its economic engine. The Bulldogs have expanded Davis-Wade four times and it now seats 61,337. The Eagles' stadium seats 36,000. Last year, their first game in 25 years, Mississippi State won, 49-0.

Just amazing.

(09-02-2015 10:01 AM)stever20 Wrote:  Saw this on Ivan Maisel's column today:
2. Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi used to exist on the same plane. When they played the last of 15 consecutive seasons, in 1989, the Golden Eagles led the series 14-12-1. Davis-Wade Stadium in Starkville seated 40,656. M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg seated 33,000. Three years later, the SEC expanded and began revving its economic engine. The Bulldogs have expanded Davis-Wade four times and it now seats 61,337. The Eagles' stadium seats 36,000. Last year, their first game in 25 years, Mississippi State won, 49-0.

Just amazing.

That must have been a pretty damn big plane

(09-02-2015 10:01 AM)stever20 Wrote:  Saw this on Ivan Maisel's column today:
2. Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi used to exist on the same plane. When they played the last of 15 consecutive seasons, in 1989, the Golden Eagles led the series 14-12-1. Davis-Wade Stadium in Starkville seated 40,656. M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg seated 33,000. Three years later, the SEC expanded and began revving its economic engine. The Bulldogs have expanded Davis-Wade four times and it now seats 61,337. The Eagles' stadium seats 36,000. Last year, their first game in 25 years, Mississippi State won, 49-0.

Just amazing.

As a 5th-generation Mississippian who still has roots in that state, I am well aware of that change, and I agree with you. Conference realignment has been a boon for MSU and a disaster for once-proud USM. There was a decade when USM dominated MSU and Ole Miss so thoroughly that they both stopped playing them. Their secret was the fertile recruiting grounds of Mobile, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

Man, 15 years ago you could almost see College Gameday coming to Hattiesburg if this matchup had happened then. It certainly would have been a much bigger deal.

Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

Southern Miss got good back when there were very few options for Southern athletes just below SEC-caliber.

But when UCF, USF, UAB, Western Ky, Middle Tenn St, Troy St, FIU, FAU, Georgia St, etc. started their programs beginning in the mid-90s, all of the sudden there was a lot more competition for the Southern athletes who wanted to stay closer to home.

That trend hurt Bower who, starting in 2001, lost at least 5 games a year except once (9-4 in 2003).

Larry Fedora lost at least 5 games in his first three seasons before the 12-2 campaign in 2011.

Fedora proved that you can still win at Southern Miss. But you just have to recruit a lot harder and smarter with all the new competition and the much more level playing field. You've got to offer great facilities. You've got to compete for talent every year, and so it's harder to sustain a good program now.

Bower simply walked into a bunch of talent every February in the early years.

(09-02-2015 05:07 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

Seriously? Southern Miss was the best football program in the CUSA over its history. They won CUSA in 2011 and knocked UH out of a BCS bowl.

It's true about Southern Miss and how they used to thrive as the go to for athletes that for one reason or another couldn't quite make it into the SEC. IOW they once had the same relationship that is allowing Bosie to thrive to by being the go to for all the West Coast talent that cant qualify for the PAC.

(09-02-2015 05:36 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(09-02-2015 05:07 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

Seriously? Southern Miss was the best football program in the CUSA over its history. They won CUSA in 2011 and knocked UH out of a BCS bowl.

USM carried C-USA in the 90's, then UofL took over

I kind of think that the thing that has hurt USM to some degree quite frankly is the post-Katrina impacts. They were able to do well for a while after that- but it's hurt them a lot more in the mid-term and long-term now.

I think the absolute number one problem for USM is that they had Larry Fedora a younger coach with a young staff who played fast paced spread football and for reasons unknown to us when he left the school went out and hired the opposite.

An older coach with some older assistants (head coach and coordinators averaged around 10 years older than Fedora and coordinators) and put the offense in the hands of guy who loved power football as a head coach, the defense in the hands of a twice fired head coach who had given UAB one of its worst defensive years as their DC.

