Southern Miss vs. Louisiana
Ok guys give us the scoop on the Cajuns this year. First of all congradulations on hiring Ricky Bussle as your HC. I've always been very impressed with him and think that if given a little time he will be very successful at Louisiana.
As for USM:
This is a rebuilding year of sorts for us. We are breaking in a new offensive staff and improvements have been made, but they aren't showing up in numbers yet. The players you will see on the offensive side of the football for Southern Miss are a far sight from the players we had in the late 90's. We had two subpar recruiting classes (current Jr. and So.) and it's showing up now. The OL is fairly decent with the best player being senior C Jim Hicks. Other than him only RT Jeremy Parquette started last year. At QB we have a big ole question mark. Next week Carter, Almond or D'Angelo could start. WR's are fair and RB is a question mark as well.
Defense is where we are most talented. You have all heard of All Americans Rod Davis and Etric Pruitt, but there are other fine players on the defense including OLB Mike Boley, SS Alex Ray and DE Ronald Jones. The linebackers consisting of Davis, Boley and Antoine Cash are the strength of the defense. Secondary is talented with CB's Corey Yates, Greg Brooks and Johnny Eubanks all three playing a good deal of snaps. Etric Pruitt is the heart of the secondary, but Alex Ray is great on run support. Our DL is nowhere, near as good as in the late 90's when we had 5 NFL players sharing 4 starting positions. DE's Ronald Jones and T. Paul are solid but not great players. Interior DL is very young with Eric Scott, Chad Ruffin and Greg Casnave all seeing lots of snaps.
We have a hot and cold special teams, we have good return units, but our coverage units can be suspect. Punter Luke Johnson had a career day against USF, but has been somewhat inconsistant at times. Johnny Eubanks is one to watch on kick-off returns.