Sports · Hattiesburg
"Southern Miss must win out to reach a bowl, starting at Louisiana Tech"
Spatms / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss has no margin left, and the hardest test comes first.
The Golden Eagles are 3-6 overall and 2-3 in the Sun Belt, and only a clean sweep of the final three games gets them to a bowl. That run starts Saturday at Louisiana Tech, a 7-2 team that is 5-0 in league play and can lock up the West Division with a win. Kickoff is 4 p.m. Saturday in Ruston, Louisiana, on ESPN+. South Alabama at home and a trip to Old Dominion follow, and one loss ends the chase.
The quarterback leading it waited a long time for the job. John White, a redshirt sophomore from Madison-Ridgeland Academy, opened the season third on the depth chart in his third year with the program. His first career start came Nov. 5 against James Madison, and he went 22 of 35 for 266 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing score and no interceptions in the 54-23 loss. Saturday is his first road start.
Head coach Blake Anderson is not hiding what a sweep would mean. "Man, we'd celebrate like the Super Bowl," he said.
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