Well, hey there, sugar. Dee Broussard, coming to you from a rocking chair on a porch in the Pine Belt, with a sweet tea that's sweeter than my disposition this week and a black-and-gold bow big enough to be seen from Camp Shelby. I was a sorority president once, and I learned two things: you smile through the hard weeks, and you always, always know where every page of the record book is filed. Kindly. With a smile. Let's talk.
Part 1: The Night Arkansas State Wouldn't Give the Ball Back
I won't sugarcoat it, and you know I love sugar. Arkansas State beat Southern Miss 23-13 at Renasant Stadium last Saturday night, in front of 22,585 faithful who deserved more. We're 1-5 and 0-2 in the Sun Belt.
The story of the night was the clock. Arkansas State held the ball for 40:08. We had it for 19:52. Bless their hearts, the Red Wolves went 4-for-17 on third down and still found a way to keep it, because they went 3-for-3 on fourth down and then ran the last 7:21 off the clock. That's like a houseguest who says he's leaving and then sits back down for pie.
They kicked three field goals, from 29, 40 and 44 yards, and scored on short runs by Kenyon Clay and Timothy Carter. We got on the board in the second quarter when Landry Lyddy hit Preston Kilgore for a 16-yard touchdown to make it 13-7. Late in the fourth, Steven Robinson ran it in from a yard out, but the two-point try failed.
There were bright spots, and a good hostess points them out. Mathis Haygood made 13 tackles, 2.5 of them for loss. Wesley Edison had 11 tackles and a sack, and JR Stegall had a sack too. Mario Sanders caught six passes for 88 yards. Robinson ran 21 times for 84 yards and caught five passes. The two teams were only 15 yards apart in yards, according to AP. But two interceptions and three turnovers on downs will spoil any party.
It's been that kind of fall. We lost 24-21 at Tulane by a field goal and fell 55-34 at Troy on Oct. 7. The season has been a lot of almost, sugar. But you don't quit a debutante ball because the first song was slow. We opened the year with a 49-3 win over Alcorn State, and we've been in fourth quarters with Tulane and Arkansas State. This team is close. A sorority president knows the look of a chapter that's one good rush week away from turning it around, and I've got that feeling in my pearls.
Part 2: The Cajuns Come Calling
Saturday, 5 p.m. Eastern, ESPN+, Louisiana at Southern Miss.
The Ragin' Cajuns are 5-2 and beat Troy 33-6 last Saturday. They ran for 243 yards, and Tony Sterner hit two field goals in the last 1:44 of the first half. I'll give them their flowers. A gracious lady always brings flowers.
Then she reads the card.
Their Passing Game, Bless It
Against Troy, Lunch Winfield completed 11 of 21 passes for 70 yards. Seventy. I've thrown farther than that at a bouquet toss. For the season, ESPN lists him at 1,153 passing yards, four touchdown passes and four interceptions. Four and four, honey. That's not a passing game. That's a coin you keep flipping.
And look at how the Cajuns scored their first touchdown: Troy muffed a punt at its own 8, per AP. A sweet gift. I don't expect one from us.
Now, Winfield runs well, 463 yards and eight touchdowns, and Louisiana as a team runs for 200.1 a game. I won't pretend otherwise. Our run defense has had a hard autumn, allowing 252.0 yards a game, per ESPN. That's the whole party on Saturday: stop the run, and Louisiana has to throw.
Our Weapons
Mario Sanders leads us with 34 catches for 492 yards and five touchdowns. Steven Robinson has 432 rushing yards and five touchdowns. Lyddy has thrown for 1,032 yards and seven touchdowns. And Haygood has 55 tackles. That young man is everywhere, like a sorority sister who knows everybody's business.
The Family Album
Here's where I set down my tea. CollegeFootballData.com has Southern Miss leading this series 24-5. Twenty-four to five, sugar. And last year we went to Lafayette and won 22-10. When you've been invited to somebody's house 29 times and won 24 of them, you're not a guest anymore. You're family. You get your own coffee mug.
And Southern Miss Athletics notes we've won conference titles in 1996, 1997, 1999, 2006 and 2011 at The Rock. Louisiana didn't even officially become the Ragin' Cajuns until 1974, according to Wikipedia. Before that, they were the Bulldogs. I love a glow-up, darling. We just had our glow a little earlier.
A Tale of Two Hub Cities
Now, I've heard the Cajuns' Fanatic likes to point out that both of our towns are called "The Hub City." Sugar, let's set the record straight.
Hattiesburg. We earned that name in 1912 in a contest held by the local newspaper, per Wikipedia. The people chose it. That's democracy, honey, in a town born on lumber and railroads, which is exactly what a hub is. We're the anchor of the Pine Belt, 48,730 strong in 2020. We have the Hattiesburg Zoo at Kamper Park, a longtime hit with the little ones. And just south of town is Camp Shelby, the largest National Guard training base east of the Mississippi River, which hosts up to 100,000 Guardsmen and Reservists a year. God bless every one of them.
And our stadium? It's The Rock. It has been since long before anybody painted a new name on the sign. Southern Miss Athletics says it was renovated and expanded before the 1976 season, and this year it became Renasant Stadium. Call it what you want. When those 36,000 seats fill up, it's still The Rock.
Lafayette. Lafayette is a lovely city, 121,374 people in 2020, on the Vermilion River. But let me tell you a little story from Wikipedia. Lafayette used to be called Vermilionville. In 1884, it changed its name to Lafayette, after a French general. Sugar, Hattiesburg kept its name. Lafayette changed its name, changed its team's name from the Bulldogs to the Ragin' Cajuns, and even its university used to compete as Southwestern Louisiana. That is a lot of name tags at one reunion.
They call themselves the "Heart of Acadiana," and I believe them; they've got a big heart. They host the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, and I hear the food is wonderful. I'll bring a casserole dish to the visitors' section anyway. Southern hospitality never takes a week off, even when the guests are 5-24 in our family album.
Sweet Tea and Truth
Here's the honest picture. Louisiana is 5-2 and runs the ball well. Southern Miss is 1-5 and needs to stop the run. But the Cajuns' passing game threw for 70 yards last week, and the history of this series reads like our family Bible: Southern Miss on nearly every page. We're at home, at The Rock, under the lights of a late-October Saturday. Hold onto the ball, keep their quarterback in the pocket and make them throw.
To the top, sugar. We're just climbing from the bottom step.
My call: Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 31, Southern Miss Golden Eagles 22.