Kellenberger: USM taking names, winning games

Hugh Kellenberger | Clarion Ledger

It’s like Southern Miss was keeping names. It’s as if when the program was at an alltime nadir, winning a combined four games from 2012 to 2014, the coaches and players were keeping a mental list of who had taken advantage.

Don’t believe me? Just look at what has happened this season. Here are the final scores in Southern Miss’ five Conference-USA wins in 2015: 49-14, 32-10, 44-10, 34-13 and, most recently, 65-10. Those five teams (North Texas, UTSA, Charlotte, UTEP and Rice) beat USM a combined six times the last three seasons. This year? Not only did they lose. They were pulverized.

“It looks to me like they remembered all the teams that beat them and by how much over the last two years and are now exacting their revenge on them,” Old Dominion coach Bobby Wilder told reporters this week. His team plays Southern Miss on Saturday and should probably point out right now that they never beat up on USM like those other guys did. They also never played them, but that’s beside the point.

It’s been something to see, watching these Golden Eagles go from 0-12 to 1-11 to 3-9 to now this — no matter what happens Saturday there's an unofficial C-USA West title game on Nov. 28 at Louisiana Tech. Win that and it’s an actual C-USA Championship Game the next week. No matter what, the Golden Eagles are going bowling for the first time since 2011.

The turnaround has been sudden and dramatic, but it’s not been entirely for the reasons we all thought USM would be better. Third-year coach Todd Monken signed 10 junior college prospects in February, added a couple more after that and then brought in five immediately-eligible players from major colleges during the summer. They were supposed to all play substantial roles if USM was going to have any hope of a bowl game, but it hasn't worked out like that.

D’Nerius Antoine has been by far the best pickup, a juco signee who is the team’s all-everything at safety (team-high 71 tackles, 6.5 TFL and three forced fumbles are among his all-conference level stats). Andrew Bolton came in from Kansas and has started every game at defensive tackle, with 2.5 tackles for loss. Anthony Swain is expected to start at linebacker against Old Dominion, and Ricky Parks at tight end.

But the majority of those guys have turned into backups, and some of them are not even on the two-deep depth chart. Instead it’s been the same guys who we all saw in previous years, just growing up and getting better.

Jalen Richard was hurt for nearly half of 2014. Now he’s the team’s leading rusher (886 yards, eight touchdowns). Quarterback Nick Mullens has gone from just OK to spectacular (including 30 touchdowns in 10 games, up from 12 in all of 2014). The offensive line gave up 36 sacks last year, and that number is down to 14. The defense’s sacks have almost doubled, up to 27 from 14. Every starter on offense is at least a third-year junior, and eight of the 11 on defense are upperclassmen.

“Not many guys stayed around (from last three years),” Monken said this week. “They didn’t buy into this university or in us, but these guys did.”

These guys went through all the hurt and have come out the other side. They play hard. They play angry. And Monken lets them have fun, calling plays like a reverse flea flicker and a fake field goal against Rice last week.

There’s a ton of momentum at Southern Miss right now — the staff is recruiting Mississippi better than ever, and can now say to athletes that they’ll be joining a program that goes to bowl games. And if I’m Southern Miss athletic director Bill McGillis, I’m doing everything I can to lock up Monken with a new contract.

Monken’s current salary is $700,000, and his contract runs through next season. Obviously he needs an extension, and probably a raise. It’ll be interesting to see what McGillis can do as far as the latter; Monken is already paid well for a C-USA coach, ranking fifth among the 12 coaches this season in salary. But that’s still 86th nationally.

There’s already 11 FBS head coaching jobs open, and while most of them are either out of Monken’s league right now or already beneath him there’s going to be more that come out. That’s an absurd number for mid-November. More coaches will be fired, and the ensuing carousel will create openings that will be attractive. If you’re Houston or Memphis, you could do a lot worse than a guy who turned around the mess in Hattiesburg within three seasons and is considered a brilliant offensive mind by his peers. In an ESPN survey last month Monken earned as many votes for “best offensive head coach” as Hugh Freeze did, and more than both Gus Malzahn and Dan Mullen, among others. Houston and Memphis are both paying their coaches $1.4 million this year, and you’re kidding yourself if you believe guys just readily turn down chances to double their salaries.

That’s all for another day though. Right now let’s just embrace the feel-good story of Mississippi football this fall. Southern Miss is back.

Contact Hugh Kellenberger at (601) 961-7291 or hkellenber@jackson.gannett.com. Follow@HKellenbergerCL on Twitter