No time for analysis yet, plus I need to watch it a time or two before I ramble on it.
That said: HUGE KUDOS to this Pirates team for coming out of Hattiesburg with a win. I will say it now, whether or not the Pirates played great, fair-to-middlin’ or even bad upon further review, this is the biggest win of Coach Ruff’s tenure thus far. IMO, there is not a game even close – N.C. State included.
This game had program implications and these kids delivered.
I will check in later, but just wanted to put that out there.
Enjoy the day Pirates…you deserve it.
Would love to hear if anyone agrees with that, disagrees, or has some other take. Love to hear from you guys…helps me with perspective, too.
A Port of the Pirate Nation 
I totally agree sir! This team needed a statement victory and they got one. For themselves if nothing else.
And we talked about the implications of this game and how it will set the tone for what the fans and the team should expect for the rest of
this season.
Manage the game, be opportunistic, execute and play with confidence.
I thought Coach Mitchell called a great game on Defense against USM. Coach Riley made some solid adjustments in his play calling in the second half. And Coach Ruff was determined not to let his coaches or his kids panic after a sluggish start for the offense in the first half.
We “churned out” a victory and that is so important to this teams psyche this early in the season.
One other note about Coach Ruff. After the game he was interviewed on the field about how he felt about getting this victory. As he talked about getting the win “at the rock”, you could see that smile coming out. As a former player, Ruff knows how difficult a win can be against USM.
I tip my cap to the coaching staff for a hard fought victory. Enjoy the W for 24, then it’s
back to the drawing board for Carolina next Saturday.
Great discussion RC, until the next time….Go Pirates!!!
BBG…I am eager to re-watch the game with BM’s game management in mind and will be looking for Riley’s adjustments.
As many of has been vocal about, one of the issues has been seeming inability to adjust. I hope that with this game, the defense’s confidence will re-emerge as they did look good against a pretty veteran USM line.
BTW, I thought that the Interference call on Hardy in the endzone should have been a no call. Hand swatting (on both sides) has become the norm in college football…
Cheers!
If there was ever going to be a statement game for this team this was it. The squad was embarrassed last week but like I said in a prior post I did see some positives and predicted a win where we rarely come away with any. I felt confident this week because our team has shown signs of playing within themselves and not committing dumb penalities. In addition I dont think you can expect to win with an HC in his second game while starting a true frosh at QB. Folks tend to look at the helmet and not whats under it.
This win was huge and sets up the entire year for us within what I consider a down year for CUSA. With UCF being ineligible ( go figure) this places us in the drivers seat for the rest of the CUSA season as we have to drop 2 conference games for USM to draw even with us. There were some good things as well as things that need major improvement upon if we expect to have a chance next week. That however can wait this victory has set up the entire season and hopefully will add confidence to the staff and players going forword. A great great win.
Definitely agree across the board and my expectations for next week…though you never know in this type of game (vs UNC).
Great insight…
And, before you predict the next game – could you slip it to me on the sly so I can get some money down. Pure prognostication there DC!
Now let’s hope the team builds on this confidence boost.
Cheers.
Couldn’t agree more Ron… our guys looked great yesterday (well, from the last drive of the 1st half to the end of the game.) Probably the biggest accomplishment yesterday considering last season and the first 2 games of this season, was the +3 turnover margin. The backs, particularly Cooper, were really protecting the ball. I’d say we have our QB now… I may be the only one who sees this, but Carden reminds me of Ben Rothlisberger with his size, big arm and ability to extend the play. He will now be brimming with confidence and each game’s experience will certainly make him a better player, especially considering how little of it he has. Also, kudos to the defense. After the first drive, they were solid. Great d-line play, Grove was solid and Overton (after luckily overcoming a bonehead play that miraculously wasn’t overturned) had a breakout game. The kid was always on the ball. Just next time please run through the end zone like Forest Gump. And I’d be remis if I didn’t acknowledge the D-backs. Kept everything in front of them and delivered some big hits. Well played on defense across the board really…
I ordered tix for next week but still haven’t received them… .. I’d love to whoop them, but am mostly excited about our C-USA prospects. I had forgotten about Central Florida Community College’s penalty. This win has really put us in the drivers seat for the east. Go Pirates!
Hi Chris thanks for dropping in…
Turnover margin being on our side…rare territory and pleasant to see! I have been on the Cooper bandwagon since the jump and agree there.
Big Ben, hmmmmmm….will be thinking that when I re-watch the game.
Let’s hope a corner has been turned.
I’m gonna watch it again right now. Ruff preaches all three sides of the ball and this team is listening. The staff is right. These kids do look like they are taking the coaching. I’m very optimistic that we are going to be in the race for the conference this year and going forward.
I agree on the CUSA comment Ralph…no reason why this team cannot win the East at this point – UCF or no.
That said, it would be great if the D can do this week in and week out starting next week (tall task ahead) and perhaps Carden is a special player who will be more special next week.
I hope this was a program moment. Time will tell.
Cheers!
i think Carden is the real deal…ability; courage; savy…he seems to have them all. one thing still bothers me about this staff…there are better players showing up each week aka Overton, Cooper, Carden and others that should have had reps in earlier games…we still haven’t seen Furr in real game conditions…they keep saying we need to find away to get Furr some game reps and we have not seen him yet…the way to find him reps is to put him in the game to see what he can or cannot do. it seems to me the perfect situation would have been against USM…just maybe Furr could help us there…anyway i was excited the way the team played against USM and i hope they continue to improve this Sat…thanks again!
Hi rc…Furr has been a mystery to me. I really like cooper both running and receiving out of the backfield. Going to watch his pass pro as I rewatch the game, but he seems to be a good one.
I don’t see how the Furr we heard about in spring doesn’t get reps…it doesn’t compute. Maybe they are going to try him against his old school this week…who knows.
I hope we are witnessing the emergence of a Favre-like QB in Carden. This week would be none better than to see him have a true coming out…hero status style with a big game and win against UNC.
I have to take it week-by-week till we see a trend!
Cheers.
I agree with your take on the implications for the Ruff era and I think they delivered a statement. Southern Miss isn’t as far down as their fans now conclude. They have plenty of talent on hand. I think we see a more wide open game plan this week against the cheats. We have some play makers and if the Oline just does adequate I think Carden’s feet will get us some opportunities to hit big plays on them.
I also feel better about the secondary although they will be tested much more this week. The only thing they had open most of the day was the short cross patterns that Alford had no touch on. When he sat in and tried to look upfield he saw no one open and then hesitated a lot. We need that same effort this week and we can get to Renner some.
I agree with you UV on the USM team. They are not as bad as they looked. They tried to play to our defensive strength and it hurt them.
I also agree about the underneath routes…this has been a problem for our D all season and if we do not get that right, Brenner will kill us.
On the flipside, Carden can do what Brenner did to us last year in that he can make a couple of big plays with his feet.
Eager to see how our guys do Saturday!
Thanks for checking in UV.