USM looked at what they were doing to go 12-2 and said "Let's do something completely different".

(09-02-2015 05:07 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

Yep, it was Southern Miss making Tulane look bad

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_f...vs_Tulane)

Tulane... lol.

(09-02-2015 05:07 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

They absolutely would be in the AAC

Maybe forcing out Jeff Bower was a bad idea.

(09-02-2015 05:55 PM)rednblackattack Wrote:  

(09-02-2015 05:36 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(09-02-2015 05:07 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

Seriously? Southern Miss was the best football program in the CUSA over its history. They won CUSA in 2011 and knocked UH out of a BCS bowl.

USM carried C-USA in the 90's, then UofL took over

Titles
USM 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003
UL 2000, 2001, 2004
Hardly "taking over." USM was still around.

(09-02-2015 08:41 PM)PGEMF Wrote:  

(09-02-2015 05:07 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

Yep, it was Southern Miss making Tulane look bad

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_f...vs_Tulane)

Last time we played 2lane in the dome they punted on 3rd down. I feel confident Southern miss would whip their asses like always if they played tomorrow.

(09-02-2015 08:55 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  

(09-02-2015 05:07 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

They absolutely would be in the AAC

Right over Tulsa or Tulane most likely had their program not collapsed.

(09-02-2015 07:43 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I think the absolute number one problem for USM is that they had Larry Fedora a younger coach with a young staff who played fast paced spread football and for reasons unknown to us when he left the school went out and hired the opposite.

An older coach with some older assistants (head coach and coordinators averaged around 10 years older than Fedora and coordinators) and put the offense in the hands of guy who loved power football as a head coach, the defense in the hands of a twice fired head coach who had given UAB one of its worst defensive years as their DC.

USM looked at what they were doing to go 12-2 and said "Let's do something completely different".

USM still has a facility edge over every CUSA and SBC program in their region.

Get the right coach and they could definitely be back.

(09-02-2015 05:07 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  Please, I do not get the love affair with Southern Miss. Every team gets lucky and wins a few games over the bigger schools. Southern Miss has been one of the worst programs in the country for years now. Their fans always say if they did not go 0-12 they would be in the AAC and that is absolute delusion. They should not even be an FBS school bottom line. No market, no academics, no money, good riddance. They make schools like Tulane or Memphis look bad for even being associated with them for all those years. Thank goodness we passed them by years ago. Ivan Maisel is dead wrong, those two schools never existed on the same plane. It is not even on the same planet.

The delusion is yours my friend. USM is 23- 7 all time against Tulane. They split their first eight meetings, starting in 1977, so USM has held a 19-3 edge since. USM didn't just "get lucky" every now and then; they made a habit of beating bigger programs. I'm not suggesting they had the upperhand on a regular basis, but they did pull the upset frequently. Just in the last 25 years or so. they beat Auburn AND Alabama in 1990, then Auburn again in '91. USM beat LSU in '94, Georgia in '96 and Alabama again in 2000. And it wasn't just the SEC schools -- they beat Nebraska in 2004, Illinois (when they were pretty good) in 1997 and again in 2002 and Pitt in 1997 (41-7 in the Liberty Bowl).

USM against current or former AAC/CUSA/Metro schools
UCF 6-2
Cincinnati 7-8 (always gave USM fits)
ECU 27-12
Florida State 8-13-1
Houston 9-5
Louisville 18-11-1
Memphis 40-22-1
SMU 3-1
USF 3-1
Virginia Tech 4-5

The only reason Tulane and Memphis looked bad by association with USM was because of how often they were being beaten by them. Oh yeah, you can count the Green Wave's winning records in the last 35 years on one hand. Before these last three years, you had to go back to 1972 to fill one hand with losing seasons for USM.

(drops mic)