Week 1 Preview: Southern Miss vs Alcorn State
By: Tony Thomas
August 29, 2019
The Southern Miss Golden Eagles kickoff the 2019 season Saturday against the SWAC Champion Alcorn State Braves at The Rock.
Alcorn is led by Sr. QB Noah Johnson, the reigning SWAC Offensive Player of the Year. Johnson passed for 2207 yards and 15 TD’s, and rushed for 1080 yards and 11 more TD’s. Johnson averaged 7.5 yards per carry, ranking 3rd in the nation in that category.The Braves averaged 32 points per game and rolled up over 6100 yards of total offense. The Braves defense racked up 52 sacks.
The Golden Eagles return 10 starters on offense, the most of any C-USA team.
The USM offense will be led by QB Jack Abraham, who completed 73 % of his passes last year, tops in the FBS. Abraham will operate behind a veteran offensive line that has combined for 103 starts.
The Golden Eagles return their top receivers, led by Quez Watkins (72 rec., 889 yards). But he will sit out the first 2 games for reasons that are unknown at the time of this writing. Watkins will return to the lineup in week 3 at Troy.
The USM defense returns 6 starters. This unit, playing like The Nasty Bunch of old, allowed just 19 points per game, allowed only 4.6 yards per play (#6 in the nation), recorded 23 sacks, and made 13 INT’s.
The Golden Eagles are 17-7 at The Rock since 2015, and are 26 point favorites in this game.
My Pick: Southern Miss
Thanks for reading.
Material for this article sourced from: Phil Steele’s 2019 College Football Preview, vol.25, pages 1-352; http://sportslogos.net; http://alcornsports.com
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