In these parts, college football might be second only to Christmas in anticipation.
It might be.
Truth is, we wait months for kickoff, but the first one doesn’t tell us all we need to know about our teams.
Usually it takes several.
Only one of the state’s FBS coaches faces a make-or-break season, and that’s Will Hall at Southern Miss.
Two weeks in, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the Golden Eagles, but what we do is a mixed bag at best.
Hall said his players gained confidence in a 31-0 weather-shortened loss at Kentucky not by the result but by the individual effort.
“Our players watched the tape yesterday and had even more confidence because of the way they played in that environment. They know they can win one-on-ones. They’ve got to correct the things they can correct. We can calm down and execute the assignment better,” Hall said.
We had some moments offensively where we thought we had a chance. We would make a play, and it would get called back with a holding, or we would have something there, and we’d be just a little bit off,” he said.
He felt the Eagles were close to big things on offense.
“We had two screenplays off the top of my head that were inches away from getting inside the block, but they drifted a little bit. We were inconsistent and herky jerky on offense.”
The reality is those types of technique issues should be cleaner after two weeks.
There’s not another SEC team on the schedule, but things are about to settle down with formidable opponents that will capitalize on mistakes.
Great Opportunity in Week 3
South Florida visits Hattiesburg Saturday night at 6.
The Bulls, picked fourth in the American behind Tulane, trailed just 21-16 at No. 5 Alabama before the Crimson Tide closed with a flurry of big plays with less than 6 minutes remaining to win 42-16.
The Golden Eagles need to show progress. They need to show an ability to do the little things right so often that it becomes second nature.
“There are things we can build on and things we have to fix,” Hall said.
For a hopeful Sun Belt climber, Hall sees the great opportunity that South Florida presents.
“We’ve got a big game. It’s one of the biggest games that’s been played in this stadium in a long, long time.
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